In their book, not only do they talk about alcoholism, they also touch upon Depression, Anxiety, Suicidal Ideation, PTSD, fatal illness, poor health, business failures, non-working/dead personal relationships – a whole array of issues still bedeviling folks today. According to Alcoholics Anonymous, informally known as The Big Book, when someone with alcoholism drinks, they have an abnormal reaction likened to an allergic reaction. Once a person with AUD takes an alcoholic drink, the body craves more on a physical level. This is why 12-step organizations believe it is not possible to conquer alcoholism using willpower alone.
Particularly notable to this discussion is what we look like in threat. In threat, we can be mobilized towards aggressive or reactive defenses or we can be immobilized into passive or submissive defenses. Both phenotypes are helpful for survival, spiritual malady but long-term defense states are ultimately destructive to us. Below is an overview of the 12 admissions that support the 12 steps toward recovery. By using this approach, a recovering addict can experience a notable change in their outlook.
Thoughts of Recovery – No.17 – The Spiritual Malady – Step 1
As we are an inherently spiritual species, we frequently fear a spiritual death as much as a physical death. Failure to recognize the effects of all of our existential worries, big and small, leads to all kinds of mishaps and trouble for our species. One is a mobilization response to threat where we can prejudge, react, attack, argue, criticize, blame, and experience interpersonal disconnections. The other threat phenotype is one of relative immobilization where we retreat, ruminate, isolate, dissociate and experience bodily and spiritual disconnections. This is frequently referred to as “falter (or freeze) and faint” physiology. One is a mobilization response where we approach, bond, empathize, love, reproduce, seek resources, share resources, problem-solve, discover, create, sing, dance, play, laugh, and experience interpersonal connections.
Here at California Detox in Laguna Beach, we can help you unpack the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of alcoholism. The practice of Christian Meditation offers a remedy to the spiritual malady. When we enter the silence with discipline and perseverance, we make space for the living presence of God to heal us from the inside out. 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 Power of Obsession in Alcoholism and Addiction
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.
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