A 1st Step Puzzle/Riddle: The Three Ps of Alcoholism

One thing I often recommend when someone is working a 1st Step is that they first carefully read and re-read what I call the "Long Version of the 1st Step" found on page 30 of the Big Book.  It's the first page of the 3rd Chapter, called "More About Alcoholism".  On that page is the statement, "We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics.  This is the first step in recovery."

The challege then, is learning and understanding what an alcoholic actually is.  If you don't have a good and accurate perception of what an alcoholic is, then I suspect that your 1st step will not be as effective as hoped.  An example of a poor understanding of what an alcoholic is can be found in my own history: for years I "knew" that alcoholism was a disease, but I thought that disease was one that was temporary or one that could be cured. 

Every time I had an alcoholic "incident" in my life, I would be baffled as to why I did what I did (because it seemed to be something very close to what my dad had done at some point...and he was an alcoholic!) and I would then swear "never" to do that again.  According to this plan then, while I may have accidentally acted "like" an alcoholic during that unfortunate incident, it was within my power to change my behavior in such a manner as to avoid actually being an alcoholic.  Truly a delusional and self-serving view of this disease.

So, what I ask my sponsees to do is to read this page very carefully to discover what it holds for us in terms of more accurate information about the disease of alcoholism.  I then ask them to figure out what I am going to call "the three Ps of Alcoholism".  Hidden in that reading are three very important characteristics of the disease of alcoholism: each characteristic begins with the letter "P". 

Before they begin, I give them a hint in the form of a riddle: None of the three P words are "powerless" BUT all three of the P words can be summarized by the word "Powerless" or "Powerlessness".

Anyone want to take a shot at what the three P words are which describe critical characteristics of the disease of alcoholism?  Bonus points will be awarded to those who can then explain how all three P words can be summarized by the word "Powerless."  Good luck!

Take care!

Mike L.