The idea of spirituality for the recovering alcoholic can be off-putting to some. It’s often the idea of a Higher Power or “God as we understand him” or simply the talk of spirituality that keeps people from getting the recovery help they need. The Discovering Alcoholic, who writes a top rated recovery blog, www.discoveringalcoholic.com, covering alcoholism, substance abuse, treatment and recovery issues, shares his thoughts.

Spirituality in a Nutshell for the Recovering Alcoholic by The Discovering Alcoholic

There’s a reason why explanations on the importance of spirituality in recovery either follow along the lines of religious dogma or new age mysticism – it’s because the attainment, even the definition, of spirituality is of such personal and intangible nature that people almost have to explain it through familiar, traditional terms that are readily available.

Not so here at TDA though, no preachers with their sermons and formulaic worship or shamans with the incense and the obligatory meditation are necessary. And I intend to not only explain what spirituality is, why it’s important, and but also to illuminate this numinous path to enlightenment.

Spirituality in a nutshell is the opposite of addiction. Wow, I even did it in just three words!

That’s right, the active alcoholic and addict is always wrapped up in his or her own egocentric little world fabricated of lies and rationalizations all crafted for the sole purpose of feeding the addiction. It’s me, myself, and I as the three musketeers and unfortunately at this point we usually despise all three; there can be no Joy in Muddville with this team of losers. The pursuit of spirituality is breaking away from this mindset. The pathway is recovery itself — learning to care for others, finding purpose outside of personal gain, and becoming the opposite of an addict, selfless. The contentment and joy one finds from not what we have consumed but what we have actually fostered, produced, and accomplished becomes our spirituality.

Spirituality. It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world; one that not only did I never experience as an alcoholic but by my very nature could not even comprehend. I’m not always in touch with my spirituality and sometimes even completely at sea, but there are those times with family, friends, and work that just click and it’s then it’s snap like that and I feel like a guru.

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