howdy y'all.  yeah, don't try to adjust your controls, you don't need a new prescription for your contact lenses, i'm male and here...  currently just beginning to deal with everything, started an IOP after kind of spectacularly failing while seeing a therapist an hour a week.  opposed to 12 step programs (the nebulous "higher power" and "god" concepts don't work for me, though I "get" powerlessness and unmanageable and am wrestling with putting trust into external entities -- but they've got to be external entities I can interact with in tangible ways, i.e., professionals and laypeople).  so, um, yeah, that's my intro.  

Welcome, I hope you will find help here as so many others have.  So your higher power consists of professional help, well that is not against the rules at all. Don't dismiss the 12 step movement, there is a lot of shared knowledge and wisdom therein.  So I hope you can pick up some useful stuff from us 12 steppers.  And well done for making the first step of bringing yourself into a recovering community and if you need my help, just ask. Cara

thanks...  my main issue with 12-step isn't the program itself (I think it makes a lot of sense), it's the "god" sprinkled throughout and that the meetings I've been to take a very christian slant on that and that's totally anathema to me.  (sorry any christians out there, but I've had very bad experiences...)

Howdy back at ya and welcome. I'll echo Cara a little. There is a number of people in the fellowships that use GOD as an acronym - Good Orderly Direction. And use the Group as that power greater than themselves to follow. It works for many. The fellowship is pretty darn flexible - inclusive vice exclusive. A lot of us had no use for anything like God when we started either. But then times and people do change occasionally...
Take care,
Dennis

If you care to check it out, I recommend "The Power of Intention" by Wayne W. Dyer as an alternative point of view. I've pointed others in that direction and it has helped them when traditional religion falls short...

A deity can be replaced with someone that is believable to you in your life. The feelings that people have from the belief of such a higher power, can be replicated from the love from a family member or close group of friends or a partner. I truly hope to see you depart off the 12 step program due to recovery completion.