The spiritual struggle scale and subscales were tested separately as mediators in models with trauma group as the predictor and PTSD symptomatology as the outcome, controlling for the level of PTSD symptoms reported at Time 1. Mediation analyses were conducted using bootstrapping, a nonparametric statistical procedure that uses repeated sampling to estimate and provide a confidence interval for the indirect effect of the independent variable (IV) on the dependent variable (DV) through the mediator (M). Bootstrapping also provides coefficients and significance tests for the direct effects of the IV on the M (a), the M on the DV (b), and the IV on the DV through the M (c’); the total effect of the IV on the DV (c); and the partial effect of the control variable on the DV. Unlike null hypothesis significance testing, which derives a p value for the indirect effect based on the standard normal distribution, bootstrapping does not impose the assumption of normality on the sampling distribution of the indirect effect (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Participants were categorized into trauma and non-trauma groups based on interim trauma exposure.

By nurturing one’s spiritual well-being, individuals in recovery can gain the strength, resilience, and support necessary to overcome addiction and maintain long-term sobriety. One area where spiritual maladies often come to the forefront is in addiction and substance abuse. For many individuals, addiction is not just a physical or psychological dependency but also a reflection of a deeper spiritual void. Addressing the spiritual aspect of addiction can be a vital component of recovery.

How to Understand How an Addict May Suffer Spiritually

Many theories of PTSD share the premise that PTSD symptoms are caused and maintained by a person’s cognitive efforts to cope with the traumatic event (Keane, Fisher, Krinsley, & Niles, 1994). For example, information processing theories implicate faulty processing of and cognitions about the trauma memory in the development and maintenance of PTSD (Foa & Kozak, 1986; Resick & Calhoun, 2001). The physical allergy is the concept that once a drink or a drug enters the body of an individual with alcohol use disorder (AUD) or substance use disorder (SUD), they cannot stop. Now, the inability to stop drinking or using is the allergy part. Someone who is allergic to shellfish will never be affected by it as long as they do not eat shellfish.

Effectiveness of such treatments may lie in allowing victims to alter the meaning of their trauma in order to view the world, themselves, and a higher power in more benevolent and flexible ways. Although stressful events, both those that qualify as trauma and those that do not, may lead to PTSD symptoms, traumatic events are hypothesized to lead to higher levels of symptomatology. Finally, it is hypothesized that spiritual struggle will mediate the relationship between trauma and PTSD symptoms.

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Finally, enrollment in the study in no way influenced whether a student experienced trauma during the study, ensuring that the choice of being in the study did not interact with the manipulation. For these reasons, we can be confident that the sample did not self-select based on variables related to the study questions. At Time 2, participants indicated whether they had experienced any stressful events since coming to college. The CSLES has high test-retest reliability (Park, Cohen, & Carpenter, 1992; Sandler & Lakey, 1982) and has been used successfully with college students (e.g., Park, Cohen, & Herb, 1990). Given the impact of spiritual struggle on PTSD symptoms, future research should investigate how religious and secular belief systems interact with spiritual struggle in response to trauma. For example, positive religious coping in the presence of struggle may moderate the impact of struggle on PTSD symptoms (e.g., Bjorck & Thurman, 2007), but in the absence of positive religious coping, may reflect a true absence of spiritual supports.

spiritual malady

When not treating the spiritual aspect of the disease those behaviors are the types of things that will start to make life unmanageable once again. Anxiousness, depression, and boredom are a few other https://ecosoberhouse.com/ factors that contribute to being spiritually maladapted. For a while, that seemed to work for us but once we stopped using substances the discontentedness came back to the surface in sobriety.

Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12-Step Program

The way humans think is on a spectrum of self-centeredness and god-centeredness. When dealing with the disease of alcoholism we are selfish and self-centered beings. We use everything and everyone, even when we stop using alcohol and drugs to cope with these feelings of being unsatisfied and uncomfortable in life. The more we focus less on ourselves we allow a god of our understanding to enter our minds and work in our lives. A spiritual malady, then, reduces to a sense of otherness felt by many alcoholics that prevents them from feeling at peace with themselves and the world around them.

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