Especially being alcoholic more often than not, it is our nature to have that “my way or the highway” mentality. Intellectually, believing in something we cannot physically see or a scientifically proven exists is a hard pill to swallow, those intellectual individuals shut the idea out completely. These core beliefs make it harder for us to connect with a god of our understanding. A spiritual malady can manifest itself in many different ways. For some, it may manifest as a feeling of being disconnected from others or as a sense of emptiness. For others, it may manifest as anger, anxiety, or depression.
Spiritual threats can come in the form of emotional threat or injury. We can experience emotional attacks, assaults, accidents, or abuse that affect our physiology similar to a physical threat or injury. Social threat and injury are other forms of spiritual threat and injury that are particularly toxic to humans. Things like isolation, disenfranchisement, discrimination, and injustice not only influence our mental health but our physical health, as well.
The Full Spectrum of Spirituality
The idea is to look for a spiritual solution to an addiction problem, as this type of issue affects more than someone physically. However, that does not mean addicts are confronting this spiritual ailment by themselves. While an addict’s spiritual https://g-markets.net/sober-living/oxford-house-recovery-homes-characteristics-and/ malady triggers a compulsive need to use drugs, other people’s spiritual conflicts may take the form of a gambling problem, anxiety, depression, or eating disorder. Sickness is a word describing yet another aspect of not being in good health.
- We became selfish and self-seeking, ever thirsting for more, and this lust warped us on every level.
- It’s also important to remember that your understanding of a Higher Power can change and evolve over time.
- Things like isolation, disenfranchisement, discrimination, and injustice not only influence our mental health but our physical health, as well.
- This is the spiritual side of addiction, and it is real.
- On page 62 the text explains that “Selfishness-self-centeredness!
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We started looking to this thing as a way to fulfill a deep longing or pain within us. It provided instant, although temporary, relief from our current condition, and although we knew it was a fraud, we kept going back to it. We returned to the seductive promises it made over and over, and each time the hold it had on our spirit became stronger. Each time we wake up from a modus operandi state of unconscious reflexive autopilot thinking and reacting and become mindfully aware of our internal and external experience, there is an awakening of spirit. It is a spiritual awakening to realize our attitude and outlook come from within and that we have the capacity to adjust them when we make a conscious choice to do so.
For instance, the spiritual malady of alcoholism will drive a person to drink to the point of no return. It will drive an individual to drink regardless if they want to drink or not. This is the physical allergy of alcoholism and it is what causes alcoholics to drink regardless of consequences and regardless of whether they want to stop. Whether or not they were aware of it they most likely started drinking because of their spiritual malady.
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A spiritual malady is a deep-seated inner conflict that leads to restlessness, irritability, and discontentment. It is a sense of “otherness” that keeps us from feeling at peace with ourselves and the world around us. When we are under threat, we create a bias towards negative, selfish, aggressive and prejudiced thoughts. When being chased by a tiger it is helpful to think “danger”, react quickly, judge without contemplation, defend and protect one’s self. It is not a time for deep thought, nor bonding and sharing, or you’ll be sharing a meal with the tiger and not in a good way.
- This is the type of spiritually maladapted behavior that we typically exhibit in active alcoholism.
- We have the subawareness shadow part of our physiology that tends towards a defense bias and trigger.
- In sobriety, it is so important to maintain conscious contact with a higher power and count our blessings.
- This resistance to anything spiritual is the biggest obstacle some addicts confront.
- We have to watch out for motor vehicles, knives, and guns.
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.