Future studies should measure baseline spiritual struggle, to examine whether change in struggle predicts change in PTSD. Though spiritual struggle is generally thought to arise as a result of significant adversity, spiritual struggle due to non-traumatic stressful events could serve as a diathesis for PTSD to a subsequent traumatic event. Additionally, although the mean time between the index event and assessment of struggle and symptoms was four months, some participants may have experienced their event so recently that time was insufficient for the event to have observable effects (Maxwell & Cole, 2007). While we believe that the present study represents an important contribution to our understanding of the intersection of trauma and spirituality, particularly given the paucity of information on this topic, it has limitations that must be considered. First, the final sample represented only a small proportion of the population of first-year students from which it was drawn, limiting the generalizability of our results. The nature of this study required casting a wide net to assess the impact of two low base rate phenomena (trauma exposure and spiritual struggle), and by approaching the entire population of first-year students, we risked a low response rate.

The specific manifestation(s) of addiction represent an attempt to fill this emptiness from the outside. Substances, activities like gambling, eating, or sex, material objects, jobs, money, or people, spiritual malady may fill this hole, but only very temporarily. When the mood-altering effects of the attempted “fix” wear off, the feelings of dis-ease return and are often worse, driving the urge to “use” again.

What is A Spiritual Malady?

Some clients may benefit from treatments designed for spiritual struggles (e.g., Cole & Pargament, 1999; Murray-Swank & Pargament, 2005). Effectiveness of such treatments may lie in allowing victims to alter the meaning of their trauma in order to view the world, themselves, and a higher power in more benevolent and flexible ways. At Time 1, participants reported their history of trauma exposure using the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ; Kubany et al., 2000) in order to anchor the baseline PTSD symptoms (see below) to an event. The TLEQ assesses the occurrence of 22 potentially traumatic events (e.g., life-threatening illness) and asks participants to indicate whether they experienced fear, helplessness, or horror in response to the event, in accordance with diagnostic criteria for PTSD (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

• After attending FSU and FAU where he majored in writing, Bryan ventured out to follow in the footsteps of his idols, running straight into drug addiction.
• Reappraisal of God’s Powers as partial mediator of the relationship between trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms, controlling for baseline PTSD symptoms.
• When being chased by a tiger it is helpful to think “danger”, react quickly, judge without contemplation, defend and protect one’s self.
• We must live our lives selflessly and show our gratitude to a higher power for the lives that we live and the opportunity to have a second chance at life.
• The thoughts we have as alcoholics are often insidious in such a way that we can’t tell what is true or false.

Once we indulge in the first drink, our judgment and normal concerns are skewed. To experience this wellness, one only needs to wake up and then remain awakened, continuing to practice being mindfully conscious, and then, from that objective perspective, simply going forward into the stream of life as God-connected and divinely disciplined beings. We often take them to grave sooner rather than later unless we decide to be open and share our secrets with another person. Most of us were determined to take these secrets, these “sins” to the grave. Shameful secrets can fester in the dark recesses of our minds and inflame our hearts with recrimination and resentment.

The Missing Piece: The Spiritual Malady

Some people have an image of an instantaneously life-changing event—the equivalent of being struck by a bolt of lightening or being spoken to by a burning bush (a la Moses) or some similarly dramatic and unmistakable occurrence. They may anticipate a sensational event that will forever change their lives, permanently elevating them above the routine din of the daily grind, and giving them the secret to ongoing happiness. Reappraisal of God’s Powers as partial mediator of the relationship between trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms, controlling for baseline PTSD symptoms. Demonic Reappraisal does not mediate the relationship between trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms, controlling for baseline PTSD symptoms. Punishing God Reappraisal as partial mediator of the relationship between trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms, controlling for baseline PTSD symptoms.