Thankfully, the “spiritual malady” is no longer a “missing piece” of Step One for me. It is a reality of my powerlessness and unmanageability and enables me to see why I so desperately need to seek a Power Greater than myself. And unless this malady is recognized, and a course of action (the Twelve Steps) is taken to enable God to remove it, the root of our alcoholic illness can lie dormant and burn us when we least expect it.

STEP 4
We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. The 164 and More book is sold on this website at the Publisher List Price of $20.00 plus postage. The book may also be sold by Intergroup/Central Offices or recovery book stores at List Price
  or slightly higher. But beware of others that sell the book marked up 400% or more.

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To do this, members must rely on their support system which includes other members, sponsors, and meetings. When people become too self-reliant, they often start to think that they don’t need AA anymore. They may start to skip meetings, distance themselves from their support system, and eventually relapse. Once we are aware of these feelings, we can begin the real work on ourselves.

Anxiousness, depression, and boredom are a few other factors that contribute to being spiritually maladapted. We would use drugs and alcohol to deal with these issues. For a while, that seemed to work for us but once we stopped using substances the discontentedness came back to the surface in sobriety. Unlike normal people (whatever that means) alcoholics are unsettled to the core. After reading ‘The Doctor’s Opinion,’ ‘Bill’s Story,’ and ‘There is a Solution,’ in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous,  we came to an understanding that we have no control whatsoever over alcohol or drugs. The idea is to look for a spiritual solution to an addiction problem, as this type of issue affects more than someone physically.

BIG BOOK CHAPTER 5

For the same money, you could buy 4 books and use 3 as sponsee gifts. It is strange paradox, the more you focus on helping others, the more you discover how much you matter. Once we indulge in the first drink, our judgment and normal concerns are skewed. The addict may have a nagging feeling that they’re missing the real reason for their agony or pain. However, when they go through rehab, they can silence this feeling and learn how to deal with their issues directly.

• The mind and alcoholism are so cunning, baffling, and powerful that we often cannot fathom how we ended up intoxicated when relying on our strong willpower to stay sober.
• My commitment to continuous learning and collaboration makes me an asset to the healthcare community.
• It’s really not my mind — the mental obsession — that is the underlying root of what will take me back to drinking.
• For others, it may manifest as anger, anxiety, or depression.
• The idea is to look for a spiritual solution to an addiction problem, as this type of issue affects more than someone physically.

So long as we make an active effort to address our https://ecosoberhouse.com/ every day, we will find relief from it, one day at a time. 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!

The Spiritual Malady: A Hole in the Soul

When the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was written and published in 1939, the times and language of those times was incredibly different than modern times. This is one of the reasons that Big Book study groups have become so popular among recovering alcoholics. Apart from dissecting the Big Book so as to have a firmer grasp on the 12 Steps and program and in general, it also is designed to help us decipher the intricate language and wording used from a different time period. Old timers and recovering people with more experience can explain in layman’s terms just what the author Bill W.

And once we take action and put that substance in our system – whether its alcohol, drugs, sugar, or whatever—it sets off a physical craving for more of that substance or activity and we’re caught in a cycle. Spiritual awakenings occur when we see glimpses of the much bigger picture around us and find humility in the moment. We can become aware that humility is not thinking less of oneself, but rather thinking of oneself less, and that we are worthy of self-compassion. Compassion for others means appreciating their pain and experiencing a heart-based response to it. Compassion evokes an interest in offering support, understanding, and kindness to others when they struggle, make mistakes, or fail. Self-compassion consists of responding the same way toward ourselves when we have a difficult time, act out on our personality challenges, or experience something we don’t like about ourselves.

How to Understand How an Addict May Suffer Spiritually

Same thing with alcohol; some people can have a couple beers, no problem. But alcoholics have an “allergy” to alcohol, so for them, a couple beers turns into a world of hurt. Some people can have one Christmas cookie and they’re good.

None of these things are conducive to a healthy recovery. People in the rooms refer to this as a ‘god-sized hole’. It’s a void that we used to fill with drugs and alcohol. We will try to fill this god-sized hole with anything we can. Regardless of how it manifests itself, a spiritual malady is always rooted in an inner conflict.

Peabody Award-winning Radio Show About Spirituality

We often take them to grave sooner rather than later unless we decide to be open and share our secrets with another person. Most of us were determined to take these secrets, these “sins” to the grave. Shameful secrets can fester in the dark recesses of our minds and inflame our hearts with recrimination and resentment. Sorry for being so direct in this blog, it is a message of hope, there is a way to completely turn your life around. Who has been where you have been, felt how you have felt.

Right now, on this inventory step, all we’re doing is identifying our part in any damaged relationships. We won’t actually spiritual malady act on this step until we get to Principle 6. For right now, just ask yourself who might be on your amends list.