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The message of recovery is usually from someone who has recovered from alcoholism, this is a power greater than yourself as he/she has used certain tools to recover and this is now being passed on to you, as they were passed onto him or her. The solution to your alcoholism is the same as the solution to their alcoholism. The original https://ecosoberhouse.com/ power greater than himself, as for millions of alcoholics over the last 80 years is another alcoholic. One recovering alcoholic or a group of recovering alcoholics is a power greater than oneself. I respond to feelings of humiliation by humiliating you, I react to my chronic shame by attempting to created shame in you.
Some of us have this knawing feeling of not being good enough, have a hole in the soul which we are/were kinda always unconsciously trying to protect, shield from the world. Some of us are “people pleasers”, some of us are dismissive towards others. I can be a dismissive person more than a people pleaser. It is all manipulating our interaction with others to our selfish ends. As a result we are guarded against those that we perceive will reject us or be negative to us, harm us in some way and we seek to dominate these folk or we are dependent on those who are kind to us, help us and care for us. How do you prepare for life after treatment, and what kind of help do you need?
What Does AA Mean By “Spiritual Malady”?
I grew up in a family that did not express emotions like the ones I had mentioned. We reacted via anger and put downs hence I have grown up to be dismissive. My past constantly assailed me emotionally, randomly attacking my mind. 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. Also we need to be aware what we project on to other alcoholics is the same thing as they project on to use and sometimes we project if back. For example there is an undercurrent in fear of things being taken away, of it being because we are not good enough, deserving enough, have failed in some way, which are shame based reactions. Desiring stuff seems at the root of my fear based stuff – the exquisite torture of desire which soon loses it’s so-called relish and just becomes torturous.
I would not change one word in the first 164 pages of the BB. For many folks, including myself, ‘the spiritual’ aspects of recovery can be a challenge. We tend to show up with a truckload of old ideas in this area and a lot of us consider ourselves to be atheists. The practice of Christian Meditation offers a remedy to the spiritual malady. When we enter the silence with discipline and perseverance, we make space for the living presence of God to heal us from the inside out.
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Someone you are going to open up to and discuss intimate stuff with, someone who will ultimately know the shameful secrets that can keep a person spiritually and emotionally sick and will continue to do so until we share this stuff and let it all go. In order to fully recover from alcoholism, addiction and addictive behaviours, we find we have to trust at least one other human being. AA’s 12 steps are a spiritual program of recovery but at the heart of that spirituality is the role of sponsoring. It was a list of the negative emotions which appear always when I felt anger and resentment against someone for hurting me and my feelings. 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.
- It is sad that countless addicts and alcoholics have rejected 12 Step recovery because the G_d word is up on the wall and included in prayers and literature.
- One must also have the courage to look at the particular ways in which the Catholic Faith and its practice have been dismantled and corrupted.
- That, we think, is the root of our troubles.”This“SELFISHNESS-self-centeredness”(or the “ego”, as some people refer to it) drives us to respond to life situations with the above “symptoms” as well as disorders and addictions other than alcoholism.
- They are suppose the tell the fronts of our brains to find words for our feelings.
- The reason we cannot just quit is that our mind constantly has us believe that we can control and enjoy our drinking.
For example, if there were a single bridge by which one could cross a river, one would love, value, repair, and frequently use that bridge, not because it is an end in itself, but because by it one can reach the land one is seeking. Indeed, being a “traditionalist,” in the best sense of this term, meaning, simply, being steeped in Holy Tradition as the indispensable means — not an end in itself! — to encountering and loving God as He truly is in Himself, spiritual malady is a prerequisite for holiness, and hence the humble simplicity that is its essential quality. First, we searched out the flaws in our make-up which caused our failure. Being convinced that self, manifested in various ways, was what had defeated us, we considered its common manifestations. Otherwise we have not really completely treated our alcoholism. We have a sea change in how we think and feel about ourselves and the world around us.
Recovery Starts Here.
It is this that propelled my addictions, this inability to deal with my negative emotions. I dealt with them externally via addictive behaviours, not internally via emotion processing. Once we are aware of these feelings we can begin the real work on ourselves. It is not easy to do so but recognizing this aspect of alcoholism forces us to take an honest look in the mirror at our behaviors and attitudes towards life and other people. If we do not get spiritually connected with meditation or prayer with a power greater than us it will bring us closer and closer to that drink or drug. In sobriety, if we are self-reliant we usually end up using anything that will make us feel good externally excessively. It simply means we are spiritually blocked off from the Power of God, which enables us to remain sober, happy, joyous, and free.
The way humans think is on a spectrum of self-centeredness and god-centeredness. When dealing with the disease of alcoholism we are selfish and self-centered beings. We use everything and everyone, even when we stop using alcohol and drugs to cope with these feelings of being unsatisfied and uncomfortable in life. The more we focus less on ourselves we allow a god of our understanding to enter our minds and work in our lives. This spiritual malady, or spiritual disconnection, is the driving force behind our addiction and self-destructive behaviors.
The Spiritual Malady of Addiction
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.
