Addictive Tendencies

It happens to the best of us. It happens to all of us. One way or another, we latch onto something that tickles our fancy, and we become addicted. If you pause long enough, you will remember how you enjoyed something that took over your life. Collecting something, playing a game, memorizing statistics, going to a certain place, buying something you think is important.

Name it? We’ve all done it.

When you recognize the situation, it becomes a choice: Do I Keep Doing It? If so, why? Is there any value? Or am I addicted?

We all recognize our weaknesses, and sometimes they become our downfall. Chocolate, anyone? (That’s probably a sugar addiction disguised as chocolate!) You reach the point of saturation. Will you take charge of the struggle, or it will take charge of you.

How often have you heard or said, “I can take it or leave it.“? Is this the truth? Or is your addictive personality giving false hope?

There’s a test to determine if something is in control of your world. Take it out of the picture and see what happens. Remove the opportunity. Change your habit. Take a different path. Remove yourself from the possibility of falling into the trap, and see if you manufacture a new path.

There will always be withdrawal symptoms. Nervousness. Angst and ager. You fret over what you’re missing and become someone no one wants to be around.

Can you handle the results?

Research and Review

Answer the question! Can you handle the withdrawal issues? However long it took for you to get addicted does not tell how long it will take to break the acquired habit. There’s not necessarily a correlation, but there are ways of determining whether you are mindful enough to address the new world you’re headed to.

I’m not here to name your nasty habits and poor choices. We all have them and constantly make bad decisions. Some habits are worse than others. Consequently, some will be harder to break than others. When something defines you, especially when it’s been your life-long identity, walking away from it will be the hardest thing you’ve done.

How do you break an addiction?

Someone says you must first recognize you have a problem. Maybe you’ve grown so used to who you are you don’t recognize the problem. Maybe the first thing is to realize what you are putting others through and how it affects your relationships. Depending on the addiction, this may be the first major step you’ve made in a long time!

I’m not a therapist.

I know what I must do to get past something that is addicting.
State the problem. Identify the results. Choose a solution.
Walk the walk, talk the talk, one step at a time!

The choice can be difficult, and what works for some will not work for you. Some buy patches, go to clinics, fight through the resulting withdrawal pains and see daylight at the end of the tunnel. But it will be easy to fall off the wagon when you’ve been addicted to something that has its clutches on you. “This one time won’t hurt…” is a lie!

Regarding spending habits, you may cut up the credit card, but you are not stopping the underlying tendency to take hard-earned dollars and plop down for something you don’t need. Perhaps the action happens because you are struggling with feeling left out, thinking spending solves your problems, or you don’t have a spending plan in place that helps you keep your hard-earned dollars. Maybe you need to find out what is pushing you in that direction.

Analysis, therapy, tough love – all are labels that define hard choices. Some need it, others don’t. Did you know you can get addicted to the “fix?”

Voila! Solution!

Commercials pop up everywhere: Take this pill for this problem. You’ll thank me for it later. Use this, and it will fix your problem. I guarantee it! (Don’t forget to read the small print and understand the potential side effects.)

I suspect the strongest and the best medicine is what you have resting between your two ears (brain), beating inside your chest (heart), and the ability to reason (mind/attitude) your way through.

There is a recipe for your situation. Some will disagree, and that’s their choice. We all get to choose our way forward. This is not a formula that automatically works, but it does identify something I believe and trust.

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:11-13 NKJV

I’ve never been addicted to drugs (legal or illegal). So, I’m not speaking to the power of a chemical. I believe in the power of choice even in those areas, along with all other addictions. Believing in God before you see results gives you an edge against addiction.

Consider this. Imagine the twelve disciples of Jesus. They’ve been around miracles, heard the teachings, sat at the dinner table, and enjoyed the presence of friends, fellowship, and mission. Judas wants something different, and for the price of a slave, he gives Jesus up to the Temple authorities. Peter had a revelation and was presented with the Keys to the Kingdom. When it comes time to stand up and believe in something we haven’t seen, then Jesus speaks to Doubting Thomas like this:

Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:29 NKJV

Some may need help to find the solution. Many will need to stand on the shoulders of others to find their strength. You may be the one to shine the light. I’ve believed this for years:

The one who can best understand is probably one who had been through the same challenge.

Once you get to the other side of addictive tendencies, do not forget to help someone else along with their personal challenge.