Except unlike burning our house down, we can’t go find a new body to live in if we destroy the one God gave us. Here we’re talking about movies, music, spiritual malady websites… Are we on a mental diet of junk food or health food? This isn’t about a legalistic set of religious rules we are required to follow.
Ego collapse
To conclude, it’s not my body — my allergic reaction to alcohol — that’s going to take me back to drinking. It’s really not my mind — the mental obsession — that is the underlying root of what will take me back to drinking. It’s the “spiritual malady”, as manifested by my EGO (selfishness-self-centeredness), that can eventually lead me back to drinking or sometimes even suicide. It simply means we are spiritually blocked off from the Power of God, which enables us to remain sober, happy, joyous, and free. Many people are initially turned off to the idea of the program because they believe it preaches religion and God, and many addicts and alcoholics have no desire to pursue a religious answer.
Kickstart Your Recovery at California Detox in Laguna Beach, CA
What is the family secret I have been denying? What is the “elephant” in the middle of your family’s living room that everyone knows but no one talks about? Remember, you can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there. Am I regularly seeking out the truth in God’s Word? Spending time with God and reading His word is a big part of keeping our minds healthy and grounded in truth.
What can the idea of a spiritual illness mean to an agnostic?
- It’s really not my mind — the mental obsession — that is the underlying root of what will take me back to drinking.
- I became willing to follow the AA’s suggestions.
- The idea is to look for a spiritual solution to an addiction problem, as this type of issue affects more than someone physically.
- So let’s take a look at the questions we can ask ourselves to help us build our spiritual inventory list.
- Although the disease has biological, behavioral, and psychological roots, treating those aspects, without including the spiritual component, is like sticking a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.
According to AA, spiritual malady is often fueled by resentments and renders life unmanageable. It’s been medically proven that after a few days of not drinking, alcohol is completely processed out of the body. After a period of abstinence, the substance is physically worked out of the body. Those of you who have been in Celebrate Recovery (CR) for a while know that our 12-steps are exactly modeled on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is a proven process has helped literally millions of people all over the world recover from addictions and compulsive behaviors. The difference with CR is that we specifically acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Higher Power that can restore us.
Spiritual Malady and the Relapsing Nature of Alcoholism
On page 62 the text explains that “Selfishness-self-centeredness! On page 62 the text explains that “Selfishness-self-centeredness! The idea is to look for a spiritual solution to an addiction problem, as this type of issue affects more than someone physically. There are many persons in recovery who are not interested in discussing or even hearing about spirituality.
The Spiritual Malady: Bane of the Alcoholic and Addict
If we’re serious about our recovery, if we really want to experience freedom from these behaviors that keep us in bondage, we have to be rigorously honest with our answers. But like it says in the serenity prayer; we accept hardship as a pathway to peace. So physical cravings are not the primary reason we slip. Well, if you’ve been in Celebrate Recovery or any 12-step program for a while you know that, for most people who are actively working the steps, over time the mental obsession dissipates. I remember my wife Deb coming home from her first Overeater’s Anonymous meeting. “They told me that I will actually lose my obsession with food.” Then she added, “I don’t believe them!
Research is dispelling the notion that addiction is simply a disease of craving – Psychology Today
Research is dispelling the notion that addiction is simply a disease of craving.
Posted: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Types of AA Meetings
So lets talk about taking our spiritual inventory. An inventory is just a list—in our case a list of people and events that have contributed to our issue. A really effective tool for building that list is to ask ourselves questions.
- Also, they are passive, in the sense that people do not have an influence over the phenomenon.
- However, in keeping with the 10th tradition of AA, the opinions I express in the book do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or positions held by AA as a whole.
It takes rigorous honesty, and it might require a lot of digging and peeling away of layers to start uncovering things. But it starts with being honest with ourselves. What activities or habits have caused harm to my physical health? Many of us say that we have the right to do whatever we want to our own bodies. We somehow think this is freedom, but we’re really becoming a slave to our own desires.
- But seriously, that’s the kind of deep relationships you can build here in CR; as deep as family.
- Find more AA meetings in Youngsville, NC review all availabilities and filter by day, times and types.
- We became selfish and self-seeking, ever thirsting for more, and this lust warped us on every level.
- The spiritual malady is the result of my being out of order with my higher power who I choose to call God.