28. Alcoholism can be seen as a spiritual disease

By Tom O'Connell

Addiction is complicated, not simple. And alcoholism, one of the most popular addictions in today's world, includes physical, mental, emotional and social factors. Yet these factors, I believe, are not at the core of the disease. At the core of the disease is self-centeredness based on a spiritual deficit.

By disease I mean any condition that impairs one's ability to function to full potential. In addiction the condition, or impairment, involves unhealthy dependence. When I think of the word addiction I go back to the Latin words "addictus" meaning "devoted" and the phrase "ad dictum" meaning to be "in bondage."

I also relate to Dr. Stanley's Gitlow's description of addiction as any technique for adapting to the problems of life, other than interpersonal relating. In other words, addiction is a relationship. A substitute relationship. A fraudulent relationship. An alienating relationship.

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, a stoic philosopher (121-180 B.C.), made it clear that we have only three relationships to deal with in life. The relationships to self, to others, and to God. Addiction impairs these relationships by separating us from self, others, and God. Addiction splits us, divides us. And the fuel that keeps our addictions alive is our egotism.

Psychiatrist Harry Tiebout, who advised the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous about half a century ago, described the central problem of the alcoholic as the "Ego with a Capital E." He called it the "inflated ego." To deflate this ego is the major challenge of alcoholism recovery, because humility is required if one wishes to attain healthy sobriety. The addict has to move from playing God to realizing that he or she is not God. A son or daughter of God, yes, but not the Creator.

How is the inflated Ego manifested? We see a pompous, self-important, strutting individual that Dr. Tiebout describes as "a completely self-centered individual...the epitome of selfishness." And Tiebout lists  these features: "Prideful, arrogant, pushing, dominating, attention-seeking, aggressive, opinionated, headstrong, stubborn, determined, impatient."

Describing the childish traits of alcoholics, Dr. Tiebout refers to Freud's "His Majesty the Baby...ruler of all he surveys." This adult baby "tolerates frustration poorly and lets the world know it readily." And this adult baby has a "tendency to do everything in a hurry."

These traits are all signs of immaturity in the "unstoppable" and eternally restless alcoholic. For the person with the inflated Ego, it's "all or nothing." "Hey, one drink? Forget it! Gimme the bottle, pal!"

Dr. Tiebout says, "There can be no successful compromise with Ego...the old Ego must go and a new one take its place." The new ego has a small "e" up front, and no longer demands special preference. And the recovering alcoholic learns the opposite of impatience...takes things in stride. "Easy does it." He or she learns the opposite of drive...can stay in one position, and be open-minded, receptive, and responsive.

But the doctor gives this caution: The Ego is able to "scramble back to safety...master all events and push on ahead." Tiebout says, "The possibility of a return of the Ego must be faced by every alcoholic." Then he talks about the "dry drunk" who makes sobriety "a shambles of discontent and restlessness."

To arrest alcoholism, the doctor points out, "The part of the personality which must surrender is the inflated Ego." That Ego is shaped by "immature traits carried over from infancy to adulthood, specifically a feeling of omnipotence, inability to tolerate frustration, and excessive drive exhibited in the need to do all things precipitously." The object of therapy, according to Tiebout, is this: "To permanently replace the old Ego and its activity."

What is the role of God in this process? First of all, the omnipotence, the belief that one is all powerful and always in charge, has to go. Tiebout says, "As one sees this struggle in process, the need for the helping hand of a Deity becomes clearer."

To strengthen my case for addictions being fundamentally a spiritual problem, in the next few columns I am going to touch on spiritual history and alcoholism history, and report on insights related to our tendency as humans to develop insatiable appetites for love objects that eventually fail to satisfy our craving, and which then become addictions that hurt us instead of help us. Yet paradoxically, even at their worst, I believe our addictions, through the pain they bring us, have the potential of alerting us to the need for a better way of life. A spiritual way of life.

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