Addiction and Spirituality
There are some who believe that, since the patterns of addiction reach so deep as to enter our spiritual reality, the responsibily for healing belongs to the realm of organized religion. Many efforts have been made over the years by sincere and hard working individuals in main line churches and religious organizations but the results have been, for the most part, quite dismal. The reason for this lies in the differences between religion and spirituality.
To begin, it is quite possible for an individual to be quite religious and yet have little or no spirituality. It is just as possible for an individual for an individual to be not at all religious and yet be very spiritual. The two realms are quite different and not at all unclusive of each other. In fact, under some circumstances, they can be mutually exclusive of each other.
One analogy that seems to assist us in most clearly perceiving religion and spirituality and their similarities and differences is to utilize the symbolic reference of water. Water can be expressed as gas, liquid or solid. It can be steam or vapor, the liquid water or ice. Using our analogy, spirituality is vapor or steam, expressed freely they are water, organized into a religious belief system they are ice. Within this same analogy, our belief system is an ice cube tray. Religious dogma dictates the shape of the ice cubes.
Religions as organizations or groups of individuals of like belief systems whose purpose for gathering is to serve and support each other are highly valued in our society. Unfortunately there is a tendency for such organizations to place form above substance. In doing so there is an environment created that encourages and nurtures group behavior that treats those of differing beliefs with less than appropriate respect. We then see a stiffling of spirituality or a distortion of it into something we call religiosity.
To say the least, individuals suffering from damaged or distorted spirituality will find little or no assistance from religious organizations who tend to place form above substance. In fact, they are most likely to face a deepening of their shame core and even more abuse.
Future articles will delve further into the subjects of spirituality and recovery from addiction, offering links to sites that can be of service. Our goal is to show a clear path to developing inner strength and the personal power necessary to recovery.
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