Lastly, at Time 2, participants indicated on the PCL how much they had been bothered in the past month by the event which they selected as being the most stressful or distressing since coming to college. Spiritual discontent (Pargament et al., 2000) involves anger with God, questioning God’s love, or wondering whether one has been abandoned by God. Trauma victims may feel let down or betrayed and experience a sense of mistrust (for a summary, see Brewin & Holmes, 2003) or anger (e.g., Andrews, Brewin, Rose, & Kirk, 2000), and some individuals may direct these beliefs and resulting feelings toward God.
Participants and Procedures
A higher power provides guidance, peace, and purpose, which are essential for overcoming addiction. We are inherently a spiritual species, and yet, we fill the world with so many aspiritual and anti-spiritual constructs and behaviors. Reframe supports you in reducing alcohol consumption and enhancing your well-being. There’s actually a more fulfilling (and less accusatory) way to weave spirituality into the picture — one that doesn’t clash with the science and is ultimately more positive and optimistic.
Understanding the Spiritual Malady in AA and its Impact on Recovery
This is because many people have had negative experiences with various religions or religious concepts in their youth. The good news is that spirituality and religion do not have to overlap in recovery. For example, a concept in 12-Step recovery is that spirituality can be faith in anything that is not oneself.
- The huge burden that humans bear is the ability to contemplate our own annihilation—death.
- But we were never satisfied, because but the living presence of God can quench our parched souls.
- Integrating practices such as meditation, mindfulness, and acts of service into daily life can further enhance spiritual well-being and foster a sense of peace and purpose.
- While I could go on forever on the differences between these two ideas, I’ll keep it as simple as possible.
Addiction Treatment
- The other threat phenotype is one of relative immobilization where we retreat, ruminate, isolate, dissociate and experience bodily and spiritual disconnections.
- Walking meditation, using labyrinths, and mandalas are also effective methods for finding peace and clarity.
- In fact, the world’s threat load is extremely high and it, too, is being reflected in systemic dysfunction.
- If you’re experiencing irritability, restlessness, discontent, and challenges in personal relationships, it could be a sign of a spiritual malady.
- The journey of recovery is deeply personal, and the role of a higher power can vary for each individual.
In addition to individual differences in manifestations of spiritual struggle, cultural differences may exist in how struggle is expressed (e.g., Pargament, 1983; Rubin & Yasien-Esmael, 2004). Although this sample fairly closely mirrored the university’s incoming undergraduate class, the majority of participants were White, non-Hispanic students. The lack of diverse ethnic and racial representation suggests a need for increased attention to recruitment of people of color in psychological research (see Castellanos & Gloria, 2007; Hall & Allard, 2009). Even if you don’t believe in God right now, it’s important to keep an open mind.
Spiritual struggle as partial mediator of the relationship between trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms, controlling for baseline PTSD symptoms. If you’re experiencing irritability, restlessness, discontent, and challenges in personal relationships, it could be a sign of a spiritual malady. Integrating practices such as meditation, mindfulness, and acts of service into daily life can further enhance spiritual well-being and foster a sense spiritual malady of peace and purpose. With the right support system and a commitment to spiritual growth, overcoming spiritual malady is not only possible but transformative, leading to a fulfilling and sober life. Focusing on self-love and repairing personal relationships is crucial for overcoming spiritual malady and achieving sobriety. AA recommends waiting a year before entering into new personal relationships to focus on self-love and recovery.
Spiritual struggle may relate to PTSD symptoms in complex ways, a consideration for future research evaluating causal direction. For instance, negative appraisals of the trauma could lead to initial symptoms of PTSD, and negative religious appraisals of the PTSD symptoms themselves could relate to their long-term maintenance. In support of the latter notion, theorists have speculated that psychopathology could impair religious functioning and give rise to spiritual struggles (Hill & Kilian, 2003). Future studies should measure baseline spiritual struggle, to examine whether change in struggle predicts change in PTSD.
Differences by Trauma group
Also, tornados, hurricanes, droughts, fires, global warming, and war threaten us physically. Lack of clean soil, water, air, and lack of nutritious food are a threat to us. There are a lot of physical threats that can flip our physiology into a defense state. My last blog post took us back some 4 billion years to set a foundation for deconstructing illness and disease.
Relinquishing Control
Mental Health Services
