Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Spirituality

[MajestyJo]

PTSD 12-Step Recovery

Spirituality

Many trauma survivors have a problem with spirituality. In fact,
you have one or more of the following issues with spiritual beliefs
and a Higher Power concept.
Where was God?
What do I believe in now?
How do I reconcile a belief in God with what has happened?
How do I face the reality of my fragile life?
How can I trust God again now that I know bad things can
happen to me?
I cannot forgive my perpetrator
I am lacking in my faith. Why???
How can I believe in a Higher Power when there is evil and
cruelty in the world?
How does God view suffering in the world?
What is the meaning of what happened?
I don’t feel safe anywhere.
My life no longer feels predictable
I am angry with God, is He angry with me?
I feel like God abandoned me.
I feel betrayed by God.
What is my relationship to God now?
I feel ashamed; God wouldn’t want me anymore.
I feel dirty; so, I cannot get close to God.
I feel distanced from the community now that this happened.
No one will ever understand.
Am I at fault?
I feel so powerlessness.
What do I believe in now?
How do I make sense out of what happened?
I no longer understand the meaning of life.
Where is there value in my suffering?
My perpetrator was never punished, what now?
I don’t feel like I belong anywhere anymore. Goodness doesn’t protect anyone.
How can I believe in a loving, all-powerful God after what
happened?
How do I resolve my feelings of guilt with a faith in a
Higher Power?
I still feel God abandoned me.
It is difficult to think of God as a loving Father after what my
own father did to me.

These are very deep questions. You have a right to this difficult struggle with ideas related to faith and belief in God. Your struggle doesn’t prevent you from working a 12-step program
of recovery. In fact, being in this struggle is one aspect of
working a 12-step program of recovery on your PTSD.

All that is required to work this aspect of a 12-step program is a willingness to face these issues. You do not have to believe in God to start working a program of recovery. What is needed is an open mind and a resolve to work through the spiritual damage done to every trauma survivor. Spiritual recovery from trauma comes when you make your peace with a belief in a higher power even though this awful trauma happened to you.

www.mental-health-today.com/ptsd/12step.htm

No matter what the label is, the 12 Steps are applicable.