Addiction

Let's take a few moments to talk about this thing we call addiction. Much of the literature talks about two separate type of addiction, chemical vs. process addictions. Alcohol and drugs, of course, fall into the former type; gambling, sex, rage, food anorexia and intimacy anorexia and so forth fall into the latter. I tend to think of all addictions as emanating from that single source, the heart.

In “Addiction and Grace”, Dr. Gerald May said: "When the desire is too much to bear, we often bury it beneath frenzied thoughts and activities or escape it by dulling our immediate consciousness of living. It is possible to run away from the desire for years, even decades, at a time, but we cannot eradicate it entirely. It keeps touching us in little glimpses and hints in our dreams, our hopes, our unguarded moments." That is a true description of addiction. True addiction recovery lies in the ability to deal with root issues, not simply medicate the symptoms of them.