The Spiritual Dimension of Recovery
Have you noticed how few words there are for joyful states as compared to states of distress or pain?
We have an entire DSM-IV for painful/fearful states, medical dictionaries for painful physical conditions
and nothing comparable for feeling good or just at ease. A few words such as love, happiness, joyful,
euphoric, ecstatic, content … and soon, the list ends. Yet, this short list is the end goal, the gold at the
end of the rainbow if you will, that gives us the fuel to endure all the ten thousand plus negative states
we experience in a lifetime. The question is what creates these joyful states and why are they so
unavailable for so many of us: so unavailable that we end up with labels like bipolar or chemically
dependent or both. So unavailable that we are compelled to search for something, anything… to at least
explain the pain to ourselves. The search can lead to the trap of excessive use of alcohol and other drugs
for some while others become trapped in conspiracy plots which are little more than inflated ego states
where the CIA or the neighbors or alien life forms are out to get them. Fortunately, the search takes
many to the rooms of recovery such as Alcoholics Anonymous and to community mental health centers
for others where counseling and medications help restore their balance. That’s good, but not enough,
for the search is not only to stop the drinking or the intrusive thoughts or the voices, but to feel whole,
to feel joy and love and trust. The push and pull is for the gold at the end of the rainbow and that often
leads to the need for an understanding of who we really are ,why we exist and it is here that people get
really interesting and inventive; far more so than any other creature.
Not everyone follows an organized religion, but humans seem to be hardwired to believe in something
greater than themselves. Whether one calls this “something” God, Allah, the soul, higher power, First
Source, higher self, essence or any number of other names, it is clear more believe than do not. Even
more important is its impact on the quality of our individual and collective lives. While it is important to
be skeptical of claims that lack scientific proof, unchecked skepticism serves as a barrier to the very
states that humans must experience in order to remain balanced. So right away we have to accept that
some risk is involved in letting go of our “in control” left brain in order to find the gold. The reason(s) for
the hardwire is beyond the scope of this author and this article and I would be reluctant to give any
reasons anyway because the other phenomenon closely aligned with the belief in something greater
than one’s self, is a tendency amongst us to be a bit too defensive towards others who believe
otherwise and often to think less of those with beliefs that are different from ours. So, I won’t discuss
the power of prayer, meditation, deep breathing, chanting, crystals, etc. What I will suggest can be
added to any or all of these, if you so choose. Finally, what I suggest may not strike you as “Spiritual” at
all because it is so simple and down to earth. It works if you work it.
For the sake of this article I want to offer a few points about the recovery and spirituality process for
those of us who find ourselves with mental health or substance use disorders. I will leave aside
intellectual disorders for this article as the challenges here are often quite different, involving quality of
life issues versus behavioral health matters. Mental Health and Substance Use disorders take a direct
toll on one’s ability to enjoy life with severity of symptoms determining the corresponding degree of
suffering. I speak in general terms here too, because there is no real gage or measure that lets you know
how great your suffering is compared to another’s or even whether it’s greater today than last year.
Neither is it clear whether you should define it as “psychological” distress as opposed to “soul” suffering
or something else altogether. Does it involve just your mind, your thoughts or is it mind and body with
distress disturbing you as much physically as mentally and spiritually? Is it genetic, environmental or
both? Is it your parents’ fault, society’s or are you just unlucky, cursed or maybe, being tested? There’s
a gaggle of terms, words, meanings to consider and paths to pursue when trying to describe what you
go through every day when you have one of the “disorder” labels. To a lesser degree, those of us who
“appear” to be balanced follow a similar process when we’re disturbed by events in our lives and it is a
rare bird that has lived life into middle age and beyond who hasn’t had a period or two when their
distress created thoughts, feelings and behaviors, no matter how short lived, that could not have been
labeled “disordered” and diagnosable. So, what are we describing? What are we talking about and how
do we make sense of all the terms that we stress over when sorting out recovery and beliefs and the big
stuff like religion and spirituality?
To me we are quite simply doing our best to describe what it feels like when love is absent. Joyful
states are essentially non-verbal. The genuine smile or laugh neuters the thinking brain, temporarily
cutting it off or at least reducing its dominance over our awareness and it is the left brain or thinking
brain, so highly valued in our society, that is most active when we are in pain; and the source of much of
the problem(s). The modern world cherishes the rational brain and credits it with much of the
advancements in health, wealth, science and well-being that we have today. Yet, for all its status in the
modern world, it’s marvelous ability to sort, ponder, discover, verbalize, solve and resolve life issues, it is
ill equipped to actually remove negative, destructive feelings. If anything, the case can be made that the
rates of alcoholism, bipolar and other disorders are higher now than ever before. Technology has
certainly improved our lives externally, but the internal person too often has remained largely
unchanged.
And yet, time and again, we meet people who find a way, a genuine way, to lift themselves off of that
bed of thorns and stay off of it. Until most recently, the credit was given to talk therapies and
medications for the improvements in mood and behavior and the overall improvement in life experience
for those with mental health disorders. Self empowerment, working a recovery plan and belief in a
power “greater than oneself” was confined to those with alcohol and other drug addictions. Now, the
tools of recovery are available to those with mental health disorders; and fortunately it involves the
dimension of spirituality.
If you’re making a sincere attempt to walk the path of recovery, the tools are few, simple and powerful.
To activate the spirituality dimension of recovery try a few of these suggested behaviors:
_Tell yourself you want to become a more conscious being; the left brain will have you for dinner for not
defining this more precisely, but don’t define it. This is the easiest, the hardest and the most important
of the suggestions. I hope you try this.
_ Change your routine -once in awhile dress differently, eat differently, take a different route to work, to
the store, etc.
_ Become an actor-let go of your fixed notion of who you are. You are not just that personality anyway
or else you wouldn’t have to dream at night; so know that you can only act out a tiny portion of your
repertoire.
_Become aware of the tendency to want to replace your life with another life- that’s usually your left
brain comparing you to some hypothetical standard and saying you don’t measure up; what it doesn’t
tell you is it is overwhelmed with your courage in facing and conquering the difficulties in your life-it
doesn’t know how you do it and never will.
_Express your joy whenever and wherever you sense it- yes, you will look out of sync at times and yes,
you will be admired- others will notice your joy and want it because it’s the gold they seek as well.
These are a few tools that will open the spiritual dimension of recovery. They work because they
bypass the rational brain and they seem inconsequential to the cultural beliefs you may have about
religion or spirituality. Try it and you’ll grow to like it. You may even release a few beliefs that have
burdened you. That’s also the goal and the gold of this article.
There is a lot more I’d like to say but I’ve gone on for far too long. My left brain wanted to turn this into
a research report with footnotes. My conscious self successfully neutered it. Play with these suggestions
and fine tune them as you use them. Entertain the contradictions that come up and laugh at how easily
you handle them. That’s the power of the spiritual dimension. It embraces change and sails through
contradictions.
Oh, by the way, these suggestions are not confined to those who choose the recovery path. Anyone
can benefit from them.