| "Recovery is not complete until we become | | | | addiction. Addicts hope for healing and Baldi used |
| spiritual." Those words began the presentation by | | | | the image of the famous sculpture by |
| Ashok Baldi, MD, at the 42nd annual Spring | | | | Michelangelo, "The Pieta," as a metaphor for |
| Conference of the Wisconsin Association of | | | | self-care. In doing so, Baldi helped the patient |
| Alcohol and Other Drug Addiction. He added that | | | | make a vital connection between a childhood |
| healing does not come from doctors, healing | | | | experience and her present day struggle. Baldi |
| "comes from the hand of God." | | | | was helping the patient see the sculpture as |
| From there Baldi shared from his experiences | | | | "holding the body of the addict" until healing |
| with patients at Aurora Psychiatric Hospital | | | | comes. |
| (Wauwatosa, WI). He called addiction a "search for | | | | Pieta, c. 1498-1500 Baldi's sensitivity to the addict |
| the spirit." Addicts, said Baldi, need to search for | | | | and his understanding of the need for the spiritual |
| the spirit within themselves and the universe. He | | | | connection, were key in producing a successful |
| desires to teach them to get "high on life." | | | | outcome. He talked of our intellectual quotient |
| Addiction treatment needs to make the | | | | (IQ), our emotional quotient (EQ) and our spiritual |
| connection between the "ego and the soul." The | | | | quotient (SQ). The EQ related directly to sobriety, |
| task of the healer is to get to their story, and he | | | | while the SQ centered on our connection to the |
| added that we need to become the "fly on the | | | | divine. Understanding of the spiritual component to |
| wall," to observe our own behavior in the | | | | recovery opens the door to that process. |
| moment. What does a person feel when | | | | We are body, mind and spirit. All three need to be |
| something happens? | | | | addressed. Baldi understands that and brings |
| He talked of the three states a person is | | | | illumination to the third step of the 12-Step |
| in-awake, asleep and dreaming. What happens in | | | | process, when it refers to God, as "we |
| between these states, or as Baldi put it, in the | | | | understood him." Baldi worked with the patient's |
| fourth state, the void? Baldi drew on the spiritual | | | | understanding of God, did not impose his own, and |
| to fill the void. | | | | helped the patient make the connection between |
| Baldi drew from his Hindu background and | | | | the ego and the soul. |
| understanding to make a connection with the | | | | The power of the spiritual cannot be overlooked. |
| patient's Roman Catholic background. These two | | | | Medicine can go only so far. Therapy can only go |
| seemingly opposite worldviews came together in | | | | so far. Healing on comes, as Baldi says, from the |
| a significant way to help the patient through | | | | hand of God. |