In the present sample, most students indicated they were at least slightly religious (64.1% at Time 1 and 59.2% at Time 2) and at least slightly spiritual (73.5% at Time 1 and 70.6% at Time 2). Most often, religious meaning systems provide a helpful vehicle for making sense of seemingly random, nonsensical, or tragic events, by seeing them as part of a larger, more benign plan (Frazier et al., 2004; Pargament, 1997). 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). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) characterizes the reexperiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and emotional numbing symptoms that may persist in response to traumatic events. I believe that therapists are far too hasty when diagnosing a person with complicated grief.

• Daily gratitude and journaling help recognize and appreciate the positive aspects of life, fostering spiritual growth.
• If you are a deep feeler who has always been sensitive, you might be an empath and/or HSP.
• In other words, the mental and physical factors of addictive and compulsive behaviors are put into remission AFTER the “spiritual malady” is overcome.
• Parallels between spiritual struggle and established (secular) negative cognitive responses to potentially traumatic events clearly exist, as does a small body of literature associating spiritual struggle with greater PTSD symptoms.
• Therapists, as well as those contemplating giving a-12 step fellowship a try, can benefit from knowing what research tells us about spirituality and recovery.

How to Move Through Complex Grief

For a long time I thought my life was unmanageable because of all the crazy insane things I did while drinking — like the car accidents, hurting people when I didn’t mean to, failed relationships, loss of jobs, family dysfunction, jails, asylums, etc. 2Three participants did not report the number of months since the most stressful or distressing event occurred. Indeed, one of the primary reasons for using bootstrapping methods is to estimate parameters when the sample size is insufficient for straightforward statistical inference or multivariate non-normality is an issue. Social-cognitive theorists postulate that PTSD symptoms result from trauma that shatters one’s basic assumptions about the invulnerability of the self and the safety of the world (Janoff-Bulman, 1989) or reinforces preexisting negative beliefs (Resick, Monson, & Chard, 2008). Faulty beliefs and misattributions, including self-blame and guilt, and over generalized problems with safety, trust, control, esteem, and intimacy, prevent the trauma from being integrated into memory (McCann & Pearlman, 1990; Resick & Calhoun, 2001). Until trauma-related information is reconciled with prior beliefs, symptoms of PTSD persist while the trauma remains in active memory (Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979).

• Simply put, they feel a terrible loneliness at their very soul or center of being.
• Last year I was diagnosed with diabetes, which I’ve written more about here.
• These feelings often drive us to seek relief through alcohol, creating a vicious cycle of dependence and escapism.
• It is simply to move people away from threat and towards safety.

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Other cognitions that may predict spiritual struggle include pre-trauma self-appraisals (R. A. Bryant & Guthrie, 2007), attributional style (Gray et al., 2007), and coping self-efficacy beliefs (Benight & Bandura, 2004). 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. The trauma and non-trauma groups did not significantly differ in age, gender, or racial/ethnic identification. The trauma group scored higher than the non-trauma group on PTSD symptoms at both time points and on spiritual struggle at Time 2.

Trauma and PTSD Symptoms: Does Spiritual Struggle Mediate the Link?

Spending time with God and reading His word is a big part of keeping our minds healthy and grounded in truth. So let’s take a look at the questions we can ask ourselves to help us build our spiritual inventory list. Spirituality is the aspect of recovery that I think most often gets overlooked. Some of us are very comfortable embracing spirituality, but for others, it feels weird or uncomfortable. Therapists, as well as those contemplating giving a-12 step fellowship a try, can benefit from knowing what research tells us about spirituality and recovery.

Tips for Healing Emotional Wounds

The Big Book cites the ego as the driving force behind these symptoms, further isolating us and exacerbating our addiction. The selfish behavior focuses on personal gratification rather than meaningful connections, perpetuating the cycle of addiction caused by selfishness self centeredness. A connection with a higher power is intrinsically tied to overcoming spiritual malady. Addiction is not only a disease of the brain but also of the spirit, highlighting the critical role of spiritual healing in recovery. In the 12-Step Program, integrating a higher power into our lives is a cornerstone of combating addiction.

• On page 62 the text explains that “Selfishness-self-centeredness!
• If you’re experiencing irritability, restlessness, discontent, and challenges in personal relationships, it could be a sign of a spiritual malady.
• All variables were assessed for normality, and transformations were applied as merited (see below).
• I am also an empath and HSP so that makes things harder, but I know now that loving myself, working through emotions and sitting with them and just letting them go will help me heal.
• Many discover that acknowledging a higher power aids in letting go of control and finding guidance in the recovery journey.
• Financial threat and injury have similar effects to physical threat and injury, too.

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. Our angels live in safety and our devils live in threat—and we all have both. It is therefore imperative that we evaluate and understand threat well. Adam Vibe Gunton is an American author, speaker and thought leader in addiction treatment and recovery.

In fact, the world’s threat load is extremely high and it, too, is being reflected in systemic dysfunction. We are in a time where we need to proactively decrease threat and increase safety in the world. Most of us hate to deal with negative thoughts or emotions—it just doesn’t https://ecosoberhouse.com/ feel good. These are our thought suppressions and emotional repressions that also bias the system towards threat physiology. One is a mobilization response to threat where we can prejudge, react, attack, argue, criticize, blame, and experience interpersonal disconnections.

Now, many people find the idea of spirituality in recovery offputting. 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. That is why they say Higher Power of your understanding” rather than God.