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Hence I believe we should appreciate that this definition of our condition has been updated by research into emotions especially in the last 20 years. My recovery has thus since been about “growing up” a bit, however unsuccessful I am in this pursuit on occasion. My inventory showed me also that I did not seem to have the facility previously to emotionally respond to the world in a mature way. It shows the areas of behaviour and attitudes that can be treated by working the steps. It shows us how our approach to life can possibly be transformed for the better. I have for several years wondered if the spiritual malady described in the Big Book adequate or accurate enough in describing what I suffer from. Finally, someone explained to me that those things are not the insanity that the Big Book talks about; nor are those things why the alcoholic’s life becomes unmanageable.
We also engage daily with the 12-Step lifestyle — unity, service, and recovery. We practice unity in meetings, in our 12-Step work, and with our vibrant recovery community. This blends perfectly with service, where we strive to help each other and come together as a community of recovered men to help the larger Colorado community. Yes, we work the 12-Steps, but we also engage in group and individual therapy, physical activity, and other healthy practices. Recovery is found by working the 12-Steps, but it’s about recovering, healing, and getting well in every aspect of our life. These are the lifelong habits that are started and taught at Jaywalker Lodge as a comprehensive initiation into a life of recovery.
What can the idea of a spiritual illness mean to an agnostic?
We are on the fast track and there seems to be so many problems and situations that we have to fix them right now. A Spiritual Malady on its most basic level, is spiritual unmanageability.
Keith C. Burris: Hating your neighbor – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Keith C. Burris: Hating your neighbor.
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The spiritual illness that we faced acted as a catalyst for our addiction, and every attempt to self-medicate our spiritual malady pushed us deeper and deeper into the disease. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous addresses the alcoholic’s physical allergy to alcohol and drugs. In Al-anon, I relished the spiritual malady idea that my physical allergy was to the alcoholic/addict! When initially learning about Al-anon, I recommend Al-anon literature and Blueprint for Progress, but thereafter I recommend the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Lois Wilson and Bill Wilson resemble the mother and father of the 12-step program.
thought on “The Spiritual Malady”
We begin to obsess and buy the lie because we want to feel the ease and comfort of the first drink. We drink and set off the craving and the cycle of addiction starts all over again. We should be able to just put the plug in the jug and move on with our lives. They oversimplify our problem and solution and can send the wrong information. AA provides many ways of becoming more emotionally well, which ultimately means more emotionally mature. It is the always wanting one more that makes my affective disorder that of addiction and not another disorder.
This is why we at Jaywalker Lodge prefer the spiritual approach of the 12-Step program as outlined in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. As best as we can tell, this method is crucial to helping alcoholics and addicts recover.
It isn’t personal
Looking back now, I can see that my prescription validated my illness. After all…a doctor prescribed me this medication, and no one could tell me otherwise. I would wear the mask of a chronically ill person at every visit, begging for sympathy and being rewarded with more medication. I sometimes believe that for every suppressed emotion, there is a physiological response; I began experiencing excruciating bladder and kidney infections. And that there is a power greater than us at the center of it all. We care about every single one of our clients, because we have been in your same shoes.
Sharing it with others who need to hear it allows us to do our part to rid our world of addiction, one person at a time. As the Big Book says, we are to “carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles [what we’ve learned] in all our affairs.” Our second chance doesn’t stop after we graduate from treatment. They started slowly https://ecosoberhouse.com/ at first, almost innocently– the cravings. Using a little money from the savings account wouldn’t hurt right? After all, it was for emergencies, and we hadn’t had any emergencies in years. What we had enjoyed had turned into a habit, and that habit into an addiction. The AA program of recovery is a program of action, not a program of education.
Our Body and the Physical Allergy
This lack of peace is symptomatic of a deeper spiritual problem, known as the “spiritual malady” in Alcoholics Anonymous, which we understand as sin from a biblical perspective. The alcoholic is seeking a solution to a spiritual problem with a created thing…a bottle.