spiritual malady

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.

For me this section is saying our emotion dysregulation leads to feelings of being “restless, irritable and discontented” which prompt a return to drinking. My inventory of steps 4/5 showed me that my long lists of resentments were mainly the product of emotional immaturity and responding in an immature manner to not getting my way. Due to the nature of frequent episodes of powerlessness over our behavior, attached to addiction and alcoholism, we often acted in a way we would never act in sobriety. We had limited control over behaviour at times due to intoxication and acted on occasion in a way that shames us today. 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. Finding out what is really going on with us emotionally is at the heart of recovery.

What About God?

If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality.

• We became selfish and self-seeking, ever thirsting for more, and this lust warped us on every level.
• Hopefully the ideas included in this short writing show that there are many ways to approach these topics.
• But I am am reasonably certain that if you make such a list, and work toward eliminating the beliefs and habits you put in your list, then you will have a better outcome than I did during my first attempt at sobriety.
• I grew up in a family that did not express emotions like the ones I had mentioned.

This is a Judea-Christian belief structure of bad versus good and I believe that I did not join AA to become good but well. AA may have started within the Oxford Group but has gradually moved away from their tenets. 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 thesefeelings 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. In other words it is the consequence of my fear based condition, this affective disorder.

How Oceanfront Recovery Can Help

Is the whole idea of someone being spiritually ill acceptable? Especially to someone who doesn’t believe in God? These are questions that I have had to struggle with as an agnostic in AA. I was born Jewish and had studied both the Old and New Testament. I had been practicing meditation for almost 20 years and had read countless books on Eastern religion and thought. I had studied Emmett Fox, The Course in Miracles and was a card-carrying member of the Self-Realization Fellowship .

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 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. It is emotionally healthy to be altruistic – to help spiritual malady others without question or expectation. It is emotionally healthy to accept yourself as you are. “The principles of the programme of Alcoholics Anonymous are scientific and closely follow all the helping therapies which lead people to emotional well-being. I end, however, with some words from a doctor who seems to be suggesting that AA works because it makes us more emotionally healthy.

Thoughts of Recovery – No.17 – The Spiritual Malady – Step 1

The most important thing is that you keep an open mind and heart as you continue on your sobriety journey. You should also try to find other people in AA who share your beliefs and struggles; they can provide support and fellowship as well as offer helpful advice. Just remember, even if https://ecosoberhouse.com/ you don’t share the same beliefs, everyone in AA are united by their shared experience with addiction and their desire to stay sober. Here are some things you can do to work through your spiritual malady even if you don’t believe in God or have an understanding of your higher power.

• My problem was NOT that I had made mountains out of molehills, My problem was that I took the WRONG response to truly valid resentments.
• It is emotionally healthy to prioritise problems.
• We offer extensive detox and therapies to help individuals address the physical aspects of the disease as well as the psychological and spiritual aspects.
• In fact our first “spiritual” wakening was probably the result of drinking as it transformed how we felt about ourselves and the world in which we lived.
• Dr Bob like Bill Wilson had intermittently stayed sober via involvement with the Oxford Group but they had always relapsed back to drinking.
• Greater than the mind is reason; and greater than reason is He – the spirit in man and in all.

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. Quotations from Alcoholics Anonymous are from the first edition which is now in the public domain. Any quotations from sources other than the first edition of the Big Book are reprinted with permission.