Part 3 The Spiritual Malady The Brain and Negative Emotions General Discussion
Content
It leads to judgment, isolation, and a feeling of superiority. None of these things are conducive to a healthy recovery. In sobriety, it is so important to maintain consciouscontact with a higher powerand count our blessings. Being spiritually maladapted can come from a lack of gratitude.
What is the reason for spiritual warfare?
Spiritual warfare is the Christian concept of fighting against the work of preternatural evil forces. It is based on the biblical belief in evil spirits, or demons, that are said to intervene in human affairs in various ways.
Other methods may work for certain people, and they have every right to explore the help available to them. We tried many other methods, and we still found ourselves in desperate need of real help.
What is A Spiritual Malady?
And it is fear that drives us drink and use, to react to our fellows and our circumstances poorly. Fear seems to have driven the way we thought and the way we behaved for a number of years. Sometimes this is born of trauma and heartache and sometimes certain fears seem to have been present for as long as we can remember. “… spiritual malady unacknowledged thoughts and feelings become repressed and surface later through substitute emotions and dysfunctional behavior. Other emotions are substituted to hide the shame and maintain self esteem. Anger, exaggerated pride, anxiety and helplessness are substituted to keep from feeling the total blackness of being bad.
The scientific diagnosis would be these things are caused by some chemical imbalance, trauma, or something like that, and we do have pills for that. The bedevilments on page 52 provide a fair description of the spiritual malady as I would call it. Feeling connected through a spiritual practice restores hope, promotes healing, and repairs broken relationships.
Why is it so dangerous to be self-reliant when suffering from an addiction?
In fact the Big Book gives me a good idea of the “sins” or “defects of character” I have when I have a resentment but does not explain why I have resentments in the first place. This seems compounded by not always being able to read our emotions or somatic states.
- A business which takes no regular inventory usually goes broke.
- Which is why AA members become upset when they see criticism of the program.
- I fed this Adrenaline by holding onto it, feeding more Adrenaline into speeding, and feeding more Adrenaline into cutting other people off.
- Some health professionals consider addiction to be a biological condition like cancer or heart disease.
- Fortunately, amidst all the speculation, God has graciously revealed the underlying roots of addiction.
- But it is their spiritual practices that I find deeply fascinating and are most telling here.
One day there I sort of just “woke up” and things were different. But it was all part of important spiritual growth in the right direction. I’m not trying to bring in an “outside issue” here. I was just curious how to tell the difference, since psychological depression looks so similar to untreated alcoholism. Plus alcoholism is a “mental illness” too since it centers in the mind.
Embracing the 12-Step Lifestyle
Cortisol, otherwise known as “the stress hormone” affected my immune system, cholesterol, brain function, weight gain, weight loss, severe anxiety attacks and ulcers. Cortisol has many repercussions; in my opinion, the scariest facts of Cortisol are it’s profound effects on the heart. Witnessing the results of Adrenaline in my life is imperative to my health. Is the problem a neurological/behavioral disorder? Leading edge science identifies addiction as a behavioral disorder that changes the structure and function of the brain. This framework specifically focuses on changing the neural connections the addict’s brain develops in the addiction process. Treatment facilities that view addiction as a spiritual problem generally use 12 step programs or religious “treatment” models as the foundation of their approach to addiction recovery.
A mental preoccupation/obsession with alcohol that continually brings me back to the point of drinking again no matter what convictions or resolution I had. A physical reaction to alcohol that pretty much ensures once I commence drinking I will continue with little or no control, whatever the consequences.
What can the idea of a spiritual illness mean to an agnostic?
Our spiritual malady causes us to be restless, irritable, and discontented. The reason we cannot just quit is that our mind constantly has us believe that we can control and enjoy our drinking. No matter what the consequences were in the past, our mind will be obsessed with the thought of drinking. We should be able to just put the plug in the jug and move on with our lives. They oversimplify our problem and solution and can send the wrong information. Without a connection to a higher power, it can get quite ugly in sobriety. Regardless of how it manifests itself, a spiritual malady is always rooted in an inner conflict.