Overcoming AddictionSample

Addiction in the Moment

You walk into your doctor’s office, fill out paperwork, sit down and wait. What do you do to pass the time? Or maybe you walk into a party where you don’t know anyone there. What do you reach towards for comfort? You’re at a stoplight. What do you stare at until the light turns green?

How many of the above questions were answered with ‘my phone’? More than likely, we can all agree that we are a culture addicted to our cellphones. But what if our phones were something more serious, like a life-threatening drug?

Many experience a need like this—or much stronger—to something much more harmful than a cellphone. And maybe you’ve wondered: Why do addicts keep repeating the same harmful things?

An addiction has 4 major parts. Understanding them makes it easier to identify and correct our addictive patterns.

1. Trigger—the situation that triggers stress or discomfort
2. Role—the addiction's promise of escape, relief, or fix for that discomfort
3. Object—the chemical, behavior, feeling, or state of mind that we turn to instead of to God to meet our needs in that moment
4. Goal—comfort, because we don’t like feeling pressure, stress, or pain

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you felt out of control? What triggered your emotions in that moment? What kinds of things did you turn towards for relief or to help gain control? What brought you comfort in the midst of your pain or worry? What kinds of things did you seek to bring comfort into your own life?

We are all addicted to comfort, and we all work to find things that will silence our pain and bring us peace. We often rank addictions from the worst to the “not so bad.” But God sees them all the same—as faulty solutions for something we can only truly find in Him. The peace we’re searching for He provides only in Jesus.