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Those who are seeking to be the best often seek the feedback of others and are more accepting of constructive criticism and instruction, making them more agreeable in their interactions. The alcoholic who evolves spiritually receives inner wisdom – an intuition and understanding – a noetic mindset that goes beyond the traditional five senses. They also experience an ineffable quality from becoming spiritual – one where their feelings go beyond mere words. However, that does not mean addicts are confronting this spiritual ailment by themselves. While an addict’s spiritual 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. So we have issues with emotions and somatic/body feeling states.
Rather than describing these conditions in terms of the manifest symptoms, i.e chronic substance abuse or, at times, vague “spiritual maladies”. I would suggest in relation to the issue of co-morbidities that one try to deal with these alcoholism related issues and then see if there are any other to deal with afterwards. For me, as someone who has been treated for anxiety and depression prior to recovery the 12 steps appear to have treated these as emotional consequences of my underlying condition of emotion dysregulation which I call alcoholism. In order to illustrate how I believe my spiritual malady is the consequence of my emotional disorder, called alcoholism/addiction first let’s go back to where this idea of spiritual malady came from. But when it comes to alcohol and drugs, there is no will power. The reason is that our reaction to alcohol and drugs is physical, it’s not mental.
I want to make clear to members that these thoughts are not definitive treatise on the subjects. Just an attempt to stimulate thought or discussion and provide information based on my study and experience. Today I look further at the disease of alcoholism focusing on it as a spiritual malady.
This same obsessive nature causes those with a substance use disorder to instinctively seek other things for relief from their thoughts. Often, before ever using a substance, they were bright students, picked up hobbies that they were able to develop into amazing talents or ambitious employees that were able to vertically ascend with ease. The motivation that drove most of these positive outcomes, however, was typically relief from their low self-esteem or otherwise painful thinking.
There are many people who have been in your shoes and have found creative ways to work around this issue. Remember to keep an open mind and heart, and eventually, you will find something (or someone) who can serve as your own personal higher power. Finally, self-reliance can be dangerous because it can lead to complacency. When people become too self-reliant, they may stop working on their program entirely. This complacency can then lead to a sense of entitlement which is extremely dangerous for people in recovery. Entitlement leads to unrealistic expectations, which often leads to disappointment and resentment.
Illness attributed to supernatural forces may be due to soul loss, ancestral spirits, tame household spirits, wild forest spirits, malevolent spirits, or shaman spirits, but can also be attributed to magical interferences by humans in the form of curses.
That is not to say that normal people cannot be full of sin – a cursory look around the work and it’s events will soon confirm this is the case. What I am saying is that they do not have the emotion dysregulation or fear based responding that I seem to have which often prompts “sin”. What the book says is that the only thing that will solve our drink problem is a spiritual awakening, spiritual experience, https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/what-is-the-life-expectancy-of-an-alcoholic/ attitude adjustment, or psychic change. Addiction and alcoholism are both a 3 fold disease, meaning there are three distinct areas that alcoholism affects and the reason you cannot stop drinking and using. Although the idea of the spiritual malady came to me through reading about Alcoholics Anonymous, I believe it is a concept any person can connect with whether or not they suffer from addiction.
In AA, one of the main goals is to become sober and stay sober. To do this, members must rely on their support system which includes other members, sponsors, and meetings. When people become too self-reliant, they often start to think that they don’t need AA anymore. They may start to skip meetings, distance themselves from their support system, and eventually relapse. The thoughts we have as alcoholics are often insidious in such a way that we can’t tell what is true or false.The AA Big Booktalks about this delusion we develop in active addiction. Thoughts like we can eventually manage our lives while in active addiction.
Once turning to substances many of these people struggle to maintain the same focus on the other priorities they had. Many people are initially turned off to the idea of the program because they believe it preaches religion and God, and many addicts and alcoholics have no desire to pursue a religious answer. But the beauty of the 12-steps is that they are spiritually based as opposed to religious.
This allows individuals to be flexible and open-minded in their pursuit of more knowledge that can assist them in their quest for better knowledge. When someone is less emotionally stable they are more likely to question and hesitate, causing self-criticism and a lack of confidence. The confidence that is gained by those who are more emotionally stable can aid them in decision-making and their ability to take needed risks. The third positive benefit is that someone who is obsessively seeking to improve has greater interpersonal sensitivity.
The liver is one of the only organs that can heal itself. Also, there are methods of treatment for Alcoholic Liver Disease. However, long term drinking can damage the liver beyond repair. If you are concerned about the effect of you drinking on your liver, it’s highly recommended that you speak with your doctor.
Chronic use will lead to co-occurring medical issues that are often serious and can be fatal if not addressed. The struggle for anyone with a substance use disorder is that the focus, outside of treatment and 12-Step meetings, is typically on the substance. What we learn in recovery is that the problem centers in the mind. There is an obsessive quality and an spiritual malady emotional sensitivity, often experienced in childhood, that later has the possibility of turning to an obsession to seek solace from the way they feel. Lacking the tools to manage pain, disappointment, and resentment in a healthy way, the mind obsessively seeks the only solution to the problem that has yet worked, which is a mind or mood-altering substance.
I did not feel myself enough as myself – smart enough, talented enough, good-looking enough, and so on. I was trapped with all I could ask for, while feeling ashamed and all alone in the world. And when an addict feels trapped, the bottle or drug or casino (or whatever the obsession) is one sure thing with which to escape. The idea is to look for a spiritual solution to an addiction problem, as this type of issue affects more than someone physically. Step 1 in the AA programme is “ We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable”.
Now, my mind is something I can watch without compulsion; it is a tool that I work with to align my intentions with my behavior. Yes, I need my practices – indeed I feel commanded to perform them – for without them my mind narrows. In hindsight, this seems like such a simple shift in perspective – perhaps even obvious – but accepting it at the time was momentous for me. This difference in perspective, which I learned from AA, is marked by what one assumes about being human. Viewing Jewish practices as a program of healing, renewal, and change inherently assumes that human beings are imperfect, pained, and broken. Moreover, it assumes that we need help in the form of practices, community, and guidance.
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