The great psychiatrist Carl Jung called this a ‘low level thirst for wholeness – for union with God’. In our addictions, we tried to quench our soul-thirst with fleeting pleasures. The pursuit of them dominated our lives, destroyed relationships, and caused greater desperation than we ever thought possible. We became selfish and self-seeking, ever thirsting for more, and this lust warped us on every level. But we were never satisfied, because but the living presence of God can quench our parched souls. For instance, when breaking free of their negative thoughts, they may come to realize a newfound appreciation of things before unseen – such as the beauty of a sunset or the feeling of freshness of a morning spring rain.
- Engaging in spiritual practices such as communion with a higher power and quiet introspection can be an instrumental tool in overcoming spiritual malady.
- 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.
- In sobriety, it is so important to maintain conscious contact with a higher power and count our blessings.
Spending time in prayer and meditation, and having support from a spiritual community can help you cope. But there is more to our threat load than the physical and spiritual. We have the subawareness shadow part of our physiology that tends towards a defense bias and trigger. Our brains are constantly searching to see if we are safe or threatened and this subaware mechanism fine tunes the system based on the incoming information.
The Power of Obsession in Alcoholism and Addiction
They are essential tools that help one manage stress, maintain emotional balance, strengthen their faith and feel more fulfilled. Finally, to overcome spiritual malady, one must commit to continued growth and learning. This requires a willingness to explore 20 Natural Alcohol Detox Supplements and Vitamins new ideas, practices, and experiences. It is important to stay engaged with others and to seek out opportunities for personal growth and development. Spiritual malady refers to the state of being unhappy, restless, and not at peace with oneself.
Trauma victims may feel let down or betrayed and experience a sense of mistrust (for a summary, see Brewin & Holmes, 2003) or anger (e.g., Andrews, Brewin, Rose, & Kirk, 2000), and some individuals may direct these beliefs and resulting feelings toward God. Spiritual discontent has been related to higher levels of depression, suicidality, and PTSD symptoms in a variety of trauma samples (e.g., Exline, Yali, & Lobel, 1999; Harris et al., 2008). If you feel disconnected from a higher power, you may experience depressive symptoms.
The Spiritual Malady: A Hole in the Soul
In the case of the addict, alcohol (or some other substance or activity) is used as a medication to treat the spiritual malady. Drinking alcohol is found to provide relief, and turned to with increasing frequency. Though alcohol starts to have health consequences, cause problems with relationships, and decrease productivity, the user is unwilling to give it up. Eventually, they lose executive control — they are compelled to drink and are unable to stop themselves. The summation of physical threats, spiritual threats, shadow threats, and existential threat is our total threat load. A chronically high total threat load will lead to maladaptive physiology and maladaptive behavior, and will lead to illness and disease—both physical and spiritual.
Connecting with nature is the perfect way to clear your mind and fill your nose with the scent of freshly-mowed grass and impending allergies. 1It is important to note that some negative cognitions may reflect objective appraisals of a negative situation, such as likelihood of recurrent exposure. At Time 1, participants reported levels of psychological distress using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL; Blanchard, Jones-Alexander, Buckley, & Forneris, 1996), a widely used self-report measure that corresponds with diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The PCL contains 17 items rated on a five-point Likert scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely).
Recovery Starts Here.
To initiate a full and sustained recovery, it is also helpful to address the spiritual role of this disease. Today’s guide explores the spiritual malady meaning in the context of 12-step recovery groups like AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). According to AA, spiritual malady is often fueled by resentments and renders life unmanageable. The spiritual malady is not the only aspect of the three-fold illness that can be healed in Glenwood Springs. There is also an opportunity to take advantage of some of the best recovery centers in the country, which can offer help with the mental obsession and the physical allergy.
Elsewhere, the apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians gives them the admonition to be “anxious for nothing,” telling them that the cure for anxiety is found on one’s knees, that it is the peace of God that calms our spirit and dissipates anxiety. Again, we can be anxious and nervous and worried without finally submitting to ultimate despair. This coexistence of faith and spiritual depression is paralleled in other biblical statements of emotive conditions.
Now, while there are plenty of people who recover without a spiritual practice, many people argue that spirituality must be the cornerstone of our recovery. This is true of many people who recover and heal in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The idea is to look for a spiritual solution to an addiction problem, as this type of issue affects more than someone physically. Alcoholics Anonymous bases the 12-step program on 12 affirmations, or what they call 12 traditions. These expressions that help people recovering from addiction regain a spiritual footing once again. Addicts and alcoholics may rid themselves of their drug or alcohol dependency by completing the Twelve Step process.
- We accumulate threat and trauma codes throughout a lifetime that bias the system towards threat and trigger threat physiology easily.
- Overcoming the spiritual malady is important because it leads to a greater sense of emotional and spiritual autonomy and freedom.
- This spiritual malady is the restless spirit, the soul sickness that if left untreated will begin to ooze symptoms of emotional insecurity worry, anger, self-pity, and depression, even if we have been sober for years.
- Indirect effects and variance accounted for in the present study are of small magnitude (Cohen, 1992), but the correlations between spiritual struggle and PTSD symptoms are consistent with effect sizes reported elsewhere (e.g., Ano & Vasconcelles, 2005).
Future research should examine whether a meaning system that is retained but altered in this way is more adaptive than losing the meaning system altogether. At Time 1, participants reported their history of trauma exposure using the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ; Kubany et al., 2000) in order to anchor the baseline PTSD symptoms (see below) to an event. Spiritual malady can be caused by various emotional and psychological factors that trigger one’s sense of disconnection, loneliness, https://trading-market.org/recovery-gift-guide-sober-gift-guide/ and lack of purpose or meaning. These factors include unresolved trauma, stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, and negative self-talk, among others. These triggers can lead to a spiritual crisis that can leave individuals feeling lost and disconnected from themselves, others, and the world around them. Seeking spiritual guidance, cultivating mindfulness and self-awareness, and practicing self-care can help overcome these triggers and attain a spiritual connection with oneself and with others.
Take Your First Step To Recovery
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. Anyone can be spiritually maladapted, but as an alcoholic, we use alcohol to deal with having a spiritual malady. Many people say that alcoholics have a disease of the mind, body, and spirit.
- Although this sample fairly closely mirrored the university’s incoming undergraduate class, the majority of participants were White, non-Hispanic students.
- Our results indicate that clinicians must recognize that religious and spiritual beliefs may be present not only as a resource but as a negative force in the face of stressful life events.
- A spiritual illness is a profound inability to connect with others in a meaningful way.
- Spiritual discontent has been related to higher levels of depression, suicidality, and PTSD symptoms in a variety of trauma samples (e.g., Exline, Yali, & Lobel, 1999; Harris et al., 2008).