1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.

This, like all of the other steps, stems directly from Oxford Group Movement/Moral Re-Armament beliefs. A central tenet of Oxford Group Movement dogma is that the vast majority of "men" are "defeated" and are powerless in themselves to overcome their "defeat." The original version of the first step shows its lineage very clearly: "We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol."

To put it plainly, those who accept it other than contribute to low self-esteem. This first step can only be seen as harmful in that it stresses personal powerlessness. It's difficult to see how it can do anything for them. This is pernicious in that if there's one common denominator among those who do harmful things to themselves, such as drinking excessively, it's that they have a low opinion of themselves.

This step is an admission alright, but it isn't a healthy one. There's a huge difference between stating that you have a problem and are going to do something about it, and stating that you have a problem and are "powerless" to do anything about it.

The first step is a step toward learned helplessness, toward personal irresponsibility. In fact, there is evidence that AA's emphasis upon individual powerlessness over alcohol consumption—where taking a single drink is considered a catastrophe inevitably leading to a bender— significantly contributes to worsening relapses. In the March-April 1987 issue of the professional journal Social Work, Dennis Daley states:
 

Teaching clients to expect one episode of use to lead to total loss of control may set the expectation that initial use cannot be curtailed before a full-blown relapse occurs . . . In the course of treating hundreds of relapsed substance abusers, my colleagues and I found that our clients reported that they thought total loss of control was inevitable or that the initial substance use behavior meant that they could not recover.
 

In addition to the anecdotal evidence offered by Daley, there is also experimental evidence that the learned helplessness induced by AA (as expressed in the first step) leads to binge drinking. In the most sophisticated controlled study yet done of AA's effectiveness, after several months' exposure to AA, the court-mandated offenders assigned to AA were engaging in four times as much binge drinking as the no-treatment control group.

 In short, the first step leads to low self-esteem, learned helplessness, personal irresponsibility, and binge drinking. The first step is a step toward disaster; it has no redeeming features.

Step 1 Satire

You may take the first step which leads you towards total disaster and self defeat. Admit that you are powerless over alcohol / narcotics / eating / gambling and all other twelve-step meetings - that your life has become unmanageable as you are extremely confused from too many LA meetings. Also helps you to have low self-esteem, learned helplessness, personal irresponsibility and binge drinking. Keep coming back even if you are not truly practicing the cult rituals while working the program. Just fake it for awhile.  Indoctrination is a slow progressive form of mind control.

Old timer doing the 13th step with a new-comer.