Learn What Spiritual Malady Is And The Role It Plays In Your Recovery

They may anticipate a sensational event that will forever change their lives, permanently elevating them above the routine din of the daily grind, and giving them the secret to ongoing happiness. Is describing, essentially is referring to a stark void in our lives that we constantly attempt to fill with outside things such as drugs, alcohol, sex, shopping, or anything we can think to try to feel better. It is the emptiness we feel on such a deep level that we turn to self-medication in order to alleviate the sadness and despair that go hand in hand with.

One of the great things about AA is that it’s flexible – you can make it work for you, even if you don’t believe in God. So, instead of fixating on the parts of the program that don’t work for you, focus on the things that do. Finding a Higher Power is an essential part of Alcoholics Anonymous, but what if you don’t believe in God? You’re not alone – there are plenty of people in AA who don’t believe in God, or who have trouble with the concept of a higher power. Without a connection to a higher power, it can get quite ugly in sobriety. Spiritually, we have adifficult time connectingto a higher power.

Addiction Treatment Options

This acknolwedgement led to the incorporation of spirituality as an important ingredient in the process of recovery, and provides an important intersection between Western psychology and psychotherapy and twelve-step recovery. Carl Jung viewed addiction as a spiritual malady and addicts as frustrated spiritual seekers. He believed the craving for altered states of consciousness reflected a spiritual thirst for wholeness, and that only those who have a spiritual awakening could successfully overcome addiction. Jung’s position was ultimately incorporated into twelve-step recovery, specifically Step Twelve.

However, when we entered into a recovery model that included the spiritual, we found a solution. The Big Book explains, “If, when you honestly want to, you find that you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably an alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.” We embark upon a journey of recovery that allows us to develop a deep spiritual connection. Through our spiritual connection, we finally are given the power to overcome the disease and live happy, joyous, and free lives in sobriety. Thankfully, the “spiritual malady” is no longer a “missing piece” of Step One for me.

FAQs on Issues of Spiritual Malady

This is an article working out my thoughts on a particular idea that we often see in addiction. Resolve to accept the judgments of your confessor or therapist over your own distorted standards. This is not a vow of obedience; it is simply a practical tool and can be stopped at any time. But relying on reliable people who model a healthy conscience can assist us to emulate a right moral measure for judging between sin, temptation and pathology. How to know that you are going through dark night of soul and not mentally depressed.

Spiritual awakenings occur when we see glimpses of the much bigger picture around us and find humility in the moment. We can become aware that humility is not thinking less of oneself, but rather thinking of oneself less, and that we are worthy of self-compassion. Compassion for others means appreciating their pain and experiencing a heart-based response to it. Compassion evokes an interest in offering support, understanding, and kindness to others when they struggle, make mistakes, or fail.

The Missing Piece: The Spiritual Malady

The great psychiatrist Carl Jung called this a ‘low level thirst for wholeness – for union with God’. In our addictions, we tried to quench our soul-thirst with fleeting pleasures. The pursuit of them dominated our lives, destroyed relationships, and caused greater desperation than we ever thought possible.

Art therapy is a surprisingly simple but powerful way of processing grief. You can even celebrate your deceased loved one by creating a piece of art in honor of them. The feelings of loss, longing, emptiness, and sorrow that you’re experiencing mirror exactly what those undergoing a Dark Night experience. The only difference is that those experiencing complex grief are seeing all their hope, freedom, and happiness bound-up in the lost person.

Complicated Grief, Soul Loss, and the Dark Night of the Soul

There is after all, a lot of God talk in those meetings and in their “Big Book,” Alcoholics Anonymous. God is the main feature of the 12-Step approach to substance abuse. And some of its member do have a culty reliance upon one another, rather than God. So, if you consider that, it’s a fair assumption when made from afar. Tomorrow I will look at the relationship between my self- centeredness and alcohol.

• The alcoholic who evolves spiritually  receives inner wisdom –  an intuition and understanding – a noetic mindset that goes beyond the traditional five senses.
• It refrains from negativity, especially when speaking about others who are not present.
• Many of our previous attempts to achieve sobriety failed because we did not address anything other than the physical and mental aspects of addiction.
• If you are seeking drug and alcohol related addiction rehab for yourself or a loved one, the YourFirstStep.org hotline is a confidential and convenient solution.
• You should also try to find other people in AA who share your beliefs and struggles; they can provide support and fellowship as well as offer helpful advice.

This is due to the fact that addiction is really a spiritual disorder. Although the disease has biological, behavioral, and psychological roots, treating those aspects, without including the spiritual component,  is like sticking a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. This resistance to anything spiritual is the biggest obstacle some addicts confront. To beat their addiction, people must face the reality that there is indeed a power larger than themselves. Therefore, they must make an effort to establish a rapport with this higher power.

Simply go to your internet browser and type in “grief counseling” and you will find many options. Whenever you find yourself feeling irritable discontent bored with your life or depressed it is likely that you may have skipped meditation or prayer. In these situations, I feel further from God than normal and then I wonder who moved me or God and the answer is always https://ecosoberhouse.com/ me. By using this approach, a recovering addict can experience a notable change in their outlook. Following this program will cause them to feel less alone or closed off from the messages of life, thus relieving them from the burden of isolation. As a result of this thought process, the spiritual illness they’re up against is at the core of their addiction.

Restlessness, irritability, and discontentment are symptomatic of the spiritual illness. The spiritual illness that we faced acted as a catalyst for our addiction, and every attempt to self-medicate our spiritual malady pushed us deeper and deeper into the disease. 12 Step recovery focuses on a spiritual solution to the problem of addiction and alcoholism. As explained in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, “we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick.

We will try to fill this god-sized hole with anything we can. The practice of Christian Meditation offers a remedy to the spiritual malady. When we enter the silence with discipline and perseverance, we make space for  the living presence of God to heal us from the inside out.

You might also like to pore through our article on how to access your inner strength during traumatic times for additional support. When we are disconnected from our Souls, our True Selves, our Higher Nature, we feel innately lost. And we always carry a hole inside of ourselves that can never quite be filled. Alternatively, if you feel suicidal, please reach out for support. There are so many skilled, caring, and compassionate people out there ready to help.