Perhaps the most important limitation of this study is that the types of trauma experienced by this sample of college students, and the relatively low PTSD scores that were reported in reference to those events, were not representative of the types of events and degree of PTSD seen in clinical practice. Although the present study may provide a window through which to view relations between religious cognitions and PTSD spiritual malady symptoms, they may be very different for a sample of combat-exposed veterans who go on to develop chronic, debilitating PTSD. Table 2 summarizes mean differences by trauma group in potential mediator and outcome variables. Independent samples t-tests were performed to compare the group that appraised at least one event as a trauma to the group that did not on demographic and the normally-transformed study variables.
- This “fourth dimension”, which we find out in the 10th Step is the “world of the Spirit”, takes us beyond the physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of life — and eliminates the selfishness (ego) of the “spiritual malady.” The term “spiritual malady” does not mean that our “spirit” is sick.
- Finally, participants indicated which event, whether from the CSLES or the TLEQ, was the most stressful or distressing since coming to college.
- Threat brings about adaptive physiology and behaviors that prevent sociality and spirituality, but serve us well in a defense.
- The specific directions in the first 102 pages of the book Alcoholic Anonymous.
Our results indicate that clinicians must recognize that religious and spiritual beliefs may be present not only as a resource but as a negative force in the face of stressful life events. Care must be taken to assess clients’ personal feelings toward their spiritual struggle and support personal growth while challenging maladaptive cognitions. Some clients may benefit from treatments designed for spiritual struggles (e.g., Cole & Pargament, 1999; Murray-Swank & Pargament, 2005).
The Spiritual Malady of Addiction: What Is It Exactly?
Although the idea of the spiritual malady came to me through reading about Alcoholics Anonymous, I believe it is a concept any person can connect with whether or not they suffer from addiction. It might be with food, sex, gambling, or even something as nebulous as procrastination or a compulsion to gossip. Perhaps it’s an obsession with nicotine, using cigars, cigarettes or vaping devices to self-administer that powerful, psycho-active drug.
In fact, negatively-valenced reappraisals of the traumatic event may fail to reduce the current perceptions of threat by merely redistributing the threat from human forces to spiritual ones. While a sense of spiritual emptiness is an experience familiar to many people, it is extremely common for those who struggle with addiction. While the absence of spirituality in no way causes addiction, it is generally accepted that addiction has a spiritual component. This acknolwedgement led to the incorporation of spirituality as an important ingredient in the process of recovery, and provides an important intersection between Western psychology and psychotherapy and twelve-step recovery. Carl Jung viewed addiction as a spiritual malady and addicts as frustrated spiritual seekers. He believed the craving for altered states of consciousness reflected a spiritual thirst for wholeness, and that only those who have a spiritual awakening could successfully overcome addiction.
What are 3 body parts affected by alcohol?
While religion is often helpful in times of stress, it can also be a source of stress if religious beliefs or attributions suggest maladaptive ways of understanding an event. 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). Thankfully, the “spiritual malady” is no longer a “missing piece” of Step One for me. It is a reality of my powerlessness and unmanageability and enables me to see why I so desperately need to seek a Power Greater than myself. And unless this malady is recognized, and a course of action (the Twelve Steps) is taken to enable God to remove it, the root of our alcoholic illness can lie dormant and burn us when we least expect it.
- Additionally, although the mean time between the index event and assessment of struggle and symptoms was four months, some participants may have experienced their event so recently that time was insufficient for the event to have observable effects (Maxwell & Cole, 2007).
- Most of us hate to deal with negative thoughts or emotions—it just doesn’t feel good.
- The summation of physical threats, spiritual threats, shadow threats, and existential threat is our total threat load.
- Although this sample fairly closely mirrored the university’s incoming undergraduate class, the majority of participants were White, non-Hispanic students.
Compassion evokes an interest in offering support, understanding, and kindness to others when they struggle, make mistakes, or fail. Self-compassion consists of responding the same way toward ourselves when we have a difficult time, act out on our personality challenges, or experience something we don’t like about ourselves. Having compassion for ourselves means that we honor our humanness with self-acceptance when we bump up against our limitations and fall short of our ideals. Although spiritual awakenings are often part of the recovery process, obviously they are far from unique to people in recovery.