What is the 3 Fold Disease of Alcoholism & Addiction

Being convinced that self, manifested in various ways, was what had defeated us, we considered its common manifestations. Exposing abuse under the guise of BDSM & related reflections on self-recovery. I look at the past fleetingly sometimes to help others but I never stare at it too long. Otherwise we have not really completely treated our alcoholism.

• So we have two main ailments, distressed based wanting which results in the same negative emotions as being in a shame- based fear of rejection.
• But when it comes to alcohol and drugs, there is no will power.
• When people become too self-reliant, they may stop working on their program entirely.
• Our self will has become impaired and is no longer in the service of our successful survival.

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. 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. So we have two main ailments, distressed based wanting which results in the same negative emotions as being in a shame- based fear of rejection. The newcomer gave me an example of a resentment he was experiencing after this guy at a meeting said “get off your pink cloud” a phrase that refers to the sometimes  mildly ecstatic feelings of early recovery.

How Far Have We Come In Understanding this “Spiritual Malady” of Alcoholism?

Without a connection to a higher power, it can get quite ugly in sobriety. We will try to fill this god-sized hole with anything we can. Regardless of how it manifests itself, a spiritual malady is always rooted in an inner conflict.

I have seen so many people come into the meeting rooms over my 25 years of attending 12 step meetings and they stay for a few weeks, a few months, even a few years and they leave. A few months or years pass by and they come stumbling back to the meeting rooms, tired, exhausted, sick of life, and desperate, in need of help and support. I have also seen people who are consistent with meetings fall into the Spiritual Malady trap. The “syndrome” or repetitive pattern, is truly an indication of a “self will run life.” In other words, I got it all together now and I don’t need this mess anymore.

The Power of Obsession in Alcoholism and Addiction

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. Many men and women in AA describe certain feelings they had before picking up a drink or drug. For many struggling with alcohol use disorder or alcohol addiction, the only way to overcome these feelings is to embark upon a spiritual program of action fearlessly. We have found that these problems no longer exist for us when we begin living by spiritual principles and improving our conscious contact with our higher power.

When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.” When men and women look inwardly, the spiritual component of the disease becomes apparent. It simply means we are spiritually blocked off from the Power of God, which enables us to remain sober, happy, joyous, and free. The disease of alcohol and drug addiction is not just mental and physical but also spiritual. The spiritual malady, however, can be seen as an inward unmanageability.

Stories to Help You Live Better

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 you don’t share the same beliefs, everyone in AA are united by their shared experience with addiction and their desire to stay sober. As we work towards this state of selflessness we find that we are slowly being relieved of the hopeless alcoholic state we once thought we were doomed to be in forever. It is constant maintenance of being spiritually connected with a god of your understanding. This is the type ofspiritually maladapted behaviorthat we typically exhibit in active alcoholism. When not treating the spiritual aspect of the disease those behaviors are the types of things that will start to make life unmanageable once again.

Other emotions are substituted to hide the shame and maintain self esteem. Anger, exaggerated pride, anxiety and helplessness are substituted to keep from feeling the total blackness of being bad. The buried shame is expressed through defense mechanisms that shield negative unconscious material from surfacing.

thoughts on “The Spiritual Malady”

God and these amateurs are wasting my time talking, so I am not coming back. I can figure out my life without any one’s help or shared wisdom! I was the ‘self will run life’ works better than the 12 steps for me.” I went several years, where I stopped attending meetings. We had finally achieved our goals in our life financially, so I didn’t need the support group, of any kind I thought!

It is through emotions and thoughts about them that the addict creates isolation from their relationships. This isolation sets the stage for return to emotional escapism through addiction. This spiritual malady, or spiritual disconnection, is the driving force behind our addiction and self-destructive behaviors. Without addressing this spiritual malady, we have absolutely no hope for intrinsic change or recovery. It is this notion that the fellowship of AA was founded upon, and how millions of recovered alcoholics equate their success in overcoming a seemingly hopeless situation.

What is A Spiritual Malady?

In fact I think this pattern of interlinked negative emotions occurs simply because of inability to identify, label and share the simple fact that I have been upset  by what someone has said or acted towards me. I got as far as deciding it was an inherent problem with processing negative emotions, which it is. Just as revealing where the negative emotions listed which clearly showed how  I react, and can still react to people who I believe have caused my hurt or rejection. Hence when I came into recovery I had hundreds and hundreds of resentments swirling around my mind, poisoning my thoughts and sending constant emotional daggers into my heart. I can get out of the distress of wanting/needing stuff by asking God to remove those negative emotions which block me off from Him. I do not necessarily have to react to my feelings of negativity about myself, someone else does not need to experience the consequence of my resentments.

As I would have had a resentment, it would have had a wolf pack of negative emotions attached. For me he was seeing the root of this spiritual malady, this emotional disease. In fact the Big Book gives me a good idea of the “sins” or “defects of character” I have when I have a resentment but does not explain why I have resentments in the first place. I end, however, with some words from a doctor who seems to be suggesting that AA works because it makes us more emotionally healthy. I have suggested clearly in previous blogs how I think AA’s 12 recovery programme helps specifically with problems of emotion dysregulation. One can see how this concept of sin disease or in other words spiritual malady could be and was applied to early AA and incorporated into the Big Book of AA.

A Higher Power and Our Spiritual Awakening

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 spiritual malady their support system, and eventually relapse. It is strange paradox, the more you focus on helping others, the more you discoverhow much you matter.

Nobody wants to be out of control, to be teetering on the verge of the next disaster, the next moving of home, the next calling of the police,  the next swirling carousel of unmanageabiilty. My dismissiveness and my arrogance are parts of defence mechanism against rejection, https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/what-happens-when-you-stop-drinking-alcohol/ they guard my inherent sense of shame. I am full of shame, more so than fear, although these two overlap. The years of recovery reveal many different things, some of them not so palatable. I have not been taught as a child or since to simply say I am upset.

Take Your First Step To Recovery

When we take Step 3 every day it is very hard to fall into that worldly Spiritual Malady. Step 1 in the AA programme is “ We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable”. It is emotionally healthy to surrender and accept things over which we have no control. “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference” is the Serenity Prayer used at every AA meeting. The Serenity Prayer is the greatest exercise in prioritisation.