Chapter 14

Any expression of indignation toward people with misunderstandings of the disease concept of addiction has pitfalls; whether one is trying to understand addiction from inside or out. It is obviously true and not a concept entirely without merit or application; but rather is frequently misused as a convenient excuse not to change. The driving impetus in viewing addiction as a disease is to remind the addict (and others around him) that anytime he picks up a drink or drug, something happens in both mind and body that causes him to be virtually powerless to stop at will. At advanced stages of addiction, the ability to control many types of other compulsions also seems to evaporate. There is overwhelming empirical evidence that points to this absolute truth. As the saying goes, “one is too many and a thousand is never enough.”

Anytime the language of invective insult is used against those who wish to understand the addiction problem from outside the restrictive boundaries of addiction itself, a great deal of bewilderment settles in. Someone trying to understand an addict may assert, “If this ‘disease’ concept is known as some sort of spectacular extrapolation of understanding why you can’t change; then let’s have additional reasons for believing it.” Many uninformed people view addiction, not as a disease, but simply an unwillingness to control impulses; but it is so much more complicated than that. Addicts do not like being told their problem is within their control, because they personally know from dreadful experience that unaided willpower alone is typically insufficient to stop.

The disease of addiction is not to be confused with, say, catching a cold (by accident). It is an intentional, acquired, unremitting, and deadly (if untreated) behavioral and mental disease that rivals in comparison to other deadly sicknesses. Research has discovered that long-term drug abuse results in significant alterations of brain chemistry with damaging effects that persist even long after a person stops using drugs (known as PAW – or, post acute withdrawals). These drug-induced changes in brain function can cause many serious behavioral hazards, including a lack of ability to exert control over the impulse to use drugs yet again despite adverse risk or repercussion— which is the hallmark distinguishing characteristic of all addiction.

There are actually many paths to freedom from addiction. There is, however, one pathway established far beyond doubt or uncertainty as the most excellent way. God, our Creator, is accessible by sincere prayer. The power and influence of earnest faith can move mountains, and so much more. All we must do is ask, seek, and find. In order to ask, one must believe. In order to seek, one must do. In order to find, one must have faith.

Chapter 13

It is not the absence of challenge, provocation, or aggravation that makes your life gratifying or meritorious. It is the choices that you make in your reactions to deal with them that determines the quality of your life. Ever since Adam and Eve, it has proven apparent that humans have the inescapable requirement of making choices.

The reason the tree of knowledge was placed in the Garden of Eden was to show man that he is not autonomous (self-governing); that he is a created being with limitations on what he may do. This principle of choice is an everlasting example of how we are to view our relationship with God. If at any time you do not want to submit to God, then you are free to go create your own universe. If you cannot do that, then you better submit to the universal power of God.

Most times you don’t get to select your challenges; sometimes your challenges are the direct consequences of previous choosing. You may not even like any of the available options. However, you never lose the freedom and responsibility to choose. When these choices are determined by moral virtue and high values, you bring purpose, meaning, and integrity to your life.

On earth, you are not punished for your sins, but by them. To learn and not to do, is really not to learn. To know and not to do, is really not to know. It is, therefore, imperative to transform belief into faith and exemplify faith with actions. Life is about taking action. Quality beliefs set in motion good actions.

The discipline of clear thinking is crucial to success. Some people think, some people think they think, and still others would rather die than think. The quality of your thinking determines the quality of your decisions and choices. Your decisions determine the actions you take. The actions you take determine your results. Your results determine the quality of your life. And all this starts with thinking clearly.

You need to take time to think. Fast decisions are usually wrong decisions. If you’re going to make a decision that will have long term consequences, then you have to give it a lot of thought, look at it from every side carefully. The more you think about a decision, the better chance of it being right and good. How many times have we thought “if only I would have thought things through a little more...”

Chapter 12

According to studies in clinical neurobiology (and various recognizable criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV), addiction is classified as a disease. There are a great many misunderstandings, false impressions, and misapplications of this theory. Partly why I don’t think the entire focus of treatment should be centered around disease concept of addiction - as it is commonly understood - is this: While the recreational use of drugs will certainly cause a disease state of various tissues and organs in the body (including the brain); it is also VERY much a disease of the will (willpower to achieve what is right, healthy, and decent), of character (acknowledging the hurtful shock you’re putting on others and not letting it persist), and of courage (sustaining yourself through the difficult part of beating a habit – which could realistically take years).

If you truly desire to change and have a life of meaning, value, and goodness, then you must respect this delicate, temporary entity you call your life. You must have a higher purpose for existence and being. You must have a “why” to even care at all. There is a way, through God, that self-will can be directed through faith into a glorious existence of fulfillment with benefits lasting an eternity. (More on this later…) What is so enticing about the old way of living? We addicts tend to have selective amnesia. This is sometimes called “euphoric recall” – an unusual and harmful characteristic addicts share in common, which prohibits the recollection of the dreadful aftermath of chemical abuse, while remembering only the ephemeral good “high.” To all of this I say - you have to vigorously want something better for yourself.

The ultimate truth of your freedom is this: no matter what the stimulus is (fear, lust, need, historical hurts), your response to a temptation is never predetermined; you ultimately choose. Nobody should continually offset blame on “a generational curse,” or being “genetically pre-determined”, or “having a disease” as excuses not to change. You can choose to act like a one-celled amoeba, rigorously determined to avoid all discomfort and find pleasure at any cost. Or, you can choose to act like a human being, with the ability to make choices, acknowledging that the absence of hurt and discomfort is insufficient to give your life meaning or purpose. Everyone must face challenges, hurts, disappointments, and the like; not just addicts.

Chapter 11

At some point in recovery, one has to be willing to forsake the perpetual, psychotherapeutic ruminating about his past and reach out with courage to build a stronger future. The development of moral fiber with greater resilience to rampant wickedness will ensure long-term survival. Some blame their unwillingness or incapacity to develop moral fiber on psychiatric or psychological problems. Without doubt, anyone familiar with addiction knows full well that deep psychological problems are usually pre-existent or arise as a result of that lifestyle.

It is, however, interesting to note that what so many people mistake for psychological problems - may really be a reluctance or unwillingness to do the work it takes to become someone notable, purposeful, and suitable that would enjoy and attract others with those same admirable attributes. To put it plainly, engaging in full self-reformation is hard. It is thoroughly arduous to move from the familiar (no matter how bad) to the unfamiliar (no matter how good). It takes work and time.

So much phony, yet popular psychological beliefs give the impression that people with difficult or ugly histories are somehow ineradicably connected, and discernibly marked; hence the perpetual identification with survivor-victim, adult child of something or other, and lifelong membership in a never-to-be-recovered group. I worry about how the misuse and overuse of the aforementioned is actually helping people unconstructively fixate in the negative and in yesterday, and in the mere “understanding” of why they aren’t being and doing more with their lives. You must understand that the ultimate power of perception is not only recognizing your wrongs, but also growing and learning from them. You have new choices to make, so initiate courage and move on at some point. Regardless of past circumstances, remember that your perception, adaptation, and action are in your power now.

The modern, therapeutic trend of alleviating most of all personal responsibility from the equation of behavioral choices is simply about making sure nobody feels dire or hopeless. We must not forget that not only is pain very motivating, but that guilt and shame are necessarily painful. For these reasons alone, it is vital to learn from our mistakes, and then be eager to courageously change and grow.

Chapter 10

There are quite a number of common threads that weave addictive behavior. When contemplating the unadulterated motives behind this concept of “victimization,” which is an observable mindset almost all addicts share in common, I no longer buy into the popular, theoretical, cognitively appeasing notion that we are all victims of our addictions. This in part because I believe we create our own predicaments from the oftentimes-tainted paradigm in which we view ourselves and the world. We have become a nation of excuses and victims. One inevitable consequence of that way of thinking is a vilification and detraction from individuals who do well in spite of circumstances.

Much of the following flow of thought is a culmination of what I’ve observed with general addictive behavior over the years. Granted, the support and sympathy you get from calling yourself a victim temporarily distracts you from the inevitable pain of acknowledging your own weaknesses and inappropriate choices –but you still must realize that all of this constitutes personal responsibility. You must face the fact that something more than circumstantial occasion led to your dilemma; you know you made choices that led you there. It is only when you understand that humbling yourself to this truth enables you to become free from the internal misery of guilt and regret and become empowered to be and do better.

This is all so palpably correct and seemingly simple. Why is it such a challenge? Why do so many people agonize over these simple moral decisions? One reason is the innate need of people to belong, to be attached to family, friends, and “support” groups. There is comfort, safety, security, and exclusivity in belonging. In this, we see the unabashedly, quixotic attraction to openhandedly giving in to peer-pressure – both good and bad.

People often permit themselves to be plagued and overwhelmed by their cowardice; their need to fit in somewhere; opportunities to inappropriately vent rage; displacement of personal responsibility; and their desperate desire to seem important even if only by the exercise of raw power - sometimes malevolently rationalized through a distortion of religious values and obsession over control.

Chapter 9

You must believe that you matter to God and that He has the power and willingness to heal you. BELIEF is the cornerstone upon which all additional building blocks of recovery are built. Conversely, living by false beliefs (i.e.: “my using only hurts me, I can handle just one, I’ll quit when I’m ready, this time I’ll control my dosages, I’m still in control,…”) are all clichéd preventatives to recovery. These common and unimaginative excuses only propose a delay to the change and growth that is necessary.

As soon as you stop growing, you start dying. There is no standing still in recovery; you are either moving forward or backwards. As in driving, when you are looking in the rearview mirror, you are either focusing on what is behind you or you are backing up. If you want to drive correctly, look through the front windshield to see where you are going and only occasionally glance in the rearview mirror to see what’s behind you. When driving your life, it’s all a one-way street anyhow, so pay close attention to the road you take and don’t get distracted or you may drive your life in a ditch.

Addicts are in the habit of using. They are in the habit of wanting to use. They are in the habit of doing everything necessary to continue using. Habits don’t just go away. Addicts are, in effect, programmed to mismanage their lives; their minds are hijacked.

Addicts have beliefs, habits, behaviors, and lifestyles to unlearn. This takes a precarious amount of time in which insecurities and instability will threaten to reclaim priority. Times of rough going require higher attention to the Moral Law value system rigidly embedded in one’s soul.

Since the brain controls the body, and the body performs actions, and actions have consequences (good and bad), it is essential to reprogram the brain with habits that serve healthy purposes and avoid pitfalls. If one seeks to reprogram, it is essential to use the highest and most effective information possible. For it is undeniably true: what you believe in your mind will always manifest in your actions. Once again, I ask, what do you believe?

Chapter 8

At base level, all human behavior is motivated by either a desire to gain pleasure or a wish to avoid pain, though sometimes obviously a combination of both. Strangely, it is far from obvious why pain avoidance serves no basis for motivating behaviors in addiction. Those afflicted by addictive lifestyles rarely extricate themselves from harmful situations for reasons of the occurrence of pain.

Clearly, one would normally learn from blunders and mistakes and not aggressively seek to repeat them. But in addiction, we find this is not the case… why? Is it possible one’s desire to gain pleasure is so profound that all common sense is easily brushed aside in favor of outright hedonism? Is it possible that one in addiction, who claims to seek pleasure, could utterly resign themselves to continual horrors at the expense of their very lives? Does this not seem acutely ironic? Is it sensible that one could be so fallaciously obsessed with pleasure seeking that any extreme seems plausible? Anyone familiar with addiction would answer surprisingly and tragically: yes.

Now this begs the next question: can this cycle of dysfunction be broken? Is it possible that one enslaved to addictive lifestyles could learn that temptations are suggestions, not commands? Is it possible to reprogram an addict's brain? Anyone familiar with the way of spirituality would answer refreshingly and cheerfully: yes.

As you cannot face truth by hiding from it; likewise, you cannot heal a wound by saying it is not there. Overcoming denial of the realities addictive living brings upon its unsuspecting victims leads one to the next obvious step in recovery. What next?

Chapter 7

Facing truth is the first step in change, and this change is first brought about by reasoning from self-evident propositions. Facing truths is often unpleasant because it forces you to do something (change is scary) or consciously do nothing (live without hope). You must endure physical and emotional discomfort until you find a way to deal with it that rightly serves you. Otherwise you may focus only on emotional harm, and not emotional health. An addict’s exaggerated elevation in importance of emotional hurt provides them with a thousand or more excuses to take a moral detour right into demented, demeaning, counterproductive, desperation-based-situations, and to stay there.

Does this not lead into wishful thinking? Hiding from truths does not abolish them. Courage is necessary to suffer through and endure irrational thinking without letting it dictate behaviors. Learn to diagnose and analyze each situation with common-sense reason, not emotional reactions. Learn to struggle (at first) with new, healthier interpretations and actions that satisfy your rational mind without, for now, appeasing your emotions. This takes great courage. Doing right is very challenging, and there is rarely an immediate reward or reassurance. The reward for doing right is mostly an internal phenomenon: self-respect, dignity, integrity, and self-esteem. The rest of your life depends on what you do with any one moment. For the most part, no one knows or sees those clandestine micro events of integrity. But what matter? You know. And therein lays the greatest reward for integrity, your self-respect.

This is an overwhelmingly difficult, yet simple truth: the effectiveness with which we use common-sense reason to counteract emotionally-based decisions is utterly reduced when we refuse to surrender our power position of using hurt feelings to control or change others. When we’re afraid to be strong, we use weakness to try to control others. We hope the weakness (the hurting, the pain, the “look what you’ve done to me”) will somehow create pleasure, whereas we fear that an appropriate use of strength (assertiveness) might cause us pain. Maybe this is additional knowledge we don’t want to risk having.

Chapter 6

The term “human condition” is quite descriptive of the one enslaved by addictive lifestyles. “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” (Rom 8:8 NIV) For it is true that one who continues in any lifestyle sin with no repentance faces the ultimate penalty. This basic human dilemma is that sin separates us from a Holy God. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 6:23 NIV)

It is impossible to please God except through faith in Christ. “And without faith it is impossible to please God…” (Heb 11:6) Faith in Christ leads one to the next obvious step in the fortification of recovery, which is to do good works God prepared in advance. “…In Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10 NIV) God desires obedience. “But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him…” (1 John 2:5 NIV) The crisis of being in addictive lifestyles is rightly identified as a spiritual problem, and we only know one true way of deliverance. “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life…” (John 14:6) If you do not yet know God, may you find him now.

Deciding importance between faith-or-works is akin to asking which blade of the scissors is more vital. They work together. “…Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead.” (James 2:17 NIV) It is important to understand faith in Jesus Christ comes first (otherwise good works have no meaning or value); this produces the only type of righteousness God recognizes. “…The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” (Phil 3:9 NIV) It is then God acting through us that produces good works. “…For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Phil 2:13) The key point to notice here is this: if you are fully seeking God first in all you do and pray for guidance in your decisions, you will grow spiritually. If you are busy growing spiritually, you will find no time to continually please the sinful nature.

The law of non-contradiction states that “A” cannot be “A” and “B” at the same time; therefore, you cannot change and remain the same concomitantly. If you honestly seek Christ, He will change you. If Christ is changing you, you will not participate in addiction or any continual lifestyle sinning. “Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.…” (1 John 3:6 NLT)

The converse is also true: you cannot remain the same and somehow change. This acts as a self-test. If you do not experience change, you do not know Jesus or follow Him. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5 NIV)

Within the life that only Christ can offer, there is no further room for co-existence of addictive lifestyles. You will know true Peace, as only God will provide. “For He himself is our peace,…” (Eph 2:14 NIV) If you do not know peace, may you find God now.

Chapter 5

The primary characteristic all addicts share in common is denial. An addict in denial is like a man with his pants on fire standing next to a river. To all others around him it is obvious: the flames, the injuries, the fumes, and the impending stench of death. Others may shout “JUMP IN THE RIVER” to douse the flames. In response to such pleas, the man may take one or more of the following tacks: “why me, why should I put these flames out, who started the fire, I’m angry at pain from the flames, this pain doesn’t hurt anyone but me, don’t tell me what to do…” Clearly, all that is needed to extinguish the fire is to jump in the river, everyone knows this. Everyone sees obvious truth, except the man with his pants on fire.

Anyone who knows about rivers realizes they contain water –which is well known to extinguish flames. How the fire came to be, how immense the flame, whether injuries are yet noticeable, or any other distraction from observable truth (the truth that being on fire will kill you unless you jump in the river to douse the flames) serves only as intentional misdirects. The man whose clothes are on fire may come up with a thousand excuses, none of which matter, or change circumstantial fact.

You will notice several key points in this analogy. First off, the fire represents addiction with all its attendant suffering, and the river represents the Living Water of Jesus, which can put out flames. The man’s refusal to jump in the river symbolizes denial. It is quite fortunate the same health restorative from addiction applies to any situation; therefore, it is simple.

Simple should by no means be confused with easy. What is simple may not be easy at all. The Moral Law (which is placed in each of us), for example, is hard as nails. The gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is simple and free, but discipleship will cost everything. Make no mistake; if you seek to flee addictive lifestyles, you are in for the fight of your life.

Renouncing an attitude of denial, recognizing wrongs, and looking to Jesus for help is the only way out. This is the first step in glorious deliverance from our human condition.

Chapter 4

Within addiction and other life-controlling problems, anger can be used as a protective strategy – a kind of armor. Anger can shield from many incoming assaults; whether the fears of assault are real or imagined. Anger is often invoked instead of being open, bold, and honest with ourselves, others, and situations. In addiction, anger protects complacency, rejects change, and justifies any means. In effect, anger shields one from change.

Until the pain to remain becomes greater than the pain to change, you never will. By remaining in unhealthy environments for whatever reason, you justify and perpetuate a belief system you have experienced as destructive. This pain should illicit a flight response, and should seem more clear-cut than reality manifests. Perhaps misery does indeed love company.

Exaggerated grumbling, fault finding, and blame-gaming to avoid taking responsibility is a self-defense technique. One is thus angrily protecting his right to choose: how to live, how to act, and how to find pleasure. In spite of how it affects others –and even through horrific proofs of failure, persistence in this is a kind of selfish living, which is central to nearly all consequent troubles.

Complacency and self-contentedness is comfortable. Change is uncomfortable. True honesty is uncomfortable. If one seeks comfort at first, truth may be evaded; if one seeks truth first, comfort may be found in the end. Change must be embraced as necessary, and truth must be heralded above all else; therefore, in order to be free one must honestly seek truth to find comfort. Those contemplating leaving an unhealthy addiction or situation need to make a complete break –and flee.

It is interesting to note that discovering blameworthiness does not uncover solutions –the usual direction of that path is intemperance (lack of moderation), which leads of course to overindulgence. Overindulgence can lead to obsessive addictive behavior, which when fully consummated, leads to death. Maybe that is the knowledge no one wants to risk having.

Chapter 3

Addiction, like all types of life-controlling sin, is a spiritual problem. Anyone living in defiance of common sense Moral Laws expecting pardon from the very God who so placed the Laws is in denial of the innermost self-evident human dilemma. This is fundamental, for indeed the greatest accomplishment of wishful thinking is believing one can operate independently of God.

With relation to the Moral Law (selflessness, charity, good will, humility…), is should appear quite clear we do not often do as we ought. We all know what we ought to do, and in many cases do not do it. In a depraved spiritual condition with no hope of cure, apathetic and bewildered people wander endlessly and aimlessly through life in search of meaning, purpose, and escape. Quite true this search ends in utter fatality if help is not sought. Who then will help us? Who can deliver us from this death? The answer: only God Himself can -and will, if He is sought.

Admitting weakness and sometimes even powerlessness to drugs, alcohol, hurts, habits, or hang-ups is the first step toward dependence on God for recovery. The only true method of permanent deliverance from any sin is continual and absolute reliance upon the Power of God. Let me be perfectly clear, this Power to heal our human condition is not of ourselves, or of our own making.

We all tend to see the world and others only through our own needs, yet selfish compulsions that do not wreak havoc are mostly disregarded and thus remain unnoticed. The luxury of overlooking selfishness and other character defects (violations of Moral Law) is not something the addict can ever afford to do.

It starts with a problem of compulsion. The addict’s compulsory desires are grounded on genuine incapableness to employ self-restraint with regard to immediate gratification, pleasure seeking, and escapism. This governing faulty belief system converges around the following: denial, projection, rationalization, and minimization. In this very belief system the problem remains.

Part II

If we are to heal, then to face the problem head-on is the quickest way forward. It is time to change our beliefs so that we can progress. If one wants to move forward, yet is lost for failure to suitably interpret correct direction, then to advance is only a circle that will lead right back to the start point.

The core problem in living by false beliefs is that if you’re heading the wrong direction, you won’t know it until you end up where you did not intend to be. There is no need to drive a car in reverse going backwards ninety miles per hour in the wrong lane. It’s time to get on the right road, with the right map, with the necessary driving skills, with the same destination in mind, and with the same co-pilot to guide us through the minefields of change.

I shall now focus on the belief system of an addict, for after all this is where the difficulty begins. What makes him tick? What goes through the mind of an addict before he uses? Why is there such an easy break-down in the same kind of self defense that keeps one from putting his face in a fan… or bare foot on a red-hot coal? After such extremes to achieve a high, why do addicts always search for unproblematic ways out of the consequence of such behavior? All the thrills with none of the cost… what a great achievement in wishful thinking!

I have developed majestic creations of philosophic reflection that seek to answer these and other riddles once and for all (so stay tuned). But as stated initially, the problem starts with BELIEF. There is a Spirit governing the universe who gives us inside information to His purposes, which appears in each of us as a Moral Law urging us to do right and making it painful when we do wrong. Mere common sense tells us that we operate lives in opposition to this Moral Law, and covering up or medicating the painful and otherwise motivating feelings of guilt and shame is no cure to this troublesome reality. For this is our starting point: what do we believe?

Part I

The abuse of illegal chemical narcotics in our nation (and world) is reaching epidemic proportions, far beyond any practical reach of law enforcement. It is a large-scale decision making problem affecting society in a costly and desperately wicked way. Jails, prisons, hospitals, and rehabilitation facilities accommodate millions of people worldwide who are captive to a way of living that harms themselves, others, and our very civilization itself. Any civilization experiencing large-scale catastrophic harm becomes progressively weakened.

Using drugs is a way of living. The way one lives his life is based on personal decisions. The decisions one makes are based on an individual moral system. The arrangement of moral values within each of us is based on a belief system. A belief system is the very thing that shapes our lives and determines our providence. Living by false beliefs is the quickest way down.

Now that I have set the stage to draw attention to an alarming epidemic affecting the health of our great society, let’s get down to the core of the problem. The central problem of all addiction is this: BELIEF. Since we all act on what we believe, let’s make certain we have it right. When it comes to the belief system of one who takes drugs, there are many causative factors that lead to the broken-down moral system that governs their lives. When it comes to society at large, there are many wrong beliefs fueling insufficient philosophical approaches to treatment and the overall problem itself. Neither the addict nor society has their thinking right.

An addict thinks he can hide from his problem, while society hides the addict from his problem… and on goes the merry-go-round. Is not hiding from problems a form of evasion? How can we cure that which we cannot see? Is this not wishful thinking?