Behavior become driven by defenses that function to keep from feeling bad. Reality becomes distorted to further protect the self from poor self esteem. The transfer of blame to someone else is an indicator of internal shame. My past constantly assailed me emotionally, randomly attacking my mind. I realised when doing my step 4 that that I had not previously been able to leave various supposed slights and abuses from my past in the past because I did not have the emotional maturity to look at these episodes reasonably and objectively. 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.

The content on AlcoholRehab.com is brought to you by American Addiction Centers , a nationwide network of leading substance abuse and behavioral treatment facilities. Though our decision was a vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face, and to be rid of, the things in ourselves which had been blocking us. Exposing abuse under the guise of BDSM & related reflections on self-recovery. Otherwise we have not really completely treated our alcoholism.

In Modern Terms, What is the “Spiritual Malady” of AA?

Seeing the same traits that were harmful before, turn to assets and lead to a more incredible life is often the first thing that attracts newer members to recovery. This mesh of negative emotions can link up fairly instantaneously I find. It is the web my spiritual malady seeks to ensnare me in. Sometimes others expel the same negative emotions on to us. I have found this a fairly common trait among male alcoholics in recovery settings and meetings.

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. Step 1 in the AA programme is “ We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable”.

What About God?

The list of emotional difficulties continues throughout the Big book’s first 164 pages. I do not believe I have the same spiritual malady as other normal people such as those people who were in the Oxford Group.

• And the book by Chuck C , A New Pair of Glasses, defining the SM as a feeling of consciously separated from God.
• 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.
• We tend to show up with a truckload of old ideas in this area and a lot of us consider ourselves to be atheists.
• For many folks, including myself, ‘the spiritual’ aspects of recovery can be a challenge.
• On a basic level, judgments about our surroundings help us survive.
• Millions of lives have been saved not to mention the lasting benefits it has brought to families, and societies once harmed by alcoholism.

I really didn’t know and wouldn’t have believed that my drinking was only a symptom of a deeper rooted problem. “When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.” During this time I was condemned to pick up that first drink again.

What is a Spiritual Experience?

He then offered his definition of the word ‘spiritual’. He said, “spiritual simply refers to that which is not material. This means those things that are not solid- such as our thoughts, our beliefs, our emotions- are what is spiritual. When we say that alcoholism or drug addiction is ‘a spiritual malady’, it means that our disease in centered in these things . This is why we need a satisfactory definition of what alcoholism and addition is? Rather than describing these conditions in terms of the manifest symptoms, i.e chronic substance abuse or, at times, vague “spiritual maladies”. Anxiousness, depression, and boredom are a few other factors that contribute to being spiritually maladapted.

• My affective disorder via various neural and cognitive – affective mechanisms leads to chronic substance use and dependency of these substances.
• Alcoholics would read and follow the steps in the book and get sober.
• Recovered means free from the obsession and constant struggle to stay sober.
• These are my main negative emotional reactions to the world that often scare me and make me feel ashamed.
• It asks them to allow themselves to have a new experience of what these things can mean to them.

Groups such as Rational Recovery say that once people stop drinking they are cured, viewing themselves as being in remission reinforces the addict identity. There is still some support for the idea that alcoholism is a choice . In this case, telling such people they have a disease turns them into victims with an excuse to continue the behavior. The belief that alcoholism requires a spiritual cure is also criticized. There are plenty of people who manage to escape their addiction without using a spiritual program such as the one offered by Alcoholics Anonymous. What many people do not know is that the disease of alcoholism is deeper than an allergy and mental obsession. Our alcoholic life is really the symptom of a spiritual malady.

The Missing Piece: The Spiritual Malady

One of the earliest studies on AA members concluded that they were linked in commonality by two variables, emotional immaturity and grandiosity! I would contend that grandiosity is a part of emotional immaturity. I also contend that our “maladjustment to life” is based on emotional immaturity which is in itself a function of emotion regulation and processing deficits. What we used once to regulate negative emotions and a sense of https://ecosoberhouse.com/ self has eventually come to regulate our emotions to such an extent that any distress leads to the compulsive response of drinking. Alcoholics had become a compulsive disorder to relief distress not to induce pleasure. So we have issues with emotions and somatic/body feeling states. 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.

We have found that these problems no longer exist for us when we begin living by spiritual principles and improving our conscious contact with our higher power. There are many men and women who felt the same way and have been able to overcome the malady by maintaining spiritual fitness and practicing the principles of AA in all of their affairs. The 12-Steps focus on addressing and fixing the spiritual problems that led us into our addiction, and by doing so, we find that they allow us to positively change our mental and physical issues. But when it comes to alcohol and drugs, there is no will power.

What is A Spiritual Malady?

I would have found this threatening to my sense of self so I would have reacted via defense mechanisms. I would have strangely blamed this person for making me feel the way I did! Even if this person had no such intention of hurting my feelings I would blame him nonetheless via my defensive reactions. The newcomer gave me an example of a resentment he was experiencing after this guy at a meeting said “get off your pink cloud” a phrase that refers to the sometimes mildly ecstatic feelings of early recovery. It is a strange feeling of not wanting to be found out of being less than, not good enough. “If people realise what the real me is like, they will reject me!

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. Without a connection to a higher power, it can get quite ugly in sobriety.

How Far Have We Come In Understanding this “Spiritual Malady” of Alcoholism?

I have sought refuge from my negative emotions in alcohol, drugs and other addictive behaviours. It is this that propelled my addictions, this spiritual malady meaning inability to deal with my negative emotions. I dealt with them externally via addictive behaviours, not internally via emotion processing.