Step One

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become

unmanageable.

Man is more than powerless: he is dead in his trespasses!

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (Ephesians 2: 4-5)

This death which weighs on every son of Adam is result of sin, yet this was never God's intention:

God first made man in His image:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1: 27)

Image speaks of the spiritual imprint imparted to them:

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2: 7)

God gave everything to Adam and Eve -- no steps, no rules, except for one:

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. " (Genesis 2: 16-17)

Adam and Eve did eat of the fruit, their eyes were opened to their nakedness, and a life of shame, fear, and exile has taken over mankind every since.

Man did not physically die, but spiritually, for by sin Adam and Eve were cut off from God:

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." (Romans 5: 14)

and

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (Romans 8: 6)

From Adam's death, every human being has entered the world spiritually dead, in the likeness of Adam, not God:

"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:" (Genesis 5: 3)

Man is more than powerless, therefore, but dead, and for this reason  man seeks like in pleasures, pursuits, position, and possibilities, or in addictions and comfort measures like alcohol abuse.