Being spiritually sick means experiencing a persistent void that no external remedy can fill. This spiritual disease affects every aspect of our lives, leading to feelings of isolation, loneliness, and despair. It is this spiritual emptiness that we often try to escape from through alcohol and other addictive behaviors, which can also make us physically ill. The concept of spiritual disease is deeply embedded in the philosophy of AA. It is rooted in the idea of being spiritually sick—a condition that profoundly affects our soul and emotional nature.

Big Book of AA Definition of Alcoholic

Engaging in acts of service is a powerful way to foster empathy, strengthen spiritual foundations, and counteract feelings of isolation. Caring for others and acting for the welfare of the community are signs of spiritual wellness. Volunteering time and resources to help those in need can build empathy and provide a sense of belonging and purpose, while also helping us understand our emotional natures. Repairing personal relationships and focusing on oneself during the initial year of recovery helps create a stronger foundation for personal growth and stability. This focus on self-love and relationships is essential for long-term sobriety. Grasping the way spiritual malady drives addiction is vital to break this cycle.

Practical Ways to Improve Spiritual Life Daily

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. Writes,  “For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for  others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead.

• 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.
• That is why we have to constantly share how we are feeling with others so that we can find out what we are feeling.
• Enhancing spiritual life on a daily basis encompasses practices like meditation, mindfulness, gratitude, and acts of service.

Addressing The Spiritual Malady Through the 12 Steps

One of the earliest studies on AA members concluded that  they were linked in commonality by two variables, emotional immaturity and grandiosity! I would contend that grandiosity is a part of spiritual malady big book emotional immaturity. I also contend that our “maladjustment to life” is based on emotional immaturity which is in itself a function of emotion regulation and processing deficits. That is not to say that normal people cannot be full of sin –  a cursory look around the work and it’s events will soon confirm this is the case. What I am saying is that they do not have the emotion dysregulation or fear based responding that I seem to have which often prompts “sin”. The 12 Steps address spiritual malady by integrating a higher power, promoting spiritual awakening, and involving steps like moral inventory and admitting wrongs, which are crucial for spiritual healing.

I want to make clear to members that these thoughts are not definitive treatise on the subjects. Just an attempt https://ecosoberhouse.com/ to stimulate thought or discussion and provide information based on my study and experience. Today I look further at the disease of alcoholism focusing on it as a spiritual malady.

The Alcoholics Guide to Alcoholism

• As highlighted in the Big Book, surmounting this spiritual malady is key to achieving mental and physical recovery from untreated alcoholism.
• As I would have had a resentment, it would have had a wolf pack of negative emotions attached.
• I have found this a fairly common trait among male alcoholics in recovery settings and meetings.

Common signs include irritability, restlessness, and a pervasive sense of discontent. These feelings often drive us Drug rehabilitation to seek relief through alcohol, creating a vicious cycle of dependence and escapism. Untreated spiritual malady can lead to a deep sense of dissatisfaction and disconnection, further fueling our addiction.

We reacted via anger and put downs hence I have grown up to be dismissive. The anger response is more comfortable than feeling the shame for some individuals. Families where coercive and humiliating methods of discipline are used develop children who are shame prone. Behavior become driven by defenses that function to keep from feeling bad. Reality becomes distorted to further protect the self from poor self esteem. The transfer of blame to someone else is an indicator of internal shame.