However, in keeping with the 10th tradition of AA, the opinions I express in the book do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or positions held by AA as a whole. Quotations from Alcoholics Anonymous are from the first edition which is now in the public domain. Any quotations from sources other than the first edition of the Big Book are reprinted with permission. Keep in mind that this is separate from the physical craving. Even after someone is completely detoxed and has all alcohol or drugs removed from their body, they will still obsess about drinking or using.

The years of recovery reveal many different things, some of them not so palatable. Anger responses are modeled and spiritual malady learned in some families. The anger response is more comfortable than feeling the shame for some individuals.

The relationship between the spiritual malady and alcoholism

One recovering alcoholic or a group of recovering alcoholics is a power greater than oneself. Not enough action, or effort to change my feelings in a healthy manner. I also have other ways of reacting in an emotionally unhealthy way that my step 4 showed. However, there seems to be a problem specifically with a patterned mesh of negative https://ecosoberhouse.com/ emotions which are activated when someone upsets me. Just as revealing where the negative emotions listed which clearly showed how I react, and can still react to people who I believe have caused my hurt or rejection. My step 4 and then 5 showed me that I did not have the natural ability to deal with my negative emotions.

Without a connection to a higher power, it can get quite ugly in sobriety. Fixing this involves shifting your consciousness.

Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, First Edition.

For me this section is saying our emotion dysregulation leads to feelings of being “restless, irritable and discontented” which prompt a return to drinking. My inventory of steps 4/5 showed me that my long lists of resentments were mainly the product of emotional immaturity and responding in an immature manner to not getting my way. This sin disease had very real psychological, emotional and physical and physiological effect on the mind and body. Sins were a contagion that mixed with the sins of others and the sins of families, groups, societies, cultures and countries. It was a list of the negative emotions which appear always when I felt anger and resentment against someone for hurting me and my feelings. Finding out what is really going on with us emotionally is at the heart of recovery. That is why we have to constantly share how we are feeling with others so that we can find out what we are feeling.

It is this that propelled my addictions, this inability to deal with my negative emotions. I dealt with them externally via addictive behaviours, not internally via emotion processing. This mesh of negative emotions can link up fairly instantaneously I find. It is the web my spiritual malady seeks to ensnare me in.