Spirituality is defined as one’s individual path toward inner peace, happiness, and connecting with the world around them. Most addictions occur at least partly as a cause or effect of a spiritual crisis.
A Poverty of Spirit–Not Morals
Drug addiction is commonly viewed as a morality issue. Drug addicts shouldn’t be blamed for their disease, but it’s true that they’re prone to doing awful, destructive things like lying, stealing, or even hurting people. Addiction doesn’t reflect an addict’s moral compass, but instead works against it. The disease is one of willpower as well as chemical imbalance. Addicts struggle to distinguish right from wrong, or to respect the difference, through a fog of rationalizations, justifications, and desperation that continually thickens. As the physical being deteriorates, so does the mind.
Regaining Your Spirit
If you’re an addict, you may feel as though you can no longer recognize yourself: You no longer see the kind, caring person you once knew. You can retrieve your spiritual identity, though. To do that, you’ll have to get sober. In treatment, the moral fog will lift, and eventually you’ll be able to distinguish right from wrong like you could before. This happens slowly but surely.
Spiritual Challenges
In recovery comes a flood of intense emotions: guilt, resentment, anger, frustration, etc. It’s essential to face these feelings head-on and to come to terms with your situation. If you can’t make peace with the sober you, you’ll go back to using. Much of treatment is oriented around overcoming this very obstacle. It’s a tough barrier to cross, given how much time went into putting it up, but therapy programs like CBT can work wonders when patients cooperate. The patients who show the most improvements in confidence and happiness are those who are honest with their peers and staff.
After treatment, recovering addicts should participate in some form of aftercare—joining a fellowship program, attending group therapy, or just maintaining a helpful network of social support.
To begin the process of recovering the spirit you’ve lost to your addiction, contact Hired Power to discuss which treatment program is right for you.
Make no mistake: No matter how low your addiction has sunk you—no matter what you’ve done—the person you once were is still in there.
