Unlike normal people alcoholics are unsettled to the core. After reading ‘The Doctor’s Opinion,’ ‘Bill’s Story,’ and ‘There is a Solution,’ in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous,we came to an understanding that we have no control whatsoever over alcohol or drugs. I’ve struggled with a consistent practice of steps with now 19 yrs of sobriety. I was reading last night in I Peter about living in a way that my prayers are not be hindered. And the book by Chuck C , A New Pair of Glasses, defining the SM as a feeling of consciously separated from God. I am aware that there are many paths to recovery- my path has been the 12-Steps.

Keep in mind that this is separate from the physical craving. Even after someone is completely detoxed and has all alcohol or drugs removed from their body, they will still obsess about drinking or using. What we used once to regulate negative emotions and a sense of 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. I contend that alcoholism is an emotional disorder which results in chemical dependency on the substance of alcohol.

Freedom From Addiction: Get Started Here

The three must be addressed to find healing, recovery, and to live life sober. We believe lived reality can greatly aid research and point to relevant and important areas of further exploration to help more fully understand this chronic disorder while also offering new ways of helping in it’s treatment. It is emotionally healthy to be altruistic – to help others without question or expectation. It is emotionally healthy to accept yourself as you are. I end, however, with some words from a doctor who seems to be suggesting that AA works because it makes us more emotionally healthy.

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. All people, not just alcoholics and addicts, have some form of spiritual sickness . AA’s 12 steps are a spiritual program of recovery but at the heart of that spirituality is the role of sponsoring.

FAQs on Issues of Spiritual Malady

But we were never satisfied, because but the living presence of God can quench our parched souls. Over the next several blog posts we are going to discuss different faucets of the human experience, where fear was born from, how we may have developed poor coping skills to compensate, and what to do about it now. We will discuss beginning to heal from childhood trauma, grief and loss, low self-esteem, resiliency and vulnerability, and the transformation of healing through taking back your power and practicing radical acceptance. Age-specific addiction treatment can provide older adults with the unique challenges they face during addiction… The reaction the body has is limited to those who suffer from alcoholism.

• Steps 4 -7 and the amends to those people wronged in steps of 8 and 9 allow us to be completely free and in a sense reborn.
• Keep in mind that this is separate from the physical craving.
• 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.
• I have for several years wondered if the spiritual malady described in the Big Book adequate or accurate enough in describing what I suffer from.
• A spiritual malady is a deep-seated inner conflict that leads to restlessness, irritability, and discontentment.

I am full of shame, more so than fear, although these two overlap. We are far from being Saints but have a solution Saints would approve and achieve a kind of transient sanctity in this 12 step solution of letting go and letting God. I also impressed upon him that mostly I can manage this emotional dysfunction but often I fail to and get into a resentful anger. Attempting to live according to God’s Will also helps me not react but to act with Grace. The guy was probably in guilt too as he could been working on his recovery more. I explained to him that his pride had been hurt, he was in shame and his “apparent” depression every since was simply prolonged self pity.

What About God?

I got as far as deciding it was an inherent problem with processing negative emotions, which it is. Just as revealing where the negative emotions listed which clearly showed how I react, and can still react to people who I believe have caused my hurt or rejection. 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 spiritual malady negative emotions/sins/defects of character we end up in a futile increasingly distressed spiral of negative emotions. 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. 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.

When I am in fear and shame the same pattern of negative reactions entrap my heart in its’ poisonous grip and I react in a way I would not choose to, if more reasonable. I related and all my negative emotions retreated to source like a evening tide on a beach. Addiction is often referred to as a disease of perception as addicts have a tendency to creating extraneous narrative around the experiences of their lives.