Some studies have found that alcohol craving, defined as the degree to which a person feels compelled to drink in the presence of internal or external alcohol-related triggers, is predictive of alcoholism treatment outcome. While spirituality is increasingly recognized in the literature as an essential factor in the treatment of alcohol addiction, it still remains a largely overlooked element in medical circles. In the last decade, changes have been taking place in this area as well. There is more and more scientific research that confirms that spiritual experiences dramatically alter our brain in relation to emotions, behavior and learning and the feeling of connection and letting go, thinking about existential questions and to the perception of meaning.
According to Viktor Frankl, a person only becomes aware of his authentic self and his responsibility from the point of view of spirituality. Once the disease of addiction progresses, alcohol takes over and the loss of spirituality becomes more pronounced. The spiritual aspect of alcoholism treatment deals with a person's "spiritual awakening," a sense of meaning in life, and includes the individual's relationship to self, the world, and something beyond. The definition of spirituality does not necessarily include religion. Spirituality is broader, less formal than religion, which refers to a set of beliefs and principles, and both have a common search for the sacred or transcendental. One form of treatment of alcoholism is the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) community. Their spiritual program Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions provides the alcoholic with a path to develop a full and contented life without alcohol.
In the empirical part of the thesis, we presented the results of a quantitative research in which 167 individuals were involved. Among them, 55 were included in one form of treatment for alcoholism, while 114 were not included in any treatment. We found that there is a statistically significant connection between the dimensions of daily spiritual experiences, the perception of meaning in life and the desire for alcohol. The more spiritual experiences there were, the lower the desire for alcohol, and more frequent daily spiritual experiences also meant a greater sense of meaning in life. The greater the sense of meaning in life, the lower the desire for alcohol. Depending on the level of meaning, we found that there are differences in the frequency of daily spiritual experiences, where people in the area of existential security had better frequent daily spiritual experiences than people in the area of residential vacuum. People in the area of frustration also had more frequent daily spiritual experiences comparing to people in existential vacuum.
Differences according to the level of meaning in life did not show statistical significance in the desire for alcohol. A comparison between people who were involved in one form of treatment for alcoholism and people in general who were not involved in treatment showed that there was a statistically significant difference in daily spiritual experiences, which turned out to be more common in people who are involved in treatment and in the desire for alcohol, which is also less pronounced in persons involved in treatment. The comparison, however, did not show statistically significant differences between the groups regarding the sense of meaning in life.
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