Wednesday: Loss of Freedom
God alone knows how many millions, even billions, of people struggle with some form of addiction. To this day, scientists still don’t understand exactly what causes it, even though in some cases they actually can see the part of our brain in which the cravings and desires are located.
Addiction
Unfortunately, finding the locations of those addictions is not the same thing, however, as freeing us from the addictions.
Addiction is hard on everyone, not just the addict. Family members—parents, spouses, children—all suffer greatly when any member of the family is under the grip of a power that they just can’t seem to get free of.
Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, sex, even food—what makes these things into addictions is the habitual and progressive nature of their use or abuse. You are unable to stop even when you know that it is harming you. While enjoying your freedom of choice, you become a slave to whatever you are addicted to, and so you actually lose your freedom. Peter has a simple explanation of what an addiction is and its results: “They promise freedom to everyone. But they are merely slaves of filthy living, because people are slaves of whatever controls them” (2 Pet. 2:19, CEV).
What are the things that can lead people into addiction? Luke 16:13, Rom. 6:16, James 1:13-15, 1 John 2:16.
Sin and addiction are not, necessarily, the same thing. You can commit a sin that you are not addicted to, though so often it can turn into an addiction. How much better, through the power of God, to stop the sin before it turns into an addiction. And, of course, the only lasting solution to the sin and addiction problem is by receiving a new heart. “Because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires” (Gal. 5:24, CEV). Paul also explains to the Romans what it means to die to that sinful, addictive nature so we can live for Christ (Rom. 6:8-13), and then adds, “Let the Lord Jesus Christ be as near to you as the clothes you wear. Then you won’t try to satisfy your selfish desires” (Rom. 13:14, CEV).
| Who has not personally known the struggle of addiction, either in our own selves or that of others, maybe even family members? How can you help people realize that it’s not an admission of spiritual failure if, even as Christians, they might still need professional help? |
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Cyrus Mwangi,
Mombasa- Kenya,
29th May 2019.
Dear sir /madam,
Praise God. I hope this letter finds you in good health.
I'm just writing to inform you that whatever kind of addiction has overtaken you is common to mankind.
You have not been tempted beyond what you can bear and our almighty God has provided a way out for you.
Remember whatever has overtaken you comes not from the Father but from the world.
Please avoid bad company for it corrupts good character and resist the devil and he will flee from you.
I know you have the right to do anything but not anything is beneficial. You should not be mastered by anything.
You should say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live in a self-controlled, upright and godly life.
Finally my dear friend watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
I hope to hear from you soon.
God bless you.
Yours faithfully,
Cyrus.
I am disturbed that this lesson seems to say that addiction is the result of repeatedly indulging in sin, and that the cure is “receiving a new heart”. Addiction is a disease...a physical and mental disease. God can miraculously cure a person of an addiction...just as He can miraculously cure diabetes or any other disease. But the truth is that for most people He does not. Most people need treatment to control their disease, and there may well be relapses that have nothing to do with their relationship with God. Go through this lesson again and replace the word “addiction” with “cancer”, “diabetes”, “schizophrenia”. While the presence of all disease is the result of sin in this world, it is wrong...and just plain cruel...to suggest any disease is the result of repeatedly engaging in sin, and that the cure is obedience to God. The author of this lesson got this one so wrong, and I am horrified that millions of people around the world are reading this and thinking they are failures because their addiction didn’t disappear with prayer.
I agree to a certain point with Ms. Graves. Many become addicts from following doctor instructions and later find out they are addicted to pain killers. Both of our children are in the world not because we, as parents, did not pray, care and be consistent role models to them. We have helped, prayed and begged our children to seek professional treatment to no avail. I urged all to continue to pray for the lost because only God can reach them in a way we cannot. God Bless All!
Me too. Just having a difficult time with this lesson. I fell like I'm slogging through it and cringing at the way the info is being presented.
The lesson say, "Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, sex, even food—what makes these things into addictions is the habitual and progressive nature of their use or abuse." This is only partially correct. It is also simplistic. Addiction is a complicated physiological and psychological phenomena that takes the form of uncontrollable behaviors, and/or chemical dependency. The addicted person cannot control how they use a substance or partake in an activity, they become dependent upon it to cope with life.
To call it a disease is correct. It is something that is beyond your control, like cancer, or a common cold, for example. Granted, it may be the repetitive action or use for which evolves into addiction, but repetitive is not always the case. Some become alcoholics with one drink, and opioid addicts with one pill. In some the pleasurable feeling that comes to control the addict is additive upon first experience. It is not entirely understood why that is the case, or why some never become addicted to alcohol or food, etc.
This lesson should have been more careful on making this clear. Just as it is harmful to make a person with cancer feel guilty for their disease had they "eaten properly," it is equally damaging to tell an addict they just need to stop and trust Jesus. Recovery from addiction takes a "village" to bring a person along an exit from that which has controlled them. Mary was relieved of demon possession by Jesus seven times, not seven demons at once.
Shawn, I agree with you. Christians don’t deal with mental illness or addictions like they do “physical illnesses”. The former are somehow felt to be a problem with your relationship with God while the latter less so. There are instances where physical diseases are caused by our actions as well as mental diseases and even addictions. We all believe God could perform a miracle and that is not what usually happens: hence the definition of a miracle. We will see a physician with years of training to address serious physical ailments and use various treatment modalities. There often is this sharp bright line that divides physical and emotional diseases in the mind of the Christian. In the latter if we pray more, develop a deeper faith, eat a better diet, etc. we will get better. I’ve only rarely met a patient severely ill from an infection suggest that better faith, longer prayers, a deeper relationship with God, etc. is preferable to antibiotics or other necessary treatments. However if that same person suffers from depression, schizophrenia or addictions they and others think somehow they don’t need the therapist or psychiatrist with years of training if they only take it to God. The person with a heart attack that can be treated by a skilled interventional cardiologist is overjoyed to avail themselves of this chance. The person with emotional illness is often hesitant or even worse make to feel guilty because they lack faith if they utilize the skill of a therapist.
Why do you think this is the case? I would enjoy hearing reasons proposed by others for this dichotomy.
I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with “seeing is believing”. Physical diseases have some “proof” that can be seen, even if it’s only by a blood test, X-ray, etc. Some mental illnesses will have some kind of physical test that points to a diagnosis. But for the most part mental illnesses...and addictions...are diagnosed based on behavior. We like to think we are in control of our behavior, so when people can’t control themselves, it’s seen as a character (or spiritual) flaw.
I believe the lesson author is "right on" when he writes that "Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, sex, even food—what makes these things into addictions is the habitual and progressive nature of their use or abuse." He wasn't writing a medical handbook. Thus describing his statement as "simplistic" is not quite fair, since the basic principle stands.
Of course, there may be other causes of addiction, like prescription drugs to which someone can become unknowingly addicted.
But I think that writing off addictions as "disease" with which we have nothing to do is abdicating personal responsibility, which was something begun in the Garden of Eden. A great many of us don't know whether we have the genetic predisposition to alcoholism, for instance, because we don't take that first drink. We don't know whether we might become addicted to gambling, because we don't gamble. Unfortunately pornography addiction is almost as prevalent in the church as in the world. But it doesn't happen without cause. People who don't view pornography don't become addicted to it.
How many addictions can you think of that do not being with repeated indulgence in sin? Even food addiction/overeating is a matter of repeatedly filling a felt need with food, when food is not what is needed. Only God can fill the needs that many of us develop over our life times.
Along with addictions, depression is also a sign of our age. The standard medical treatment consists largely of drugs, but these do not really cure depression. If they work, they work only as a crutch, and crutches do not make people well. Dr. Neil Nedley has had far better success curing depression than doctors who use mainline medical treatments. He teaches patients about the value of the natural remedies which also make up the acronym NEWSTART: Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance (Self-Discipline), Fresh Air, Rest (Sleep),Trust in God.
Failure to use these natural remedies also play a part in addictions as well as in most chronic diseases of our society, such as diabetes and heart disease. (I know a little about maturity onset diabetes, having a genetic predisposition, like may father. His diabetes was kept under control by diet and maybe not quite enough exercise. I am pre-diabetic and intend to stay that way with the help of the natural remedies. If I abdicated my personal responsibility in this, I would certainly now be diabetic and would suffer all the consequences that go with it.)
As Adventists, we've known about the natural remedies for over 150 years. God wants us to be holy, healthy and happy, and He has given us instructions for reaching this state by His power and grace.
Christ came to deliver us from the slavery of sin, which includes addictions.
(None of the above is meant to assert that medical treatments do not have their place.)
I am a big fan of NEWSTART. I have their cookbook, I have been to Weimar, I believe in their principles. But the simple truth is that people can DIE while withdrawing from drugs and alcohol. To tell them repentance and sunshine is all they need is irresponsible.
If you are a fan of NEWSTART, you know that doesn't mean telling people that "repentance and sunshine is all they need."
However, even going through a professional detox program without the Lord is of no lasting benefit. (The most to be hoped for without the Lord is going to hell sober.) In a way, addicts have an advantage over those of us who "have it all together." They generally know their need, while we often don't recognize that we are totally dependent on the Lord.
Seeking the Lord first will bring the most sure and lasting benefit, combined with following the Lord's program, as outlined in NEWSTART. That doesn't exclude professional help where it is available. Also see my other comment.
It should be noted, too, that addiction is a brain disease. There is actual physical changes that occur in the brain that make addiction compulsive. There is a stage lower that often becomes mistaken with addiction, that of dependency. One can be dependent physically to a medication and reveal symptoms of withdrawal when cut off "cold turkey" and a gradual drawdown is necessary to establish a break with dependency. Addiction isn't like that. As stated it is a brain disease with a physical alteration of the brain that brings a person far beyond dependency.
Yes, physical changes occur in the brain as a result of various addictions, including addictions to alcohol, tobacco, sex, TV and many other addictions. This does not, however, mean that there is no choice involved. This does not mean that there is a cure in drugs.
I have personally seen God work miracles to deliver individuals from alcohol or tobacco addiction. In one case, God chose to deliver an alcoholic from tobacco addiction instantly, but He left the man to struggle for years with his alcohol addiction. (I believe it was to re-build his strength of character.) When the man finally refused to take his last drink and poured all his alcoholic beverages down the drain it was a victory made by *his* choice with the power of God.
I know of another man instantly delivered from alcohol addiction, while continuing to smoke through Bible studies. Delivery from tobacco followed later, with some struggle.
Most addictions need to be overcome by deliberately making right choices - choices which are much harder in an addicted state than they were when that person first entered the addiction pathway by giving in to the desires of the flesh. God gladly supplies the power, but the addict needs to make the choices. The wonderful news is that, even for the addicted person, the promise holds true that the Lord will not allow anyone to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear but will provide a way of escape. (1 Cor 10:13) That's a precious promise to cling to when the temptation to continue the path of addiction seems overpowering. God does not abandon us when we become mired in the pit we have dug for ourselves but stands ready to deliver us, waiting only for us to choose to depend on Him.
We now know that changes in the brain are reversible, to some extent, at least. And the Lord who does not tempt us beyond what we are able to bear, the Lord who provides the power to overcome addictions, is the same Healer of all our diseases not just of the soul but of the body as well.
Kevin, since you suggested a qualitative difference between dependence and addiction, I looked it up and found a number of answers, not all of them the same. The following answer is from The National Institute of Drug Abuse: (It seems to me that the difference in regard to physical substances isn't all taht clear-cut, and the point of the lesson would apply to both.)
Our God still has the same power today:
I don't think there is any argument saying that choice isn't involved, nor that God can instantly take an addiction away. I was simply saying we can get dependency mixed up with addiction, the latter being an uncontrollable repetition in that which makes a person worse off. Yet, I don't want to say that under conviction a person can't overcome any addiction/dependency. I think you are correct, one has to come to the point to accept the fact that the addicted person needs help and make decisions to put themselves in the position for which they can be assisted toward recovery and freedom. God can and does heal damaged brains. He got me off smoking with little difficulty, my drinking was more of a longer process (though I am not sure I can claim I was addicted to these substances, but did have some chemical dependency).
The lesson could have been worded and approached differently that would give more hope to an addict. It's more complicated than presented.
What are the practical consequences of getting dependency mixed up with addiction? I figure for lay people, it doesn't make all that much difference, but I could be wrong. That's why I'm asking.
For what it's worth, there is no such thing as a diagnosis of "addiction." Dependency and Abuse are the two primary diagnoses that are used in the substance abuse and mental health fields for what many refer to as "addictions."
Thanks, Sieg. That distinction makes more sense to me.
Inge: I see a good bit of difference between the two just in the definition of what you share. What makes it difficult to discern is as the definition states: both are often allied together.
But, again, my comments were in no way suggesting God can't heal the addict. He can and does.
I wonder if, in the context of this blog, the biggest problem might not be a matter of admitting we need help? Admitting addiction? Most addicts deny they are addicted - to themselves, as well as others. And a great many addicts or "substance-dependent" persons, as Kevin might call them, function reasonably well in society and in the church.
I remember one church in which the generally recognized matriarch, head deaconess, etc., was actually an alcoholic. She had bottles stashed away in various nooks and crannies of the old folks' home she ran, and she drank in secret. Regular drinking in secret is pretty much a sign of addiction.
Tobacco addiction is more noticeable, because the clothes smell like tobacco. It's possible to hide that with excuses of others in the home or workplace smoking. But, yes, we have tobacco users/addicts/dependents in the church too.
Others become dependent on prescription drugs, with or without conscious abuse.
So the question to ask ourselves is, "Am I truly free from substance dependency?" If not, it may be time to admit a dependency and seek freedom. God is willing and able to set any addict free, and human resources are also available for many on this list.
But the first step is to admit the need and seek for help. It's also the first step towards dependence on God who is the only hope of salvation.
On this point we agree completely.
Nice to be able to agree as well as disagree 🙂