Spiritual Crisis And The Recovery Process

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Apr 3, 2024

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Spiritual Crisis And The Recovery Process Mollie Elliott Grand Canyon University Spirituality and Addiction PCN -373-0500 Aaron Hallstrom March 10 th 2024 1

Spiritual Crisis And The Recovery Process Addiction is a spiritual crisis because substance abuse changes the way we think and perceive the world around us as well as ourselves, this makes spirituality a key part of the recovery process because it directly correlates to the way we see and understand the world, religion can also play a role in impacting our spirituality. Spirituality is a key part of the recovery process, it involves the individual connecting with things greater then themselves and becoming a part of something bigger, many people may confuse this idea with religion while it is similar it is its own construct (Treatment,2021). Spirituality seeks personal growth and personal truth, some may experience this through prayer or revisiting past beliefs while others experience it through convening with nature, meditating, or using other activities and practices that deepen the connection between the soul and the transcendent (Treatment,2021). In order to experience the transcendent a person must escape the trap of only thinking about the here and now and the instant gratifications in life, this experience allows people to alter the way they perceive their own life and the life of others (Liberman,2008). For a person recovering from addiction this process is life saving because even when they are struggling transcendence thinking allows them to see a time when they will not be facing those struggles and this imagery can help the person to maintain there goals in the here now working towards the life they truly want, without this skill it would be impossible to overcome and move through the pain of addiction. It is not uncommon for a person to experience crisis when they no longer need to rely on transcendence to get through daily life and experience the transition as a joy rather then a necessity. 2

In The Dark Night of Recovery May explains his version of transcendence through an encounter he had with a woman in recovery who comes to him for spiritual guidance. May describes the “Dark Night” in recovery as a scary, confusing time for both the individual experiencing it as well as their loved ones, it is not necessarily a time of pain or suffering, but rather an obscure experience where the person does not see things clearly (May,2005). May offers the example of a woman who sought out may for spiritual guidance, despite working the program with large amounts of success she seemingly randomly began to feel great discomfort and anxiety about her recovery, she would feel her prayers to god asking him to keep her sober were growing dull and it seemed not enough (May,2005). This experience seemed quiet scary to the woman it felt like she was loosing the one thing in her life that helped her to maintain sobriety, god, however in reality the woman found after the struggle that she was closer to god then ever and it wasn’t that god had abandoned her, but he wanted a deeper relationship with her, more then just her begging for forgiveness and protection she needed to talk to god like a friend rather then a source of safety alone (May,2005). The person experiencing the dark night may find them self in dark places where they need to turn to religion and spirituality for comfort in more then just a savior way, this is the place in recovery where many people can connect to a love that is greater then just themselves, this becomes deeper by realizing how much deeper love can go. That you do not have to be forever defined by the mistakes and sins you’ve committed but that god loves you as a whole individual rather then only for your work. 3

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May utilizes a more religious point of view when describing the woman he helped in recovery, her struggles involved her relationship with a Christian god and how she spoke to him, this religious point of confusion stemmed from her reorganizing how to speak with a holy god and integrate him into her life. Religion has a specific set of organized beliefs and practices that are commonly shared by a large group or community who practice together and share those beliefs (Arrey,Et. Al,2016). The woman in recovery shared a belief in god and a practice of prayer with May, they both used those common beliefs to make sense of the world and find peace in it. Spirituality can be more of an individualized journey, it has to do with developing a sense of peace and purpose (Arrey,Et. Al,2016). Someone struggling with a spiritual crisis that is not religious may struggle with isolation and living in a way that does not align with their true values. A good example of this is Kant’s example of moral theory that humans can not ethically live while treating other human beings as a means to an end, someone struggling with a moral difficulty might have a difficult time and turn to something like ethics to ease the pain of unknowing ( Lectures on Ethics,2001). Kant’s moral theory in particular illiterates the idea that if a human uses another human for any means to an end then that person is being unethical, in addiction this struggle may look like a person going to meetings and judging others to feel better about themselves or using other stories as a guide to living their life, this may make sense and help them to gain an understanding of themselves at first in recovery, but later down the line using their fellow speakers as a means to an end will begin to feel wrong or confusing, addressing this issue the person may begin to foster deeper connections with others and start feeling comfortable to share their own stories using these relationships instead rather then the people behind the 4

stories for their support. Both spirituality and religion deal with developing beliefs around the meaning of life and a connection with others, the main difference between the two is that religion tends to be more organized and specific while spirituality is more about flow and the person finding what works best for them and developing their own set of beliefs rather then the shared beliefs of a religious group (Arrey,Et. Al,2016). Resources 5

Arrey, A. E., Bilsen, J., Lacor, P., & Deschepper, R. (2016). Spirituality/Religiosity: A Cultural and Psychological Resource among Sub-Saharan African Migrant Women with HIV/AIDS in Belgium. PloS one , 11 (7), e0159488. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159488 Lectures on Ethics , translated by Peter Heath and J.B. Schneewind, 2001. Liberman, N., & Trope, Y. (2008). The psychology of transcending the here and now. Science (New York, N.Y.) , 322 (5905), 1201–1205. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1161958 May, Gerald The Dark Night Of Recovery, April 2005 , https://halo.gcu.edu/resource/f1a87f40-27b3-4f6e-a82b-02ab8819152a Treatment, A. (2021, May 11). 5 ways to explore spirituality in recovery: Ashley Treatment . Ashley Addiction Treatment. https://www.ashleytreatment.org/rehab- blog/5-ways-to-explore-spirituality-in-recovery/ Vitorino, L. M., Lucchetti, G., Leão, F. C., Vallada, H., & Peres, M. F. P. (2018). The association between spirituality and religiousness and mental health. Scientific reports , 8 (1), 17233. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35380-w 6

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