I hve a two yer degree in Addiction Studies. One of the things we covered was The Twelve Steps. The biggest issue most persons had with the 12 steps was the concept of "a higher power".

My professor told us that "a higher ppower" was not necessarily a god concept asmost suppose and interpret it to be, but it can be whatever evokes feelings of carign and love in a person. As an example he said one person's higher power was his motorcycle, because it fulfilled him to work on it, keep it matintained and ridign it just made him feel free. Another persosn higher power was his daughter. He managed to stay sober in order to be there for her. And another peron's higher power was a kitten.

Anyway, the poi9ntis that each higher power, which was nto god, evoked feeling of carign and love in the person. The TED Talk video also shows that "connection" is the key to overcomign addiction. I think they both work in a very similar way, using similar priciples.

As a side note, those who use god as their higher power have mixed results usually dependent on what kidn of god they believe in. If the god is lovingt and carign they usually fair much better than those who believe in the vengeful and punishing kind of god. Psychologically the vengeful pui9shing god is (more) isolating.