Resources for Sufferers

If I fail my Official Sobriety Test

SWAPA Guide
Our online Guide for Sufferers of Wealth and Power Addiction continues to be offered anonymously and free of charge to anyone. The next edition is to be published during this coming election season. Articles, rehabilitation options, and research links on addiction systems in general, and wealth and power addiction, in particular, are being updated before the guide's release, and, as always, are the most up-to-date contributions available for sufferers and those in their lives.

(You may also consider looking for Wealth and Power Addicts Anonymous (WAPAA) meetings hosted anonymously in and around Washington, D.C., Manhattan's Wall Street sector, and remotely. See more details below). If you are experiencing trouble quitting your use/abuse of the wealth and power of workers, taxpayers, and/or citizens, especially if you are an elected official, you may be putting others at risk by gambling their safety and their future. One immediate resource to consider is the National Council on Problem Gambling.


ADDITIONAL PATHS
Psychologists, interventionists, and addiction and recovery specialists note that people who are addicted to wealth and power suffer from controlling fears, such as fear of losing control, a deep desire to avoid feelings of powerlessness. Anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, shame, and out-of-control perfectionism.  Toxic narcissism is often a co-existing condition in those suffering from wealth and power addiction.  

Like substance abuse and addiction, resolving an addiction to wealth and power requires hard work and commitment. However, treatment can help an individual gain greater self-awareness and learn healthy ways to regulate emotions. It is absolutely possible for an addicted person to enjoy a healthy, rewarding life where work, money and power are in proper balance with other dimensions of life, like family, friends and wellness.

If you fail to support the amendment language in time, we will automatically send you information on how you and those close to you can seek help before the addiction system causes further harm to yourself or others.

Am I in the Role of Enabler?
When we interview elected officials, a theme familiar to many of us, one of a coercive relationship to money and power, often emerges:

"The party requires me to fundraise constantly.  The corporations force my hand in most legislation. I have to tell my constituents that I am better than the alternative. I am losing myself to the powers I must serve to keep my elected office. My experience feels like that of an enabler's."

Codependents Anonymous is a good place to begin building support and understanding in your life, and with, for, and alongside those who support or require your recovery. 

Am I in the Role of Addict?
Politicians also often echo a sentiment similar to that of those we interview who work as CEOs, for Wall Street, or on K Street:

"I need the fix. I am prone to low or dark feelings when I do not have access to wealth and power.  The next pile of money, the next corporate sponsor, the next chance I may get to win, or to sit on the board of a powerful corporation or in a giant lobbying firm -- it all makes me feel better, safer, less afraid, more alive, and in control. The power and access is all I need, and I cannot stop myself from pursuing more and more."

We will send all those who failing our test information on how to attend anonymous meetings of Wealth and Power Addicts Anonymous (WAPAA).  National Intervention volunteers founded these meetings, but only a few have sprouted. As we grow them elsewhere, we discreetly provide any who are interested with information on how to attend meetings near you, as well as other resources for wellness, mindfulness, and recovery. 

Because the dopamine receptors in the brain while addicted work similarly, regardless of the stimulus, Gamblers Anonymous serves as an alternative if there are not WAPAA meetings available to you. Again, you may also benefit from immediately connecting to resources available at the National Council on Problem Gambling.

You Are Not Alone.
All of us can benefit from a community with those who have also set the intention of reconnecting with the sense of wholeness. Most studies confirm that addiction first enters our lives through the cracks in this sense of connection. Addiction and recovery expert, Dr. Gabor Maté provides online and text resources  for those seeking support for underlying trauma in order to more deeply grasp their personal path to recovery. We encourage this approach. Underlying causes, especially in our system, is for all of us.