ISOLATION

Definition of Isolation:
The process or fact of isolating or being isolated

Synonyms of Isolation:
Separation, solitariness, loneliness, friendlessness, lack of contact, etc.

These notes are from recovery in AA and/or related 12 step programs. Readers are encouraged to click external links for more detail. We hope you find them helpful.

Love in fellowship.

Isolation is another way people attempt to maintain a sense of control in recovery. In terms of spiritual bypass, isolation occurs when someone wants to projects he is ‘fine’.

If he can keep his world small, it is easier to look spiritually and emotionally sound. No one can see the pain or fears.

We often isolate out of shame; we don’t really want people to know what we feel like a fraud or that we are afraid. We don’t want to feel judged, because we are already so hard on ourselves.

When someone actually admits these things and having said it out loud it is such a relief. Many control-seeking strategies and behaviours are signals of spiritual bypass.

Most people find it easier to see and identify these things in other people than in themselves. Should your process involve spiritual bypass, you will be given everything you need to take you where you are meant to go.  –Recovering Spirituality/Ingrid Mathieu Ph.D. p.137-147 | More…

Solitude vivifies; isolation kills. From an introverted point of view, I need solitude to regroup, renew, and refresh.

From an agoraphobic point of view, isolation kills my ability to stick to my program. Solitude and Isolation are both active decisions.

Both require some forethought. –One Day At A Time 28/06 | More…

Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. –Oswald Chambers

Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. –Oswald Chambers | More…