No matter what they tell you about how your higher power can be anything, that is not true. They are a religious cult that loves some Jesus.

I have an AA in Addiction Studies. I have never been addcted to anythign myself though, so my knowledge is via education, not experience.

Anyway, we covered the "higher pwer" for atheists. My professor explained to the class that "higher power can be anything, and it does nto have to be supernatural or a divine being.

As an example he told us of three people. For one his higher pwer was his daughter, for another it was a kitten, and for a third it was his motorcycle. However all three of these were valid higher powers that worked well. Why? Because your higher power shoudl be whatever it is in your life that evokes the stronget feelings of love an caring in your life. It is th efeelings of love an caring within yourself that you draw on in times of crises, not the actual phusicl higher power.

Going to the most abstract example, the guy with the motorcycle, he relly loved to work on and take care of it and he felt nto jus tlove an dcarign but pride in takign care of it. If he gave in to his addiction, he knew he woudl tno be able to do the job of takign care of it well. So, it worked as a hgihe power for him. What he felt in maintaining and carign for a motorcycle was mroe important to him than hsi substance of shoice.

The key to finding (or figuring out) a higher power is to find what evokes the strongest and most positive feelings in your life, whatever that is.

Using that as a standard, you can actually find more than just one "higher power" in your life and god, or soem spuer natural entity is nto needed.

A higher power could mean anything.
I've been clean and free of pretty much everything since Nov 94 without meetings or prayers at all. Congrats on your clean time btw.
Consider your head is the highest part of your body and that's where your higher power is located.
All things considered am I wrong?
Hang in there and debate with your higher power (your own mind) if the choices your making is right.
If your still in conflict I'm sure any one of us will have that debate with you.

I've been helping people detox using kratom. It really helps reduce the physical manifestations of addiction. Their head has to be in the right place though. It doesn't fix everything, it's just a tool but a very important one.

Addiction is not a moral issue, it is a medical issue, both physical and mental/emotional. It can have a physical (biological) aspect as being physically/chemically addicted to drugs. It always involves brain chemistry. It often has emotional aspects, as in people self-medicating to deal with or avoid dealing with emotional problems. It involves habits and triggers. Turning yourself over to a higher power does not address the reality of what addiction is. While some people can overcome addiction with willpower, many cannot. When you understand the science behind addiction you can develop effective strategies to overcome it, including how to recognise your triggers, and how to replace your addictive behavior with a healthier alternative. You also have to understand that you will inevitably have setback and be prepared to deal with those and get back on track. If the addiction is to a substance like alcohol or drugs you may need medical assistance to overcome the physical aspects of the addiction. If it is emotional issues that trigger your addictive behavior you may need to get help such as therapy to deal with those emotional issues.

I believe it is self-defeating to say, “I am an addict” vs, “I have an addiction”. The first statement makes the addiction part of your identity, the second statements acknowledges the addiction as a problem to overcome. People are not born addicts, they become addicted for various reasons. If you believe you “are an addict” you are less likely to overcome it. To say you are powerless over the addiction weakens your ability to overcome it.

Don't make yourself all OCD worrying about it, you have 4 yrs clean. That's great❣?
U could go "cosmic energy" as a pseudo-high power(?) You don't HAVE to use a religious god.

[aaagnostica.org]
[aabeyondbelief.org]

12 step recovery for nonbelievers. A huge community that gets bigger every day. Here is a meeting list. [secularaa.org]

I've never heard of a twelve step program but after many visits to the shrink I gave up myself.

12 step programs I know of by name only,
Higher powers, the only ones I know are exponentials in maths.
Addictions: I come from an extremely addictive family, tobacco, booze, drugs prescribed and illegal, gambling.
I hate addiction. My family can never break free of it.
I thought the same was for everyone, then I found out that my friend of decades had been a heroin addict when she was younger. Went cold turkey when she found out she was pregnant at about 25 and has never been addicted to anything since, she is in her 60s now.

Those 12 step programs have no basis basis in science. [theatlantic.com]

One of my good friends is an Addiction Counselor/therapist. He quit drinking for life decades ago at the Schick Center. He dabbled in illicit drugs occaisionally, then tried Meth, and went on a 4 year binge! Today, he has his degree, and helps others quit. He tells me he didn't need 12 step to quit, ant that it most certainly doesn't work for most of his clients. It (12 step) does help some folks, so there is no reason to scrap it, but he's tired of it being the status quo in his profession.

I just read the 12 steps and if you take God out of it you have 7 steps at most.
Steps you would need to get rid of include:

1. Step 2. Believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
2. Step 3. Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
3. Step 6. We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
4. Step 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
5. Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12 step programs have a low success rate because they are not science based. AA 12 step program is based on the premise that alcohol consumption is immoral and that abstinence is the only solution and only a belief in a higher power can get you there. It is a self-defeating program. It requires you to turn yourself over to a higher power to remove your defects of character and shortcomings and to accept that you are powerless to manage your addiction without this higher power. This implants the idea of weakness rather than developing inner strength. To overcome addictions, you need to learn how addiction works and what techniques you can use to overcome it. Nothing in the 12 steps talks about dealing with the emotional issues that lead to the addiction. This is akin to turning yourself over to a higher power to cure a disease.

My 'higher power,' is the energy that I was born with, which gives me the ability, to make a life! Einstine, proved all life is 'energy' operating at a different frequency. I believe that is still true. I must admit, that it was in AA that I learned something different about God, than I had been taught at church! I was there because I had married an alcoholic and I was going to al-non! That was 48 yrs ago! I have friends who are still in the AA program, some because they want to be there for 'new' people coming in.

I was an addict. Notice I wrote, I WAS.
12 step program didn't help me at all.
I wasn't powerless over my addiction. I kicked it's ass, all on my own. Just too many things wrong with that program for me.
Good luck to you.

The meetings are supposed to be group get-together's to help you work the program.... as in which step you are on, what you are struggling with at which step, etc. While the book, the program, the meetings, etc. call out a higher power, I don't feel you HAVE to have one, or even acknowlege one. If you don't need a higher power to give your addiction over to, then ok, you don't have to have one. The guys who started the program needed it, so....
But the meetings are not to get together to worship - they are to get together to work the program. Almost like school.
P.S.
The meetings are also not suppose to be to get together to tell "war stories" or about "the good 'ole days".

You don't need a "higher power". There are AA atheist meetings offered.

My personal experience, during my own recovery and growing up in my father's attending, is that it doesn't work for me. Why that raises so many hairs I don't know... What WORKS FOR ME (to be clear lol) is smart recovery. I where addiction follows the same maintenance basic model of meetings and individual experts as MS, diabetes, dialysis patients etc. Ie doesn't give power to anything other than oneself, doesn't fault find, and works to manage it as part of the whole shit show that is one's life. ?

I've been an NA member for almost seven years and while the program stresses that it's "spiritual, not religious" and refers to "God as you know him" your "higher power" can be anything. It doesn't have to be a religious figure. I never had a "higher power" nor did I work the steps, I quit through determination and, believe it or not, so I didn't have to give my clean time key tags back! So, I guess my higher power was those key tags. After a while it got to the point where I decided I wasn't going to replapse because of how much clean time I had under my belt and I didn't want to start over. People are different, though.

Divorced my ex 25 yrs ago.