For a number of years I attended a 12-Step group focused on dealing with addictive eating, and found it overall quite helpful, though I ultimately stopped going and have not been going for many years. I've recently started struggling more with my eating again, and have gone back to a couple meetings, but am not sure I want to dive in. On the one hand, it could help a lot and I've had a hard time getting traction with other approaches, on the other hand there were good reasons I stopped going in the first place.
The reason I'm asking here, is because a core tenet of 12-step programs is the idea that "my will" is faulty, and that in order to succeed you have to stop using your own will and "turn your will over to God," who then helps effect the transformation. But the idea is that "my will" is permanently unable to stop eating addictively (or drinking alcohol, or whatever the case may be).
I've done enough occult work in the intervening years to have a different understanding of the will than the one embodied in 12-step programs, but have struggled mightily to apply it to my eating. I don't like the 12-step worldview in a lot of ways (I'm generally familiar with the history and the origins of AA in evangelical Christianity) and would like to find approaches that better fits my polytheist/animist spirituality and worldview but am a bit at a loss.
One thing I do like about 12 step groups is the spirit of mutual aid and people taking their time to support each other without charging $200 an hour for coaching sessions! And I do know that there are different ways of understanding and interpreting the 12 step language which are maybe a bit more compatible. But fundamentally, I don't really want to concede that my will is fatally flawed and that the only way I can heal is to embrace an addict identity and turn my will over to God.
I'm interested in any thoughts or perspective that might help. Thanks!
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branchandroot
Willpower and 12-Step Groups
Date: 2024-06-10 04:14 pm (UTC)The reason I'm asking here, is because a core tenet of 12-step programs is the idea that "my will" is faulty, and that in order to succeed you have to stop using your own will and "turn your will over to God," who then helps effect the transformation. But the idea is that "my will" is permanently unable to stop eating addictively (or drinking alcohol, or whatever the case may be).
I've done enough occult work in the intervening years to have a different understanding of the will than the one embodied in 12-step programs, but have struggled mightily to apply it to my eating. I don't like the 12-step worldview in a lot of ways (I'm generally familiar with the history and the origins of AA in evangelical Christianity) and would like to find approaches that better fits my polytheist/animist spirituality and worldview but am a bit at a loss.
One thing I do like about 12 step groups is the spirit of mutual aid and people taking their time to support each other without charging $200 an hour for coaching sessions! And I do know that there are different ways of understanding and interpreting the 12 step language which are maybe a bit more compatible. But fundamentally, I don't really want to concede that my will is fatally flawed and that the only way I can heal is to embrace an addict identity and turn my will over to God.
I'm interested in any thoughts or perspective that might help. Thanks!