Spirituality As An Essential Part Of A Recovery Program

Any type of addiction is a disorder of the brain, but it is often mentioned that spirituality has a major role to play in the recovery process. During their childhood, many people yearn for spiritual things and try to connect with others and the world around them. However, as they get older, they find themselves unable to cope with certain things and begin developing addictions to overcome their insecurities. Others do it to escape the feelings that seem too painful.

Usually, people pay a heavy price for their addictions. They no longer resemble themselves and spend a lot of time and money trying to manipulate the world into giving them what they need. They care less about their jobs, friends, relationships, and family because they consider them as replaceable. The addiction breaks their characters and their spirits unless they begin searching for the spirituality, an essential thing for their recovery.

[su_quote class=”cust-pagination”]“A person does not have to be behind bars to be a prisoner. People can be prisoners of their own concepts and ideas. They can be slaves to their own selves.” — Maharaji [/su_quote]

What does spirituality have to do with addictions?

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Addiction is not just a physical condition that gives people an uncontrolled craving for drugs or alcohol. On the contrary, it has physical, emotional and spiritual implications because it not only damages their brain because of the continued use of the substances but also destroys the character and the life of the addict. They become self-centered, dishonest, angry and self-destructive.

This behavior of the addict creates a spiritual crisis because he or she is not supposed to be the main focus of the universe to be consumed by selfishness. The individual is supposed to have deep relationships with everyone, to serve the family and the community, and most importantly, connect with something greater than themselves. Addiction robs an addict all these factors, leading to a spiritual problem. For a fact, scientific remedies cannot manage a spiritual problem.  Therefore, there is a need to initiate spirituality into the recovery program.

How does spirituality help addicted individuals?

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Many people are totally sober, but for some reason, are miserable human beings. Addicted individuals who have managed to achieve sobriety will be similarly placed because they have given up on their habits without making any changes to their character.

Such people must understand that they need something greater than just refraining from the drugs. They definitely need time to allow their brain to heal, but they also need to make efforts to bring about a change of character and heart.

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What should one do?

Spirituality practices such as meditating and praying are helpful in transforming the addict into a different person altogether. Research proves that activities like these help the brain to regenerate and heal itself. This may seem like performing brain surgery on the addicted individual, but he or she must understand that it is for their own good.

[su_quote class=”cust-pagination”]“You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.” — A Course in Miracles[/su_quote]

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Conclusion

If you are trying to overcome your addiction problems with the help of a recovery program and spirituality, you may encounter problems in being honest on occasions. However, you should follow the guidance and advice of other group members and continue working through prayer and action. You must be ready to restrict yourself from lying. Also, every time you commit a mistake, you should begin the program all over again. The effort requires many months to complete, but your natural instinct will take over at some time and prevent you from bending the truth to telling the truth. This is something that a normal recovery program will not be able to teach you as an addict. It is only a practitioner of spirituality that will be able to guide them in this requirement.