A question I was asked by a new student at the Alma School, which I find appropriate to answer publicly, as I believe the answer may benefit others.
Here is the question:
“In the past I had been addicted to drugs, until six years ago. I have been completely clean for the past five years and eight months. I live according to the 12 Steps, and I sponsor other addicts. However, I have always had the desire to grow beyond repeating the same things year after year. Therefore, I continually ask: ‘What is the 13th Step?’
In one of the Alma School courses, ‘Stories for the Soul,’ (a course currently available in the Hebrew language only, which sheds light on daily concepts from the spiritual perspective through stories), you speak about how psychiatric medications cause a disconnection from the spirit, but you don’t specify which medications and why this happens. I am asking this because following my drug rehabilitation, I was flooded with a wave of emotions and voices in my head, and part of the treatment was a medication called Wellbutrin. Initially this medication was used for smoking cessation, but later it was discovered that it helps silence inner voices and improve concentration. Since I began this journey with my wife, Liat – a graduate of the Alma School’s ‘Program for High Knowledge’ – I decided to stop taking this medication, despite the fact that doctors strongly advise against this. Since then, I have been experiencing endless arguments in my head, emotional difficulties, and struggle to concentrate. So, my question is: Do you think that all these medications cause a disconnection from the spirit?”
My answer:
Every addiction – regardless of its nature – always stems from a weak and inactive spirit, which is unable to guide the other bodies: the soul body (to which emotions also belong) and the physical body.
Therefore, in cases where a person experiences intense pain and his spirit lacks the strength to overcome it (or even learn and grow from it!), he often escapes and finds refuge in drugs or psychiatric medications.
These cannot solve the root cause of the problem, of course.
Drugs or psychiatric medications only serve to alleviate the internal struggle, as a sort of “inner pain relievers”, but, simultaneously, they actually silence the voice of the spirit and its power!
This is similar to a person with an unbearable headache taking a painkiller, which indeed stops the pain for a certain period, but only treats the symptom rather than its cause.
Therefore, a true solution to any addiction cannot be replacing one addictive substance with another type. Rather, it must be strengthening the spirit along with its dedication and commitment – from a place of true humility – to God, who is the source of all Power! (I’m not familiar with the 12-step program, but from the little I’ve read about it, its objective seems correct because it recognizes that dealing with addiction can only occur by giving up the attempt to fight it and surrendering to a “Higher Power.”)
However – as you’ve already written – the 13th step is missing, which is finding the Truth: The one Truth, as given to us by the great messengers and especially as revealed in the final revelation of the Light to humanity: “In the Light of Truth – the Grail Message” (which is taught at Alma School’s “Program for High Knowledge,” and whose graduates implement it in Israel and throughout the world).
As you progress on the path of the Truth, your spirit will strengthen, and you will then live in powerful serenity, without any dependence on medication or drugs.
This is not a path of hocus-pocus or a quick-fix, but it is definitely a path where miracles happen for those who persist in walking it!
However, since this is a path that each person must embark upon using his own strength and examine everything he reads and hears objectively – and only then join forces with others for joint fulfillment – I cannot tell you whether to stop the psychiatric medication or not. Rather, you must thoroughly observe and assess the effect of the Power of Truth on your spirit from within. With that understanding, you can determine whether you are strong enough to deal with what will rise up from your soul body (various emotional pains) without such medications.
Although I have never used drugs or psychiatric medications, I have definitely experienced intense emotions of various kinds, and I can testify that the Truth has set my spirit free and connected me to the Eternal Power of God! A Power that offers me joy and happiness that are not dependent on anything external!