BREAKING ADDICTIONS
W
hen I saw Randy, he appeared to be
at death’s door. After a long embrace,
I looked into his eyes, which were
sunk way back into his head. I watched tears
welling up. He told me how good I looked
and how proud he felt that I was clean and
sober. I looked him squarely in the eyes and
said, “Randy, you don’t have to live like this.”
He responded with a perplexed look, cocked
his head a little, and asked, “I don’t?” No one
had ever told Randy that before. My old friend
who did drugs with me, who had abused sub-
stances his entire adult life—like my wife and
I—knew no other way.
But here’s good news. No one has to live
with an overpowering addiction. My wife
and I broke free after 25 years—and so can
you.
Some people spend their lives in a long
search for pain relief. The pain and the relief
come in many emotional and physical forms.
Believe it or not, an addiction is often used as
a coping mechanism. People use addictions to
get through life, and these addictions come
in two varieties: substance abuse and people
abuse, better known as substance addictions
and behavioral addictions.
Substances most commonly abused are
marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, co-
caine, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, as well
as prescription painkillers. Behavioral addic-
tions are much broader and more complex.
They manifest themselves in a variety of ways
ranging from gambling to anger, sexual ad-
dictions, jealousy, gossiping, media addic-
tions, food addictions, overwork, and any
other type of behavior that people use to es-
cape reality.
PROBLEMS FROM THE START
Often, the origins of addictions can be found
in childhood. Although you were not aware of
it, during the early years of your life, your brain
was developing its own equipment and chemi-
cals that would allow you to deal with life and
its ups and downs. If this equipment did not
develop to its full potential for whatever reason
(physical abuse, verbal abuse, neglect, sexual
abuse, and so on), you may have found your-
self searching for other ways to cope with life.
You may be in one of these situations right
now, unknowingly trying to deal with scars
and emotional distress from the past. You
may seek pain relief in a behavior or use a
substance that you know is not good for you,
yet nothing else brings relief. You say in your
heart, How can anyone take this away from
me? It’s the only way I can deal with life. You
might not even be able to identify the pain
and the problems that you’re running from,
and that is exactly what makes this kind of ad-
diction so hard to break.
In other cases, addiction results from sim-
ply fostering your natural human lusts. The
Bible says that “each one is tempted when he
is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth
to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings
forth death” (James 1:14, 15). The Bible de-
scribes someone in this apparently hopeless
condition as a slave, “caught in the cords of his
sin” (John 8:34; Romans 6:16; Proverbs 5:22).
These addictions often seem to be a hope-
less situation, and believe me, friend, I have
been there. Your addiction is the habit that
controls you; you don’t control it. The habit
tells you when and where to engage in it. To
top it all off, each time you choose to engage
in an addictive behavior, neural pathways are
formed to further cement the addiction.
OVERCOMING
So, how do you change coping mecha-
nisms? How do you break out of the ruts that
are carved so deeply into your neural pathways
from lustful habits? How can you construct a
new future for yourself? To fully answer that
question for each individual is beyond the
scope of this pamphlet. Each case is unique,
and much of your recovery process requires
individual attention and advice, some of which
can be found at the end of this pamphlet. But
the first steps, which are the same in all suc-
cessful roads to recovery, are recognizing that
you don’t have to live with addictions and
identifying the source of the solution!
You have a Father in heaven who doesn’t
want you to live your life chained to your ad-
dictions. He wants you to live a free, happy,
and healthful life. He wants you to leave your
past right where it is, in the past. He can be
your new coping mechanism. He wants these
blessings for you so much that He gave His
Son, and through that gift, He gives you all the
power needed to escape the chains that bind
you. Listen to His promise: “No temptation
has overtaken you except such as is common
to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow
you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
but with the temptation will also make the
way of escape, that you may be able to bear it”
(1 Corinthians 10:13). Freedom is possible and
even assured! God can break the addictive
cycle in your life! He is “able to save to the ut-
termost those who come to God through Him”
(Hebrews 7:25).
Have repeated failures stolen hope from
you? Focusing on your lack of ability and your
failures is discouraging, but looking to God
and trusting His power brings problems to
the right perspective. Look at reality for a mo-
ment. The person you are inclined to trust the
most is yourself. Unfortunately, people have
shown time and time again that they don’t do
a very good job managing their lives. To put
it bluntly, we’ve trusted the wrong person. In
Proverbs 3:5, the Bible says to “trust in the Lord
with all your heart, and lean not on your own
understanding.” God says this for a reason. He
knows that your understanding is faulty, He
knows that you are emotionally scarred, He
knows that you are doing the very best you
can, but He also knows that you need to trust
Him and His ability—otherwise your hope
and motivation are gone. He has a new way
mapped out for you, a way of systematically
replacing bad behavior with good behavior, a
way of changing those neural connections in
the brain to work for good and for your advan-
tage, not your detriment.
Jesus once asked a sick, crippled man, “Do
you want to be made well?” (John 5:6) That’s His
question for you today, friend. You don’t have
to live this way. A life of freedom, peace, and
victory is possible for you. You don’t have to be
like my friend Randy. Jesus is reaching out His
hand with inexpressible tenderness and pity,
saying, “Do you want to be made well?”
Check out our recovery resources by visiting our website and
clicking on the “Breaking Addictions” tract.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas
Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover image: ©fpm/E+/Getty Images
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