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

Even if this person had no such intention of hurting my feelings I would blame him nonetheless via my defensive reactions. Desire obviously runs contrary to the idea of being in God’s will, in fact it is being in Self Will that seems to create distress in many people with addictive behaviours.

Jaywalker Lodge drug and alcohol treatment center offering a 12-step rehab immersion program in Colorado, for motivated men. Through education, individual and group therapy, mountain expeditions and daily 12-step meetings, our addiction recovery clients engage in a vital spiritual malady spiritual experience which is indispensable to personal growth and long-term sobriety. Alcoholism is the name given to the disease which is treated by the 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholism in this 12-Step sense of the word may still need some clarification.

The Missing Piece: The Spiritual Malady

We have difficulties in our relationships with others, these relationships are often unhealthy and ill. AA provides many ways of becoming more emotionally well, which ultimately means more emotionally mature. “The principles of the programme of Alcoholics Anonymous are scientific and closely follow all the helping therapies which lead people to emotional well-being. This emotional immaturity is referenced throughout the Big Book I believe. For me this maladjustment to life is not exactly the same as the spiritual disease mentioned in the Oxford Group pamphlet. I struggled with this myself in the early days of my recovery.

• We have to show love and tolerance for each other as we suffer the same illness/malady.
• Exposing abuse under the guise of BDSM & related reflections on self-recovery.
• The spiritual aspects of recovery and the ‘God word’ can be an obstacle for many new folks trying to get sober.
• It chains us to the past and endangers recovery because we drank on shame and guilt.
• For the purposes of recovery, anyone who exhibits these three symptoms may very well have alcoholism.
• His Grace takes the distress out of thee negative emotions.

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 Power of Obsession in Alcoholism and Addiction

The original 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. Not enough action, or effort to change my feelings in a healthy manner. I also have other ways of reacting in an emotionally unhealthy way that my step 4 showed. I was working with someone last year and we had a disagreement and this guy said to me “I am upset” and “You have hurt my feelings” I was taken aback. This guy was an Olympic champion at expressing how he feels compared to me.

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. Racticing prayer and meditation helps us be mindful of our surroundings and gain consciousness of our spirituality by bringing us closer to our higher power. Strengthening this relationship with a spiritual being brought us hope that we can recover from the mental and physical suffering of alcoholism. Anxiousness, depression, and boredom are a few other factors that contribute to being spiritually maladapted.

A Three-Fold Disease

AA may have started within the Oxford Group but has gradually moved away from their tenets. The disease of alcohol and drug addiction is not just mental and physical but also spiritual. The spiritual malady, however, can be seen as an inward unmanageability. It affects every aspect of our lives and must be overcome if we wish to fix ourselves mentally and physically.

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. Either https://ecosoberhouse.com/ way, if he could perhaps of had the ability to say this is how exactly I am feeling he could have acted on this emotional information rather than reacted to it.

The Alcoholics Guide to Alcoholism

Or rather what emotions he is experiencing at any particular time. Step 1 in the AA programme is “ We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable”. It is emotionally healthy to surrender and accept things over which we have no control. It is emotionally healthy to live in the day … in the here and now. Professional therapists teach people to live in the present. AA encourages members to share their experience, strength and hope with other members. It is emotionally healthy to accept our past experiences, however painful, as past events and move on to a richer, more fulfilling future.

Bill Wilson had got this idea of abnormal, or allergic reaction to alcohol, from a physician, Dr Silkworth, who had treated him at Towns Hospital. In fact I think this pattern of interlinked negative emotions occurs simply because of inability to identify, label and share the simple fact that I have been upset by what someone has said or acted towards me. I got as far as deciding it was an inherent problem with processing negative emotions, which it is. Hence when I came into recovery I had hundreds and hundreds of resentments swirling around my mind, poisoning my thoughts and sending constant emotional daggers into my heart.