Before I sobered up, alcohol was like a rope or noose around my neck. Steeped in Learned Helplessness, I was powerless over alcohol. The addiction to drinking made my ‘problem thinking’ run riot. Alcohol in my bloodstream became an insidious saboteur, infecting my thinking.
I experienced a profound alteration IN MY REACTION to life. Pre-sobriety, over and over and endlessly over again, ODAAT, I sold my freedom for a drink. Post sobriety, spiritual awareness grew in my consciousness.
Sure, I had spiritual experiences as a drunk, but the power of spiritual awareness came later, as did the ability to do something useful with the spiritual experiences. It’s like the joke about knowing one has the right to remain silent but not being able to keep one’s mouth shut.
Consider how we coerced ourselves by broken beliefs that served as self-made prisons. Others did not constrain us; the Big Book reads that our problems are primarily of our own making. A prison psychiatrist told me that it is a foregone conclusion that I would spend the rest of my life in prison. NOTHING CHANGED until I got honest about the noose called alcohol that was strangling my life.
Here’s one illustrative lesson that explains ‘Learned Helplessness’ well that I would like to pass on for your consideration. It describes what happened and what we thought happened in our lives—the newfound freedom and happiness rest in awareness. Unlearning is key to that awareness. Step 4 was the Virus Scan, and Step 5 was the delete key. For me, Step 6 was one of the happiest days of my entire life. I still had to work on other things, like Steps 7, 8, and 9, but I was amazed even though I was barely halfway through the Steps.
Elephant Training
When elephant trainers catch a baby elephant, they tie one of its legs to a post with a rope. The baby elephant struggles and struggles, but it can’t get free. For days the elephant pulls and strains at the rope. Gradually it learns that struggle is useless, and it gives up.
When the elephant grows up, the trainer keeps it tied to the same rope in the same way. And even though it can now break the rope and get away, it stands passively and waits for the trainer to come and get it. It has developed what is called Learned Helplessness. It has learned that the struggle is useless as a result of repeated failure experiences earlier in life, the elephant has learned a self-imposed limitation.”
So how does Learned Helplessness affect humans?
It’s a condition where a person has the power to change their unpleasant situation yet does not attempt to use that power because they have learned to feel helpless in that situation. No one is perfectly free from the trap of learned helplessness; the point is to grow along spiritual lines. Not even the most successful people with long-term sobriety find themselves free of all character defects. But the difference is those who are successful have surrendered their willpower and embarked upon a simple, straightforward plan of action to overcome their most significant limitations in life.
Alcoholism is a LOSS OF CONTROL. Essentially, learned helplessness is a practical feeling of lack of control. A lack of control over one’s prevailing circumstances ensues when we drink, sometimes called a trainwreck. In the worse cases, learned helplessness leads to clinical depression in individuals, and alcohol depresses the brain even more into a downward spiral. You often hear people say who relapse: “It’s useless…”, “There’s just no way out….”
Learned helplessness limits people’s belief in themselves, while Steps 2 & 3 DELIMITS people. Sobriety leads to confidence without conceit, healthy self-esteem through God Esteem, and an attitude of gratitude that we thirst to pass on. Alcohol-induced limitation leads to a lack of self-confidence and self-esteem, which leads to a lack of self-worth, which leads to procrastination and finally settling for mediocrity at best, and insanity, prison, or death at worst.
Given any particular situation, a sober individual would have a fair idea of how to get out of problems. Yet most are afraid to take any action. How many of you feel that you’re stuck in a stagnant, unsatisfactory, unchallenging job? You know you could be much happier and earn a lot more, but the fear of change that things could be worse on the other side has kept you from taking massive action toward your desires. This is ‘Stinking Thinking.
There are thousands of stories of individuals who have risen above unimaginable circumstances to live extraordinary lives and become people of prodigious influence since 1935. A few great examples are Lois Wilson, Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob, and maybe the person you look at in the mirror every morning. These people all took enormous strides and were willing to go to any lengths to overcome their ego limitations, freeing themselves from the trap of learned helplessness.
Take the noose from around your neck and free your life! Or, as they said in The Matrix, UNPLUG! Never believe any story that doesn’t empower you. Take what you like and leave the rest; kick out the angry renters that live rent-free in your head.
“...one of the primary differences between alcoholics and nonalcoholics is that nonalcoholics change their behavior to meet their goals and alcoholics change their goals to meet their behaviors.”
Release the blocks, drop the rocks, and fly free!