Our spiritual malady never just goes away and stays away on its own, it requires a constant spiritual connectivity and effort on our parts in our programs to keep it and the subsequent alcohol and drug abuse at bay. So long as we make an active effort to address our spiritual malady every day, we will find relief from it, one day at a time. Many of us felt that there was something wrong with us or something missing—in short, we felt different from other people. We couldn’t understand why the people surrounding us could feel happiness or contentment, so we turned to drugs and alcohol as a means of self-medicating our perceived shortcomings. From our time spent feeding our addictions, we feel that the opposite begins to happen.

These are all parts of my emotionally entangled web that is spun when I react to some sense of rejection. If someone hurts me, according to my step 4, my angry resentment of what they have said or done makes me ashamed. My past constantly assailed me emotionally, randomly attacking my mind. My emotions became wedded in time to being undifferentiated arousal states that prompted me to seek an external way to deal with these troubling emotional/arousal states. I do not necessarily have to react to my feelings of negativity about myself, someone else does not need to experience the consequence of my resentments. Either way, if he could perhaps of had the ability to say this is how exactly I am feeling he could have acted on this emotional information rather than reacted to it. Desiring stuff seems at the root of my fear based stuff – the exquisite torture of desire which soon loses it’s so-called relish and just becomes torturous.

There is a map of Emotional Responding Tattooed on my Heart.

In conclusion, staying spiritually healthy means trying to keep ourselves open to being surprised by life. A prayer common to 12 Step Fellowships beautifully summarizes this sentiment. Also, spirituality in recovery does not exclude competent medical care. In fact, we believe that the open-mindedness that our clients foster through a spiritual approach actually enables them to receive the care they need.

• If his thinking had led Einstein to believe there was a spirit vastly superior to man, than I was not going to waist my time trying to contest that conclusion.
• The 12 steps were influenced by the Oxford Group who said sins cut a person off from God, and that there was such a thing as sin disease.
• I do not necessarily have to react to my feelings of negativity about myself, someone else does not need to experience the consequence of my resentments.
• I have found this a fairly common trait among male alcoholics in recovery settings and meetings.

I dealt with them externally via addictive behaviours, not internally via emotion processing. As explained in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. When men and women look inwardly, the spiritual component of the disease becomes apparent. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. Racticing prayer and meditation helps us be mindful of our surroundings and gain consciousness of our spirituality by bringing us closer to our higher power. Strengthening this relationship with a spiritual being brought us hope that we can recover from the mental and physical suffering of alcoholism. As we work towards this state of selflessness we find that we are slowly being relieved of the hopeless alcoholic state we once thought we were doomed to be in forever.

The Peace of God from the God of Peace

I got as far as deciding it was an inherent problem with processing negative emotions, which it is. In other words, I had not processed these episodes emotionally and embedded these events in my long term memory like healthy more emotionally mature people do. Unless, we let Go and Let God and ask God to remove these negative emotions/sins/defects of character we end up in a futile increasingly distressed spiral of negative emotions. The mature way to to access, identfiy and label how one is feeling and use this information to reasonably express how one is feeling. This way we do not retaliate, fight, flee or freeze. Instead our emotions do what they are supposed to do. They are suppose the tell the fronts of our brains to find words for our feelings.

So, we often turn to small pleasures in our attempt to fill up the empty space and feel whole. For instance, having a drink or two or indulging in unhealthy meals could give you brief satisfaction. But, after a while, the happiness will fade, and you will go back to feeling that void. In turn, you will keep indulging in more define spiritual malady drinks or food or drugs, just to distract yourself from the hopeless feeling. This sin disease had very real psychological, emotional and physical and physiological effect on the mind and body. Sins were a contagion that mixed with the sins of others and the sins of families, groups, societies, cultures and countries.

The Spiritual Malady

Once you open up to this idea and implement that spiritual connection, you will experience your long-awaited spiritual awakening, the answer to that pesky spiritual malady we suffer from as alcoholics. When the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was written and published in 1939, the times and language of those times was incredibly different than modern times. This is one of the reasons that Big Book study groups have become so popular among recovering alcoholics. Apart from dissecting the Big Book so as to have a firmer grasp on the 12 Steps and program and in general, it also is designed to help us decipher the intricate language and wording used from a different time period. Old timers and recovering people with more experience can explain in layman’s terms just what the author Bill W. Was trying to relay in a far more easily digestible fashion.

I can be a dismissive person more than a people pleaser. It is all manipulating our interaction with others to our selfish ends. There is one decision that we make, that leads to a continuous unfolding of decision-less choices on the path of life. That path is always right, and there are no wrong turns – just different experiences. It means being disconnected from God’s vision and will by living instead in an unconscious trance, allowing Something horrible to take control. How do you prepare Sober Home for life after treatment, and what kind of help do you need? Ever wonder what a chronic relapser is and how they can affect your family? If you are an alcoholic, then you know you cannot just put the plug in the jug and quit. If it were as easy as not eating a peanut anymore, then you would have stopped long ago. At the 71st General Service Conference annual meeting, held online over April 17 to April 25, 2021, a revision to the AA Preamble was approved through advisory action.

How does my liver heal after drinking?

As a result we are guarded against those that we perceive will reject us or be negative to us, harm us in some way and we seek to dominate these folk or we are dependent on those who are kind to us, help us and care for us. As Bill Wilson noted, we seem to get distressed when we don’t get what we want or feel people or trying to take away what we have. But of the few who kept up with the God-consciousness proposal, improving it through prayer and meditation, life was amazingly productive and full of peace. They developed mastery over resentment, became free of anger and gained courage through the defeat of fear. 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. Learn why honesty is a critical characteristic in sobriety and recovery. We begin to obsess and buy the lie because we want to feel the ease and comfort of the first drink.

Here we have an abnormal reaction to alcohol and for some alcoholics a maladjustment to life. The psychology and neuropsychology of alcoholism, addictive behaviour and recovery. It is strange paradox, the more you focus on helping others, the more you discover how much you matter. I struggled with this myself in the early days of my recovery. It was one more thing that my disease used to separate me from other folks in the rooms of recovery, another way to feel unique. For many folks, including myself, ‘the spiritual’ aspects of recovery can be a challenge. We tend to show up with a truckload of old ideas in this area and a lot of us consider ourselves to be atheists. 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.

The bottom line, a true alcoholic or addict has no power to stop, avoid, or control their drinking. People like us are obsessed with the thought of controlling and enjoying our drugs or alcohol. The biggest problem is that our mind buys the lie that the next time it will be different. You deserve it and the consequences are not important. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous discusses many steps that are involved in the recovery process. Rule 62 in recovery refers to the rule of dont take yourself too damn seriously.

I relate to my fellow human beings when I am not in fear or shame. I am not only fearful I have reacted to their arrival via shame based defence mechanisms and reactions. I am shamed and disgusted that my neighourhood has come to this. I am dismissive of them, intolerant, impatient and arrogant towards them. My step 4 showed me this is the unhealthy fruit of my greed, gluttony, my lust, my sloth. My dismissiveness and my arrogance are parts of defence mechanism against rejection, they guard my inherent sense of shame. I am full of shame, more so than fear, although these two overlap. I grew up in a family that did not express emotions like the ones I had mentioned. We reacted via anger and put downs hence I have grown up to be dismissive. Honesty is the heart of recovery and I am being honest.

High levels of fructose and glucose are well known to cause added fat. ● Harm to a developing fetus if a woman drinks while pregnant, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. ● Chronic diseases such as liver cirrhosis ; pancreatitis ; various cancers, including liver, mouth, throat, larynx , and esophagus; high blood pressure; and psychological disorders. If you find yourself struggling to stop drinking when you have commitments, engagements, or drinking in social situations where it may not be acceptable this could be a sign of issues with drinking.

The spiritual malady of addiction is essentially the fact that at some point in the addict’s life, they managed to cut themselves off from existence and any notion of spirituality. This does not mean that they removed themselves from religion, although the two can be synonymous, but it simply means that within their soul or the core of their being, they suffer from a profound loneliness. When I accepted that the ‘spiritual malady’ was about my beliefs, thoughts, and emotions, I came to see that many of my own beliefs and thoughts on this subject were contributing to my disease. I had many old ideas and prejudices that had to be examined and released. I could identify when he went on to say, “the spiritual malady refers to a derangement of our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. These things are out of whack and not aligned.“ The process of recovery is useful to remedy this problem. I’ve struggled with a consistent practice of steps with now 19 yrs of sobriety.

Do you struggle to balance “partying” with your responsibilities? Have you been isolating from friends and family who don’t share your habits? Do most of your thoughts and actions revolve around your drinking or using? If you have the same problem we do — the disease of alcoholism and addiction — we have some good news for you. But such a transformation may be more accessible than it initially sounds. But when the alcoholic is not working on the maintenance and growth of their spiritual condition, the thought of a drink returns; they drink again, and to drink is to die. As alcoholics and addicts, our Higher Power is what keeps us sober. We must not allow ourselves to be cut off from the sunlight of the Spirit. Our effort must always be on that relationship and how we’re living.

Find meaning in exploring and connecting to nature, which can also make one feel small—in a positive way that improves self-awareness and understanding. That said, it basically involves connecting to something greater than ourselves in order to feel fulfilled in life. These terms might seem strange, mystical, or outdated. Perhaps they seem in conflict with providing competent medical care. Epigenetic mechanisms of alcoholism and stress-related disorders.Alcohol,60, 7-18. Alcoholics Anonymous and the disease concept of alcoholism.Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly,20(3-4), 5-39. An LADC may work in treatment programs, hospitals, community clinics, and even public institutions such as Colleges and Departments of Health. Working with an LADC usually complements your individual therapy. Alcohol can be high in calories if drinking beer, and if drinking harder alcohol there can also be a lot of sugar added.

We had limited control over behaviour at times due to intoxication and acted on occasion in a way that shames us today. AA’s 12 steps are a spiritual program of recovery but at the heart of that spirituality is the role of sponsoring. The other part is that this guy, if an alcoholic like me, has real difficulties accessing in his heart and mind how he actually “feels” at any particular time. Or rather what emotions he is experiencing at any particular time. Everyone can take a lesson out of the spiritual principles of this organization. And although not everyone has a problem with drugs or alcohol, every person reading this right now is touched in varying degrees by some form of obsessiveness affecting them in very negative ways. It is disturbing their lives and holding them back from full peace and security.