“We have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 64
As addicts we can become so focused on the outward form our addiction takes – whether that booze, drugs, sex, overeating, etc. – that we overlook its deep roots at the core of our being. This spiritual malady is the restless spirit, the soul sickness that if left untreated will begin to ooze symptoms of emotional insecurity worry, anger, self-pity, and depression, even if we have been sober for years.
The great psychiatrist Carl Jung called this a ‘low level thirst for wholeness – for union with God’. Carl Jung wrote in a letter dated 1961. In our addictions, we tried to quench our soul-thirst with fleeting pleasures. The pursuit of them dominated our lives, destroyed relationships, and caused greater desperation than we ever thought possible. We became selfish and self-seeking, ever thirsting for more, and this lust warped us on every level. But we were never satisfied, because but the living presence of God can quench our parched souls.
Jung went on to write that the helpful formula formula for healing is spiritus contra spiritum: “Spirit over spirits (alcohol).” This is the spiritual remedy that a dedicated practice of step 11 offers. But many of us resisted, even long into to our recovery. Convicted of our new way of life, we dove headlong into meetings, moral inventories, sponsorship, and service, overlooking the quiet pursuit of conscious contact with our creator.
Even Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson struggled with this step: “In this lack of attention I probably have plenty of company,” he wrote in 1958, after decades of sobriety. “But I do know that this is a neglect that can cause us to miss the finest experiences of life, a neglect that can seriously slacken the growth that God hopes we may achieve right here on earth; here in this great day at school, this very first of our Father’s Many Mansions.”
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.
2 thoughts on “The Spiritual Malady”
Thank you so much for this clarity. I’ve struggled with a consistent practice of steps 10-12 with now 19 yrs of sobriety. I was reading last night in I Peter about living in a way that my prayers are not be hindered. And the book by Chuck C , A New Pair of Glasses, defining the SM as a feeling of consciously separated from God.
Knowing I have tasted the sweetness of Christ and the Love of the Father, I don’t ever want to be separated again.
Thnx again SG
Kia Ora, Gail alcoholic. My homegroup is, Tuesday night 7.30pm Hei Hei It’s Good… sobriety date 22nd February 2000 and I have ONLY JUST asked my newest sponcer (What does Spiritual Malady mean please) after all these year’s! I see clearly NOW what this actually means to me FOR ME and why it is such an important part of my recovery to differentiate what’s what, the how and the why. Karakia (prayer) with the willingness to learn comes 🙏 to mind with so much more! Wow wow and wow! Light bulb moment IF EVER there was to be one for me this year (well, I’ve had a few, yet THIS is the newest 😉 God bless and ho well