The Truth About Addiction
Addiction can take many forms -- the inability to
stop using alcohol or drugs, a recurring compulsion
to shoplift or spend, extreme dependency on one
person (or many), an obsession with dieting and
exercise, a compulsive need for food or sex, a
chronic preoccupation with romance, intrigue, and
fantasy.
Whatever the form addiction
takes, the essence of addiction is the same.
Seeking relief from the trials of
life and looking for acceptance, belonging and love,
we worship our false gods and give them our time and
energy. We turn to our addiction instead of
turning to love. The counterfeit becomes our
hiding place and refuge.
Eventually the
patterns of our behavior become so ingrained, they
become bondage. As the bondage grows, we
become more and more slaves of our false gods.
Gerald G. May wrote in his book,
Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of
Addictions:
I
am not being flippant when I say that all of us
suffer from addiction. Nor am I reducing the
meaning of addiction. I mean in all truth that
the psychological, neurological, and spiritual
dynamics of full-fledged addiction are actively at
work within every human being. The same
processes that are responsible for addiction to
alcohol and narcotics are also responsible for
addiction to ideas, work, relationships, power,
moods, fantasies, and an endless variety of other
things. We are all addicts in every sense of
the word. Moreover, our addictions are our own
worst enemies. They enslave us with chains
that are of our own making and yet that,
paradoxically, are virtually beyond our control.
Addiction also makes idolaters of us all, because it
forces us to worship these objects of attachment,
thereby preventing us from truly, freely loving God
and one another.
At its core -- underlying the
genetic and environmental influences -- addiction is
a spiritual problem. It
is the most powerful psychic enemy of humanity's
desire for God.
