Basically, it means that sometimes we can use spiritual healing as an excuse to “get rid of” certain feelings, memories, and experiences that we’ve had. This is the type of spiritually maladapted behavior that we typically exhibit in active alcoholism. When not treating the spiritual aspect of the disease those behaviors are the types of things that will start to make life unmanageable once again. If we do not get spiritually connected with meditation or prayer with a power greater than us it will bring us closer and closer to that drink or drug. In sobriety, if we are self-reliant we usually end up using anything that will make us feel good externally excessively. A spiritual malady is a deep-seated inner conflict that leads to restlessness, irritability, and discontentment.
The Spiritual Malady of Addiction: What Is It Exactly?
This is frequently referred to as ‘breed and feed” physiology, although it is clearly much more than just that. The other safety phenotype is one of relative immobilization where we relax, repair, recovery, digest, defecate, contemplate, daydream, sleep, dream, and experience spiritual connections. This is frequently referred to as “digest and rest” physiology although it too is much more than that. My last blog post took us back some 4 billion years to set a foundation for deconstructing illness and disease. My intention was to build on that foundation and talk further about the evolutionary molecular and cellular mechanisms that exist in us today and determine whether we are diseased and ill versus healthy and well. My trajectory was to move from physical to mental to social, and then to spiritual illness and disease.
Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12-Step Program
- Chronic threat brings about maladaptive chronic physiology and behaviors that over time increase our illness and disease burden.
- Many people say that alcoholics have a disease of the mind, body, and spirit.
- What the book says is that the only thing that will solve our drink problem is a spiritual awakening, spiritual experience, attitude adjustment, or psychic change.
- How wonderful that the universe ALWAYS provides for me.
- Critical thinking skills and radical self-honesty are so vital in this day and age.
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 spiritual malady explained go hand in hand with. But in our quest to fill this void with any and everything we can think of, we completely miss that the only thing that can actually fulfill us a spiritual connectedness to something greater than ourselves. When we are under threat, we create a bias towards negative, selfish, aggressive and prejudiced thoughts.
Final Thoughts on Living the Spiritual Life and Recovery
Below is an overview of the 12 admissions that support the 12 steps toward recovery. 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.
The Power of Obsession in Alcoholism and Addiction
What Leads to a Malady of The Spirit?
What You Need to Know About Spiritual Illness and Disease
- Particularly notable to this discussion is what we look like in threat.
- While the spirit is aware that the pain we experience while we go through our healing journey is not a genuine danger.
- To conclude, it’s not my body – my allergic reaction to alcohol – that’s going to take me back to drinking.
- We use everything and everyone, even when we stop using alcohol and drugs to cope with these feelings of being unsatisfied and uncomfortable in life.
- Therefore, they must make an effort to establish a rapport with this higher power.