The Impact of Spirituality on Addiction: A Psychological Perspective

This essay explores the significant role of spirituality in addressing and overcoming various forms of addiction. It begins by defining addiction and lists different types, including drug, pornography, gambling, and eating disorders. The essay emphasizes how spiritual intervention, such as seeking guidance from spiritual leaders, can boost self-esteem, reduce isolation, and alleviate stress, ultimately aiding in the recovery process. It highlights the importance of spiritual practices in providing comfort, hope, and a sense of purpose, which are crucial for those battling addiction. The essay concludes by advocating for increased awareness and support from spiritual leaders and the government to combat the rising rates of addiction, particularly among young people.

RUNNING HEAD: SPIRITUALITY 1
Role of Spirituality in Addiction
Students Name
Professors Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

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Introduction
Addiction is a state which means a person is totally used to something or someone so
much to an extent in which he/she cannot do without the person or thing. It comes about after
dependency on something, physically and emotionally. Spirituality, in this case, plays a vital
role in lowering the level of addiction of the person involved. Spiritual intervention entails
finding a deep connection with what is seemingly above us. With the growing population of
young unemployed people, it can be noticed that the level of addiction rises, this means that
substance abuse is high and the worship leaders have played their part in creating awareness
to the population. Spiritual knowledge is a key process in overcoming addiction.
Body
The term ‘addiction’ does not necessarily mean that one is addicted to an only drug
(Connors, McKenzie, Robinson, Tager, 2019). Well, there are quite a number of types of
them as listed below just to mention some of the common forms:
 Drug Addiction; this is associated with the abuse of substance, most which
lead to mental disorders if excessively used and might lead to death thereafter
if not dealt with(Ashman,& Laura,2018). Such include the use of Marijuana,
nicotine (hard drugs)
 Pornography addiction; this is physical addiction to deep and explicit sexual
content which might lead to the arousal of other sexual lifestyles such as
masturbation (Grubbs, Wilt, Exline, Pargament, & Kraus, 2018).
 Gambling Addiction; it is a problem gambling; where the person cannot
control the need to place a wager often losing a lot of money and risking
financial ruin. (Holst, Sescousse, Janssen, Berry, 2018).

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 Bad eating; mostly associated with poor eating habits or low levels of appetite
for a prolonged period of time in someone’s life (Abraham, Noriega, & Shin,
2018).
All these forms of addictions can, however, be controlled that means the party has to
incorporate a higher ‘immortal’ rank to their lives using as per our study case here.
Spirituality in addiction increases the sense of self-esteem in the person (ClementeDi, 2018).
At most cases when people indulge in something, they start isolating themselves, avoid other
people companies. During this period, the person’s self-esteem is really lowered and they
move away from the rest, some end up in the depression mode. Mostly when this does occur,
the person's health and social life deteriorate. However, when this is noticed, the addict may
seek an alternative solution which is seeking spiritual intervention from a close spiritual
person since this cannot be overcome alone. I conquer that spiritual guidance helps retrieves
someone from the hole of addiction- the person will be free with the priest or whoever it is,
and will slowly be incorporated to the ‘clean society’ with the most power.
Spiritual treatment helps lower the level of stress in the case where the spiritual leader
shows compassion and comfort to the addict. (Venniro, Caprioli, Hoots, Golden, 2018). The
scripture as a whole contains a strong message which carries along with some comfort with it.
As in the case of stress, the ‘higher’ person can talk well with the addict and render him/her
one-two verses that can be stress relieving and also some of the songs. Stress is a period of
overthinking after a personal struggle and it can be handled with this too.
Spirituality helps overcome addiction by momentarily increasing the feelings of joy
and peace within the addict. Even if it’s not always, but at least occasionally it does that. We
all know that a happy soul is a peaceful mind; which means less level of depression. This

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happens with the proper knowledge about the spiritual life of the addict who will definitely
want change which is of course positive.
Spirituality creates a future hope within someone who seemed to be hopeless at one
point. Continuous addiction to some point might lead to the case of being unwanted by
society and makes someone feels not chosen by society. With hope, the addict enjoys the gift
of life; living positively even with some struggles here and there, there’s a belief that all will
be well in the end.
Conclusion
Spiritual life plays a vital role in changing the addicts’ life. Since this is the only
‘peaceful’ platform that people visit and share their feelings and thoughts without fear of
being criticized by anyone. Mostly with the continued use of drugs amongst the people is
regarded to the leading source of addiction and the government has played its role too in
trying to reduce this menace by imposing policies such as imposing huge fines on those
found selling and penalties to those found using. Spiritual leaders should also enhance their
campaign against the use of the substance and another form of addictions by continuously
creating open forums for the people battling with them.

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