Thoughts of Recovery No 17 The Spiritual Malady Step 1

Specifically, struggle and its separate components are investigated as potential mediators of the relationship between trauma and PTSD. The analyses control for pre-event PTSD symptoms to allow for examination of change in PTSD symptoms in response to the index event. The subscales of spiritual struggle parallel not only negatively-valenced cognitive content, but also cognitive processes for reducing distress after trauma. Differences in the success of the process may explain the differences among subscales in their relations with PTSD symptoms. Negative religious reappraisals may represent over-accommodation (e.g., God is no longer powerful), assimilation (e.g., God is punishing me for something I did), or accommodation (e.g., evil forces cause negative events, but God and most others are benevolent). Distinguishing adaptive accommodation from maladaptive over-accommodation and assimilation may further explain spiritual struggle’s relationship to PTSD symptom development and maintenance.

The trauma group scored higher than the non-trauma group on PTSD symptoms at both time points and on spiritual struggle at Time 2. There was a trend toward a significant difference between the groups for the subscales of spiritual struggle. Next, participants indicated whether they had experienced trauma since coming to college on a modified form of the TLEQ that contained 15 items corresponding to events that could have occurred during the first year at college (i.e., excluded childhood abuse; see Table 1). “Other trauma” refers to other events that were life threatening, caused serious injury or were highly distressing or disturbing. Most often, religious meaning systems provide a helpful vehicle for making sense of seemingly random, nonsensical, or tragic events, by seeing them as part of a larger, more benign plan (Frazier et al., 2004; Pargament, 1997). Indeed, religion can be involved in changing the appraised meaning of a stressful situation by (a) providing a means to make more benign reattributions, (b) helping the individual to see the positive aspects of the stressful situation, and (c) facilitating perceptions of stress-related growth (Park, 2005).

The spiritual malady and addiction

For example, information processing theories implicate faulty processing of and cognitions about the trauma memory in the development and maintenance of PTSD (Foa & Kozak, 1986; Resick & Calhoun, 2001). In step 10 of AA, the “world of the spirit” allows those with alcohol use disorder to move beyond the physical, emotional, and mental aspects of life, eliminating the ego and spiritual malady rather than remaining spiritually blocked from engaging with a higher power as you see it. 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.

Additionally, the most common trauma in the present sample was sudden, unexpected bereavement, which may be better characterized by grief responses not fully captured by the sole outcome measure of PTSD symptoms (Gray et al., 2004). Indeed, one of the primary reasons for using bootstrapping methods is to estimate parameters when the sample size is insufficient for straightforward statistical inference or multivariate non-normality is an issue. Relatedly, although relatively few individuals endorsed both criteria for trauma exposure, because the two groups exhibited similar mean scores and nearly equivalent variance in the other study variables, and trauma exposure was a predictor rather than an outcome in our models, unequal sample size was less problematic.

Participants and Procedures

Social-cognitive theorists postulate that PTSD symptoms result from trauma that shatters one’s basic assumptions about the invulnerability of the self and the safety of the world (Janoff-Bulman, 1989) or reinforces preexisting negative beliefs (Resick, Monson, & Chard, 2008). Faulty beliefs and misattributions, including self-blame and guilt, and over generalized problems with safety, trust, control, esteem, and intimacy, prevent the trauma from being integrated into memory (McCann & Pearlman, 1990; Resick & Calhoun, 2001). Until trauma-related information is reconciled with prior beliefs, symptoms of PTSD persist while the trauma remains in active memory (Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979). They proposed that the remedy to all obsessive states, at that time alcoholism, was primarily to become spiritually well, after which all of their mental and physical issues would be miraculously resolved. Unless, we let Go and Let God and ask God to remove these negative emotions/sins/defects of character we end up in a futile increasingly distressed spiral of negative emotions. I can manage my spiritual malady or emotional dysfunction, I have the tools to do so.

The great psychiatrist Carl Jung called this a ‘low level thirst for wholeness – for union with God’. In our addictions, we tried to quench our soul-thirst with fleeting pleasures. The pursuit of them dominated our lives, destroyed relationships, and caused greater desperation than we ever thought possible.

What is A Spiritual Malady?

What that means is that all that is required is the belief in a power greater than yourself. There is no church you must attend or strict practices you must adhere to in organized worship of said higher power, it is a completely individual and personal experience. The physical https://ecosoberhouse.com/ allergy is the concept that once a drink or a drug enters the body of an individual with alcohol use disorder (AUD) or substance use disorder (SUD), they cannot stop. Someone who is allergic to shellfish will never be affected by it as long as they do not eat shellfish.

• Relatedly, although relatively few individuals endorsed both criteria for trauma exposure, because the two groups exhibited similar mean scores and nearly equivalent variance in the other study variables, and trauma exposure was a predictor rather than an outcome in our models, unequal sample size was less problematic.
• But there is more to our threat load than the physical and spiritual.
• They also experience an ineffable quality from becoming spiritual – one  where their feelings go beyond mere words.
• Michel spiritual malady Foucault, a French philosopher, noted such practices produce intrinsic modifications in the person—exonerating, redeeming and purifying them; relieves them of their burden of wrong, liberating them and promising salvation.

In The Big Book of AA, the 12 steps outlined are a formalized approach to achieving this transformational change. Spiritual malady can trigger feelings of irritability, restlessness, and discontentedness. These feelings can become unmanageable – more on the unmanageability of life for alcoholics below. Most of us hate to deal with negative thoughts or emotions—it just doesn’t feel good.

In Grace we can still experience negative emotions but God allows us to see them for what they are and not react. This is how a mental health disorder manifests itself as distorted fear based thinking which appear, if acted upon, to make one’s situation a whole lot worse. These illustrate how the 12 step programme can help with an emotion dysregulation disorder. The solution to spiritual malady offered by Alcoholics Anonymous is to affect a spiritual awakening – in essence a psychic shift or attitude adjustment.

We became selfish and self-seeking, ever thirsting for more, and this lust warped us on every level. But we were never satisfied, because but the living presence of God can quench our parched souls. Below is an overview of the 12 admissions that support the 12 steps toward recovery.

Social threat and injury are other forms of spiritual threat and injury that are particularly toxic to humans. Things like isolation, disenfranchisement, discrimination, and injustice not only influence our mental health but our physical health, as well. Financial threat and injury have similar effects to physical threat and injury, too. My last blog post took us back some 4 billion years to set a foundation for deconstructing illness and disease.

My intention was to build on that foundation and talk further about the evolutionary molecular and cellular mechanisms that exist in us today and determine whether we are diseased and ill versus healthy and well. My trajectory was to move from physical to mental to social, and then to spiritual illness and disease. However, given the times we are in, I find myself compelled to vault forward to the spiritual. As addicts we can become so focused on the outward form our addiction takes – whether that booze, drugs, sex, overeating, etc. – that we overlook its deep roots at the core of our being.

A Higher Power and Our Spiritual Awakening

When being chased by a tiger it is helpful to think “danger”, react quickly, judge without contemplation, defend and protect one’s self. It is not a time for deep thought, nor bonding and sharing, or you’ll be sharing a meal with the tiger and not in a good way. Threat brings about adaptive physiology and behaviors that prevent sociality and spirituality, but serve us well in a defense. Chronic threat brings about maladaptive chronic physiology and behaviors that over time increase our illness and disease burden. It is important that when we embark upon this quest to alleviate our spiritual malady that we are not too harsh on ourselves. No one is perfect at first when attempting to live a spiritual life, especially when we are coming back from a long spiritual hiatus.