By Steve K.
Humility is having a realistic view of oneself as a limited, imperfect human being, and being honest without pretence in the portrayal of oneself to others. Humility acknowledges the need for others and reaches out toward them. It requires good self-awareness and self-acceptance, and is a strength rather than a weakness.
False pride and egotism deny limitation and result in an inner emptiness; they cut one off from others due to a sense of being “better than” or different in comparison, and therefore lack identification with, and compassion for others.
Low self-worth is the opposite extreme of false pride (although, still a form of egotism) and also prevents humility. It cuts one off from a healthy connection with others as one feels “less than” in comparison. It also prevents identification and creates feelings of rejection, anger, and bitterness toward others.
False pride and low self-esteem are both distortions of our self-concept. The practice of 12-Step recovery principles develop humility, and therefore an authentic relationship with ourselves and others.
The virtue of humility, “being right-sized” or modest, is of vital importance in recovery from addiction. We must acknowledge our limitations and need for help and guidance from outside of ourselves if we are to grow and develop in recovery. The ego defenses of denial, rationalisation, and projection etc are the enemy of humility and its vulnerability. Humility requires us to be honest and to show ourselves to others and to risk being vulnerable. This is not easy for many with a history of addiction and we need courage in order to do so. In general, we’ve learnt to protect ourselves with dysfunctional ways of being, such as: arrogance, defensiveness, anger and aggression, being critical, argumentative, selfish and dishonest.
These are strategies developed to defend our distorted self-concept or ego, which tends to be insecure in people who’ve suffered with addiction problems. Addiction itself is a major defense strategy, developed in an effort to escape the emotional and psychic pain of life. The problem with all of the above dysfunctional defensive mechanisms is that they ultimately harm the person practicing them. They keep us stuck in our addictions and other harmful behaviours, which prevents us from facing our difficulties and developing an emotional sobriety.
Humility is not an easy virtue to acquire. Benjamin Franklin once wrote:
“There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as [false] pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
