Basic Assumption
On this webpage we are making the basic assumption that a person with Alcohol Use Disorder can swing between two major states of the Autonomic Nervous System whileninteracting with the world
| Basic Emotional State | AA nomenclature | Polyvagal Theory |
| Angry, Fearful, Fight, Fle | Ego | Sympathetic Nervous System Active (SNS) |
| Lak of fear, i.e. Accepting, connecting with and helping others, Calm. Peaceful | Serene | Parasympathetic Nervous System Active (PSNS) |
| Freeze | Not Relevant in AA | Dorsal Vagal System Active |
| Steo No | Alcoholics Anonymous Version | Polyvagal Perspective | Into Action | ommnet |
| One | We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. | The EGO (SNS) has realized it is is not being very succesful in making the world be the way it wants it to be | Telling some one I can/dont want tdo this anymooe | This is most probably due to its experience of pain when things pon’t happen the way it want |
| Two | Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. | The person with AUD realizes that there may be another way of llivign that does’t involve EGO/SNS domination | Telling someone or wrining | |
| Three | Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. | The person with AUD decides to transfer the activation of ANS from a dominants SNS to dominant PSNS | Takins skod eep breaths and letting inutiion guide me to do wwh’s in fonrr to my faace | |
| Four | Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. | |||
| Five | Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. | |||
| Six | Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. | |||
| Seven | Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. | |||
| Eight | Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. | |||
| Nine | Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. | |||
| Ten | Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. | |||
| Eleven | 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. | |||
| Tewelve | Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. |
References
Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book)
Dana, D (2022) Anchored, Sounds True, Boulder, CO
Porges, S,
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