What is an addiction problem?

Looking at the addiction problem, we must ask ourselves where it comes from. Why is the addiction problem affecting one out of ten in America today? And why are half of Americans on some kind of anti-depressant or another? Something seems well out of whack! The addiction problem manifests itself in many forms, some we are possibly yet to discover in terms of the obsessions and compulsions that drive our thinking, feeling and behaviour.

For example, one of the major addiction problems people deal with over long periods in their lives are weight problems. Anxiety, guilt and separation throw things like our weight, our behaviour and our emotions out of kilter. Love may become an addiction problem if it is misdirected. One form of excessive love in this area is gluttony; the greed for too much (obesity) or too little (anorexia, bulimia, etc). Without being conscious of it we have misdirected our love towards something that ends up as harmful and destructive to us both physiologically and psychologically. Another example of an addiction problem is misdirected love is that of a married individual who ends up in an adulterous and destructive relationship because of love being misdirected towards, sexual vices, lust and greed, some of the so called ‘capital sins’ that cause us harm are inflicted because we are unsure where to direct ourselves.

Towards correcting the addiction problem

We don’t always know the correct measure of our favourite elixirs. I doubt there are any people who consciously decide to be addicts or self abusers just for the benefit of more pain. For the want of having an addiction problem to distract themselves with? Abusers are trying to gain the only love they feel exists; quickly and forcefully, as often as they can. Common depression is said to be partially caused by an excessive focus on ones self. The list goes on. We tend to unconsciously focus our inner love towards desires, such as the desire for satisfaction, safety, power, and acceptance and so on. Desire is love, and it is often misdirected unconsciously. We unconsciously desire, crave to return to our source. The idea of separation is too much to bear. In a therapy session most people are not able to tell me outright what their intentions and purposes in life are. They are not hiding them, they truly do not know. The irony is that that is the purpose of life.

Curing an Addiction problem

Become conscious and be purposeful in thought. The only way to ensure that you are living a purposeful life, day to day that ultimately leads to the maximum level of fulfilment and actualization as possible, for yourself and others, is through awareness. You cannot begin to have direction out of any addiction problem if you do not know what direction is or why you ultimately need it. Consciousness is practiced, it is a process. It is borne by will that is freely and equally available. It leads to awareness, realization and intention that in turn lead to self-actualization and self fulfillment and re-connection to God. This journey leads us to the quantum conclusion that life has meaning and paradoxically that it’s meaning is the purpose of life.

M. Scott Peck said that ‘the path to holiness lies through questioning everything’, thus mutually inclusive of any addiction problem, and the words of Saint Francis echo this truth even louder; ‘it is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life’.

For help with any addiction problem contact Pathways Plett Rehab. We are always here to assist. People who want to enrich, recovery and heal themselves.