Introduction
The amount of money spent in treatment centers for addictions in America is on the rise. Either more people are falling into addictions or more people are educating themselves about addictions and seeking help. I believe the second idea is closer to the truth. Also professional counselors have classified more kinds of behaviors as addictions than before. Now it seems we can be addicted to anything, food, sex, the Internet and a whole host of things that can become the objects of compulsive behavior. It is clear that humans can become compulsive about anything and believe that any person, state of mind or inanimate object is necessary for us to be at ease within our minds. This article will examine some basic issues related to addictions and offer the beginning of God’s solutions for believers who struggle with addictive behaviors.
What is an Addiction?
Addiction is defined as a state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. (Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009). Addiction is enslavement or a habit that causes extreme suffering if we try to do without the object of the addiction. The slavery can be mental and/or physical. We can be addicted to a substance like alcohol, to a person like a mate or a situation like the feeling that comes from gambling. Addiction can be mental without a physical dependency, thinking that we must have the object of desire or we can’t be at ease. The addiction can be to substances that cause a physical dependence like drugs or alcohol.
Addiction vs. Dependence
In the medical field, a distinction is made between physical dependence and addiction. A person can become dependent upon a medicine for their body to function in a healthy manner, like diabetics are dependent upon insulin. Addicts on the other hand use their drug of choice for the pleasure and to hide from pain. They have a psychological use for their addiction that is related to escaping from the reality of life. When a person has a medical problem that requires that they become dependent on a medical solution, they are not considered addicts.
Pleasure and Pain
Addiction usually has 2 sides to it. The obvious side is the pleasure involved in the relationship to the object of addiction. Few people become addicted to something that causes them pain but many become addicted to things that bring them pleasure. Alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, a person and other substances and situations can be a source of pleasure that can become an addiction. When we conclude that the pleasure gained from the object is necessary for our daily life or for us to be at ease, we have become attached to the object in an unhealthy way. The bible explains that our craving for pleasure comes from the corruption of our desires through a selfish nature inherited from Adam and a false belief system that tells us that gratification of our desires is a sufficient substitute for the joy that God wants to give us.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
Lust is normal desire gone wrong. When desire, which is normal in itself is corrupted by the false idea that gratification is happiness, we can become fixated on gratification to the point where it becomes our primary goal in life. God offers the Christian a better way to find happiness that is genuine and lasting.
Gal 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
When we allow the Holy Spirit who is God, to influence the ideas we use to live our life and make our decisions, He leads us into life of meaning, purpose and fulfillment. The joy and contentment that comes from living a life filled with God’s purpose, is the better life He offers in place of our addictions and gratification as happiness.
Avoiding Pain
The other side of addiction is the use of pleasure as an escape from pain. Life in the devil’s world causes deep soul pain for all of us. This life is full of loss and the loss of important people and things causes grief in our hearts. This life is also filled with injustice and unfair treatment that causes us to feel unfairly treated and cheated by those who hurt us. When we are hurting inside, we naturally look for ways to make the pain go away. The bible talks about the natural reactions of children who have been mishandled by their parents.
Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart.
To exasperate means to make angry through overbearing treatment. Fathers can allow themselves to become angry with their children and discipline with anger. When they use anger to bully their children, it feels like unfair and unloving treatment to the children. The children naturally react to parental anger by losing heart. The Greek word athumos means to be without passion or to numb your feelings. Children have very few options when parents treat them unkindly. They are too young to leave and go on their own so they have to stay and find a way to cope. One way children cope is to numb their hurt by repressing their feelings. Repressing emotion creates a split in the soul because they lose touch with their pain by forcing it into the subconscious. The pain is still there, hidden but the child no longer remembers it and thinks he has effectively dealt with it, but has not. It will remain unresolved deep in the heart and can lead to depression later in life.
Unresolved Pain
Unresolved, repressed pain eventually comes out in adult life. It shows up in our primary relationships of marriage and raising our own children (see the Angry Dad article). When the pain surfaces, we will have forgotten where it came from, why it is there or what to do about it. We just know that we are sad and we hurt inside. Not knowing how to resolve the pain, we look for any way we can find to not feel it. A convenient pain reduction method is the pleasure of alcohol, drugs, gambling or a love relationship. When we use a substance and get pain relief, we begin to hope that we have found a good way to reduce our pain. The pleasure and relief cycle begins to perpetuate itself but offers no real resolution to the pain. In addition, the more we use pleasure to distract us from pain, the less effective pleasure from substance use works. We build a tolerance to the substance so that we have to use more and more to get the same relief. Tolerance is why addicts lose control of their using behaviors. Eventually, they have to use so much that they spend all of their money to obtain enough to find relief. Their behavior spirals out of control and they become enslaved by their substance of choice. The bible explains that when we abandon our self to pursue pleasure, we become more and more desensitized to pleasure and pain.
Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
The Fatal End
When we reject God’s plan for happiness and pursue happiness through addictive behaviors, we end up callous and abandon our self to a frantic search for happiness through pleasure. We end up enslaved to a progressive addiction producing less and less satisfaction, still in pain and caught in a trap. Additionally, some will also eventually lose their health because overuse of alcohol or drugs kills the body. If our addiction is to gambling, we lose all of our money, then our family, our jobs and maybe everything we love. The end of an addiction is a bad place where losing everything is inevitable.
The Better Way
Many people fall prey to addictive behaviors but God has a better way to live. He offers the pleasure of His presence through the Holy Spirit, which provides more pleasure and satisfaction than anything in this life. When we trust in Christ for salvation, God gives us eternal life as a present possession the moment we believe. Following our salvation, He offers us a life of victory over all of the difficulties of life. Using His grace to faithfully endure hardship in every stage of life brings great fulfillment in this life and reward in the next. God’s plan offers the human race a far better life than a life dominated by addictions. His way builds us into strong, loving, giving people who can gracefully endure everything life brings all the way to the end. His way involves an addiction, but an addiction to God who is the only one worthy of our total dependence and worship.
Ephesians 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,
Before God created the world, He saw each of us and created our blessings for time and eternity. He decided to send His son Jesus to pay for our sins and chose us to be saved in Christ. Before time he decided to adopt us into His family and lavish His grace on us so that when all is said and done, His love and grace will be glorified and He will be praised forever. We have a chance to be a part of this great plan and that is a far better opportunity than being dominated by an addiction to hide from our pain.
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