While an individual’s spiritual malady may differ in terms of its root causes and symptoms, there are certain common threads that tie them together. Often, it is characterized by a sense of emptiness, dissatisfaction, or a lack of purpose. It can also manifest as a feeling of disconnection from oneself, others, or the larger world. Spiritual maladies can leave individuals feeling lost, confused, or trapped in a cycle of negative emotions, thoughts, or behaviors. In our quest for understanding and meaning, we often encounter obstacles along our spiritual journey.

Promoting Mental Wellness Through Spirituality: A Holistic Approach

As a person who has wrestled with anxiety for years, I have often fallen into the trap of trying to spiritually bypass my suffering through fluffy feel-good thinking or methods that promise to instantly “get rid” of anxiety. Trying to put a band-aid on a festering sore will only make it worse. I’ve been guilty of using spiritual healing as a way to try and escape my suffering before.

The Role of Spirituality in Addiction Recovery

1It is important to note that some negative cognitions may reflect objective appraisals of a negative situation, such as likelihood of recurrent exposure. At Time 1, participants reported levels of psychological distress using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL; Blanchard, Jones-Alexander, Buckley, & Forneris, 1996), a widely used self-report measure that corresponds with diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The PCL contains 17 items rated on a five-point Likert scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely). Tomorrow I will look at the relationship between my self- centeredness and alcohol. Then, of course, you have the more sinister breed of spiritual teachers who appear divine and enlightened on the surface but are raging megalomaniacs underneath.

Take Your First Step To Recovery

Allow what I’ve learned to fully take hold before I move on. I’ve not been forcefully pushing but see now from your explanation that we sometimes need to simply hold space for ourselves. I fully sense that there is something ahead for me thats very important but now realize I need to breathe and stabilize before this can happen.

• Substance abuse often arises from a spiritual void or an attempt to fill an emotional, mental, or spiritual pain.
• The development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms have been shown to relate to particular negative cognitions after trauma exposure, including negative appraisals of the trauma and its implications (Dunmore, Clark, & Ehlers, 2001; Ehlers, Mayou, & Bryant, 1998).
• Whether you seek to engage in formal prayer, informal mental conversations, or merely by doing good and putting positive energy into the universe, there is no right or wrong way to pray to your higher power.
• This is frequently referred to as “falter (or freeze) and faint” physiology.
• While a sense of spiritual emptiness is an experience familiar to many people, it is extremely common for those who struggle with addiction.

By integrating spirituality into addiction recovery, individuals can find strength, hope, and purpose. Practices such as meditation, prayer, or connecting with supportive spiritual communities can offer solace, guidance, and a sense of connection to something greater than oneself. While faith and spirituality can be intertwined, it is important to recognize that faith is not a requirement spiritual malady definition for experiencing spiritual maladies or seeking spiritual growth. Individuals from various belief systems, including those who identify as agnostic or atheist, can encounter spiritual maladies and benefit from addressing their spiritual well-being. It is the connection to something beyond oneself or the search for meaning and purpose that forms the foundation of spirituality.

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. Most of us hate to deal with negative thoughts or emotions—it just doesn’t feel good. These are our thought suppressions and emotional repressions that also bias the system towards threat physiology.

Addicts and alcoholics may rid themselves of their drug or alcohol dependency by completing the Twelve Step process. This will allow them to undergo the required shift in thought that will free them from their addiction. This resistance to anything spiritual is the biggest obstacle some addicts confront. To beat their addiction, people must face the reality that there is indeed a power larger than themselves.

Benefits of Holistic Health

• We started looking to this thing as a way to fulfill a deep longing or pain within us.
• We like to simplify it and say that a habit is just something that we’ve repeated enough times that it becomes so familiar that we do it on autopilot without thinking.
• 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.
• I always thought this was a completely accurate term for it.Are you thirsty for “something” today?
• You are merely instructed to be open to the idea that you are not the end all be all, that there exists out in the universe something that is greater or more powerful than yourself.

The development and maintenance of PTSD symptoms have been shown to relate to particular negative cognitions after trauma exposure, including negative appraisals of the trauma and its implications (Dunmore, Clark, & Ehlers, 2001; Ehlers, Mayou, & Bryant, 1998). These negative cognitions have been shown to predict PTSD symptom severity better than other risk factors (Ehring, Ehlers, & Glucksman, 2006) and to predict the persistence of PTSD symptoms (Fairbrother & Rachman, 2006; Halligan, Michael, Clark, & Ehlers, 2003). Many theories of PTSD share the premise that PTSD symptoms are caused and maintained by a person’s cognitive efforts to cope with the traumatic event (Keane, Fisher, Krinsley, & Niles, 1994). For example, information processing theories implicate faulty processing of and cognitions about the trauma memory in the development and maintenance of PTSD (Foa & Kozak, 1986; Resick & Calhoun, 2001). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) characterizes the reexperiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and emotional numbing symptoms that may persist in response to traumatic events.