Addiction is a...

  I was talking with a friend last week and we were talking about his past issues with alcohol and his current job at a local detox center.  I learned that you see a lot of interesting things at a detox center, especially when working midnights.  Through this conversation I was reminded of the issues of addictions and how they can over run our lives very easily if we are not careful.  Addictions do not strictly relate to drugs, alcohol or even food.  I know this may sound kind of simplistic, but addiction really is anything that has an improper balance in our life.  What I mean by this is that what ever our addiction is, it either has improper placement in our life, or it consumes our life.  There is nothing wrong with playing fantasy sports, but when one spends countless hours getting ready for ones draft and then several hours daily/weekly on that fantasy sports, there just might be a problem.  I have come to the conclusion in the past that addictions boil down to having a misplaced view of ourselves and or God.  We either view ourselves or God to highly or do not give one or the other enough dignity.  When this happens, we tend to overcompensate with thoughts, attitudes or actions.  This is where we get into trouble.

  Where we try and overcompensate is what I like to call coverings.  These are things that are usually pretty harmless, and often are considered good characteristics.  But these good characteristics can be used and abused into addiction. When we take these good qualities and we distort them, it is often to cover up an issue that we don't want to deal with. One example is that most everyone values hard work and having a good work ethic.  We can even justify it by saying that we need to work a lot of hours to pay off bills, provide for the family, to make sure that one can retire.  These are all good things, but when we are consumed on making the almighty dollar there is something wrong. 

  Another thing that I have learned about these coverings is that they tend to help us avoid reality. We go to them so that we can put off dealing what is in front of us.  I think the biggest reason why we do these coverings is that these things will not disappoint, let us down or tell us no.  These things tell us either we don't have to change, to keep to doing what were doing and that its not us, its always someone else's fault.  These coverings tend to make our dysfunction minimal and the others peoples problem the bigger problem.  It tends to lead to the blame game and an unhealthy balance.  We do not to be told that we are wrong or that we need to change, that is why we keep going to those things that calm us and pets our ego.  In all reality it is a form of escapism and when done for a prolong period of time, it can be vary dangerous and detrimental. 

  The flip side is that we use these coverings to try and change ourselves or others.  We think if we just work harder, pray even harder, stop doing a certain activity, or doing a certain activity, that we can change.  I'm not going to argue that there are things that we need to do, but when we develop the attitude of "work harder" or I just have to push through it, it tends to make things worse.  This type of attitude is more of a works righteousness, or its all about me.  I got myself into this mess, I can get myself out.  Here is the problem, having this attitude is often what got us into this mess, so trying to work our way out usually makes the situation worse because we are usually the ones that got us into the mess to begin with. This is where the grace of God comes in and allowing Him to change us, this is the only way we can experience true freedom.  It is a realization that it is not about me and that I need help and that I need a Savior. 

   I know this is a very simple post on addiction, and that most addictions take years of hard work to overcome.  There also might be a realization that this is something that we will struggle with for the rest of our lives.  We need to be willing to put in boundaries, have accountability and know what our triggers are.  When we do these things and have a willingness to change and even seek professional help to deal with it.  This is when we can start to over come it and grow in grace