Core Scripture
Many addiction experts perceive that that Behavior Science and Scripture are mutually exclusive; that Science and Scripture are antithetical; that faith and reason are not compatible; these are misconceptions. With respect to Behavior Science and Scripture, both recognize that values and purpose are the main navigational tools in life. Both emphasize personal values and how to manage those values; they acknowledge, motivation, life skills, community and relationships are human ingredients, necessary to behavioral change. Together they want us to manage our emotions, examine our thinking and change our corrupt behavior; to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
The core scriptures below take us from, understanding our emotions, asking God for help, changing our thinking, delegating control to Christ, God reciprocating with a Helper that enables fruit or values, such as self control and our replacing our old selves and becoming New Creations.
Operational Definition of Addiction:
All addictions (compulsive behaviors) serve an emotional purpose. Emotions are the primary drivers of all human behavior. All Addictions are a compulsive response to the emotion, Fear. Specifically, when we are presented with circumstances in life that are important to us and enable a feeling of overwhelming, intolerable, helplessness, feeling trapped, powerless and lacking control. All addictive behavior is an attempt to reverse feeling helplessness and feeling out of control! In other words, from an emotional perspective, we regain control of our helpless, trapped feelings with the addictive substance or behavior.
All addictions (compulsive behaviors) serve an emotional purpose. Emotions are the primary drivers of all human behavior. All Addictions are a compulsive response to the emotion, Fear. Specifically, when we are presented with circumstances in life that are important to us and enable a feeling of overwhelming, intolerable, helplessness, feeling trapped, powerless and lacking control. All addictive behavior is an attempt to reverse feeling helplessness and feeling out of control! In other words, from an emotional perspective, we regain control of our helpless, trapped feelings with the addictive substance or behavior.
Proverbs 29:11 "A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them in control."
All emotions are derivations of five core feelings: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and shame. Everything you see, smell, hear, taste and touch travels through your body in the form of electric signals. These signals pass from cell to cell until they reach their ultimate destination, your brain. Humans are wired so that all our actions and reactions begin in the old primitive Limbic System with feelings or emotions. How we react with our rational thinking and decision making new Prefrontal Neocortex, determines in large part, whether we demonstrate Direct healthy behavior or Displaced-substitute behavior. The addictive belief system is emotion driven. In this system, we feel that life should be fair, easy and painless and we should always get what we want. When life does not happen this way, we often react emotionally. Emotions are not all bad but venting them ALL without control is not good. When we lose control of our emotions, we lose perspective, we catastrophize events (make them worse than they are) and often we act with regretful behavior to attempt to regain control of those events or circumstances.
Emotions are the primary drivers of all human behavior. All addictions serve an emotional purpose and that purpose it to reverse feelings of intolerable helplessness. Reasons for compulsive substance abuse or any hurt, hangup or habit, are driven by emotional factors, usually feelings of helplessness about whatever in life makes one feel overwhelmingly trapped, powerless and out of control. It’s the rage at feeling helplessness that drives the addictive behavior, the need for the quick fix or mood changer of drugs or other behaviors. The heart of addiction lies in our primitive Limbic system the seat of emotion. We need to use our thinking prefrontal cortex when we deal with the issues of life. Think, be aware, be curious, discover. Sit with our emotions, let them pass as they inevitably will, don’t become them. This takes practice. This is what mindfulness training is about.
Matthew 11:28-30: 28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am [a]gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Christ uses three key verbs when speaking of stress management: come, learn, and take. Christ wants us to come to Him, collaborate with Him, learn from Him, take on a lighter load. God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us grace, as we overcome. Life is not fair, easy or painless and we will never always get what we want. Discomfort is the price of admission if you want to have a meaningful life. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. The number-one contributor to growth is difficult circumstances. All addictions are a by-product of how we decide to manage difficult circumstances.
God wants us to regain control of our overwhelming, helpless feelings by giving Him control with direct health behavior and not substitute sinful behavior. No one would deny that life is full of adversity. We are helpless to control all our circumstances, but we can control how we think about our circumstances and how we respond. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..”,
Feelings and behaviors are caused by a person's thoughts, not on outside stimuli like people, situations and events. People may not be able to control their external circumstances, but they can change how they think about them and therefore change how they feel and behave. “Don’t copy the behavior or values of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. The best way to fight bad ideas is to replace them with better ones. Transformation begins in the mind, because the way we reason affects how we act. What we think (cognition), what we feel (emotion) and what we do (behavior) are intrinsically linked together. Our thinking determines our feelings and our feelings determine our actions. As Aristotle said, “We desire in accordance with our deliberation." Pastor and cognitive behaviorist, Rick Warren, states, "The way you think determines how you feel and affects how you act. If you want to change something in your life or break a bad habit, then figure out what caused you to do the thing you want to change."
If you think about it, you can't get addicted, to a substance, unless you have learned the drug helps you do something. After all, if you did not learn that alcohol allows you feel a certain way, you would not know what to buy! Feeling compelled to use a drug (or any compulsive behavior) arises from important reasons inside people, not from an inanimate bottle or substance! Addictive behaviors are never random, there is always a reason and a reward. There is always a, "Trigger-Behavior-Reward-Repeat." In the final analysis, if you truly don't want to do something, then you won't do it! We have, "Free Will," but are driven to always pursue happiness (reward), everyone is; it's human nature. The only way you will stop desiring heavy substances and change your behavior is by seeing more happiness in the change, than in the using. We stop abusing substances and other behaviors, when we decide (reason/think) abusing is not the best option for our happiness.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10: "My grade is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Intellectually delegating control to God, is the key to managing your emotions and thinking. Ironically, there is power in relinquishing control. Delegating control to God, is not a weakness! It's the smart thing to do as in delegating your taxes to your tax accountant or delegating finances to your chief financial officer. When you value a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you act with direct healthy Christ Driven Behavior that honors God. When your values trump your addiction, there is no addiction! This all starts with giving God control, intellectually delegating control to Christ. God’s grace is power enough because when we swallow our pride, accept our imperfection and give God control, we are empowered with new strength, new values and purpose. "If I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next."
John 14:16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--."
While there are many approaches to resolving addictive behavior, the ultimate, empowering and truly unique solution, only comes from God, with an indwelling and seminal psychotherapist (Paraclete/Mentor) and He’s freely provided it to every one of His children, if they choose to accept.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Dr Jud Brewer(addiction Psychiatrist) advocates Mindfulness as the treatment for all addictions and he the evidence to show it works better than any other available secular treatments with experiments. He says what is better than the, "Excitement or reward," of an addiction? His answer is being curious, discover yourself, be with the overwhelming emotion but don't let the emotion be you (this is Mindfulness). Jud claims curiosity is brain hack that swaps the valence of excitement to joy. Jud would say that, "Joy," is what changes people. Joy is the BBO, the bigger better offer. He is absolutely right. Guess what? Joy is the unselfish discovery of a personal surrendered relationship with Jesus Christ.
The fruits of the Spirit are values! When we Intelligently Delegate control to God, He reciprocates with a Helper, the Holy Spirit. SELF CONTROL is one of the values or fruits of the Holy Spirit. This is the concept of Intelligent Delegation and Reciprocal Innervation, that leads to Godly values and Christ Driven Behavior that honors God. These are attitudes that result from the Holy Spirit’s work within those who have trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord. A lack of self-control in any part of our lives does not fit who we are in Christ. His desire is that we live in full surrender to Him so that His Spirit can produce in us the fruit of self-control.
When your values trump your addiction, there is no addiction, there is self control. (thinking before you act)
2 Corinthians 5: 17 if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (Replaced).
Addiction is a behavior used to regain control of our emotions with a displaced behavior. A direct behavior also allows us to regain control of our emotions with Christ Driven Behavior (CDB), that honors God. You no longer act with old substitute displaced behaviors but instead replaced with new direct CDB that honors God! You have replaced the old with the new!
Dodes Principle: The originator of this emotional theory on addictions, Lance M. Dodes, MD, claims that all addiction is caused by one underlying emotion: helplessness. When you feel helpless, you feel powerless, trapped, and lacking control. According to Dodes, every addictive act is preceded, with or without conscious awareness, by a feeling of intolerable helplessness. The addictive behavior, called a displaced or substitute behavior, is an escape from the helplessness trap, although it doesn’t solve the original problem of feeling trapped and ultimately makes matters worse. When you’re feeling trapped (consciously or unconsciously) any direct decisive action (especially if of high value to you) can be experienced as empowering. You no longer feel helpless because you have regained control, escaped the trap!
Jesus Christ Principle: When circumstances in life leave you feeling emotionally overwhelmed, helpless, trapped, powerless and out of control, come to Him, transform your thinking, surrender control to Christ and he will send you a Helper that will empower you to regain control with new values, direct Christ Driven Behavior and you will be a new person!
Jesus Christ has been teaching behavior therapy for over 2000 years. Christ teaches that in order to regain control over helpless circumstances, come to Him, delegate control to Christ. Christ will show us the difference between the quick fix or mood changer of displaced behavior and how to regain control of our emotions with direct healthy behavior, Christ Driven Behaviors that honor God! Christ Driven Behavior (CDB), is replete with values and purpose, with renewed thinking (Romans 12:2), a life time mentor (John 14:16) and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). We become New Creations! 2 Corinthians 5:17
All emotions are derivations of five core feelings: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and shame. Everything you see, smell, hear, taste and touch travels through your body in the form of electric signals. These signals pass from cell to cell until they reach their ultimate destination, your brain. Humans are wired so that all our actions and reactions begin in the old primitive Limbic System with feelings or emotions. How we react with our rational thinking and decision making new Prefrontal Neocortex, determines in large part, whether we demonstrate Direct healthy behavior or Displaced-substitute behavior. The addictive belief system is emotion driven. In this system, we feel that life should be fair, easy and painless and we should always get what we want. When life does not happen this way, we often react emotionally. Emotions are not all bad but venting them ALL without control is not good. When we lose control of our emotions, we lose perspective, we catastrophize events (make them worse than they are) and often we act with regretful behavior to attempt to regain control of those events or circumstances.
Emotions are the primary drivers of all human behavior. All addictions serve an emotional purpose and that purpose it to reverse feelings of intolerable helplessness. Reasons for compulsive substance abuse or any hurt, hangup or habit, are driven by emotional factors, usually feelings of helplessness about whatever in life makes one feel overwhelmingly trapped, powerless and out of control. It’s the rage at feeling helplessness that drives the addictive behavior, the need for the quick fix or mood changer of drugs or other behaviors. The heart of addiction lies in our primitive Limbic system the seat of emotion. We need to use our thinking prefrontal cortex when we deal with the issues of life. Think, be aware, be curious, discover. Sit with our emotions, let them pass as they inevitably will, don’t become them. This takes practice. This is what mindfulness training is about.
Matthew 11:28-30: 28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am [a]gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Christ uses three key verbs when speaking of stress management: come, learn, and take. Christ wants us to come to Him, collaborate with Him, learn from Him, take on a lighter load. God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us grace, as we overcome. Life is not fair, easy or painless and we will never always get what we want. Discomfort is the price of admission if you want to have a meaningful life. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. The number-one contributor to growth is difficult circumstances. All addictions are a by-product of how we decide to manage difficult circumstances.
God wants us to regain control of our overwhelming, helpless feelings by giving Him control with direct health behavior and not substitute sinful behavior. No one would deny that life is full of adversity. We are helpless to control all our circumstances, but we can control how we think about our circumstances and how we respond. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..”,
Feelings and behaviors are caused by a person's thoughts, not on outside stimuli like people, situations and events. People may not be able to control their external circumstances, but they can change how they think about them and therefore change how they feel and behave. “Don’t copy the behavior or values of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. The best way to fight bad ideas is to replace them with better ones. Transformation begins in the mind, because the way we reason affects how we act. What we think (cognition), what we feel (emotion) and what we do (behavior) are intrinsically linked together. Our thinking determines our feelings and our feelings determine our actions. As Aristotle said, “We desire in accordance with our deliberation." Pastor and cognitive behaviorist, Rick Warren, states, "The way you think determines how you feel and affects how you act. If you want to change something in your life or break a bad habit, then figure out what caused you to do the thing you want to change."
If you think about it, you can't get addicted, to a substance, unless you have learned the drug helps you do something. After all, if you did not learn that alcohol allows you feel a certain way, you would not know what to buy! Feeling compelled to use a drug (or any compulsive behavior) arises from important reasons inside people, not from an inanimate bottle or substance! Addictive behaviors are never random, there is always a reason and a reward. There is always a, "Trigger-Behavior-Reward-Repeat." In the final analysis, if you truly don't want to do something, then you won't do it! We have, "Free Will," but are driven to always pursue happiness (reward), everyone is; it's human nature. The only way you will stop desiring heavy substances and change your behavior is by seeing more happiness in the change, than in the using. We stop abusing substances and other behaviors, when we decide (reason/think) abusing is not the best option for our happiness.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10: "My grade is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Intellectually delegating control to God, is the key to managing your emotions and thinking. Ironically, there is power in relinquishing control. Delegating control to God, is not a weakness! It's the smart thing to do as in delegating your taxes to your tax accountant or delegating finances to your chief financial officer. When you value a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you act with direct healthy Christ Driven Behavior that honors God. When your values trump your addiction, there is no addiction! This all starts with giving God control, intellectually delegating control to Christ. God’s grace is power enough because when we swallow our pride, accept our imperfection and give God control, we are empowered with new strength, new values and purpose. "If I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next."
John 14:16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--."
While there are many approaches to resolving addictive behavior, the ultimate, empowering and truly unique solution, only comes from God, with an indwelling and seminal psychotherapist (Paraclete/Mentor) and He’s freely provided it to every one of His children, if they choose to accept.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Dr Jud Brewer(addiction Psychiatrist) advocates Mindfulness as the treatment for all addictions and he the evidence to show it works better than any other available secular treatments with experiments. He says what is better than the, "Excitement or reward," of an addiction? His answer is being curious, discover yourself, be with the overwhelming emotion but don't let the emotion be you (this is Mindfulness). Jud claims curiosity is brain hack that swaps the valence of excitement to joy. Jud would say that, "Joy," is what changes people. Joy is the BBO, the bigger better offer. He is absolutely right. Guess what? Joy is the unselfish discovery of a personal surrendered relationship with Jesus Christ.
The fruits of the Spirit are values! When we Intelligently Delegate control to God, He reciprocates with a Helper, the Holy Spirit. SELF CONTROL is one of the values or fruits of the Holy Spirit. This is the concept of Intelligent Delegation and Reciprocal Innervation, that leads to Godly values and Christ Driven Behavior that honors God. These are attitudes that result from the Holy Spirit’s work within those who have trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord. A lack of self-control in any part of our lives does not fit who we are in Christ. His desire is that we live in full surrender to Him so that His Spirit can produce in us the fruit of self-control.
When your values trump your addiction, there is no addiction, there is self control. (thinking before you act)
2 Corinthians 5: 17 if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (Replaced).
Addiction is a behavior used to regain control of our emotions with a displaced behavior. A direct behavior also allows us to regain control of our emotions with Christ Driven Behavior (CDB), that honors God. You no longer act with old substitute displaced behaviors but instead replaced with new direct CDB that honors God! You have replaced the old with the new!
Dodes Principle: The originator of this emotional theory on addictions, Lance M. Dodes, MD, claims that all addiction is caused by one underlying emotion: helplessness. When you feel helpless, you feel powerless, trapped, and lacking control. According to Dodes, every addictive act is preceded, with or without conscious awareness, by a feeling of intolerable helplessness. The addictive behavior, called a displaced or substitute behavior, is an escape from the helplessness trap, although it doesn’t solve the original problem of feeling trapped and ultimately makes matters worse. When you’re feeling trapped (consciously or unconsciously) any direct decisive action (especially if of high value to you) can be experienced as empowering. You no longer feel helpless because you have regained control, escaped the trap!
Jesus Christ Principle: When circumstances in life leave you feeling emotionally overwhelmed, helpless, trapped, powerless and out of control, come to Him, transform your thinking, surrender control to Christ and he will send you a Helper that will empower you to regain control with new values, direct Christ Driven Behavior and you will be a new person!
Jesus Christ has been teaching behavior therapy for over 2000 years. Christ teaches that in order to regain control over helpless circumstances, come to Him, delegate control to Christ. Christ will show us the difference between the quick fix or mood changer of displaced behavior and how to regain control of our emotions with direct healthy behavior, Christ Driven Behaviors that honor God! Christ Driven Behavior (CDB), is replete with values and purpose, with renewed thinking (Romans 12:2), a life time mentor (John 14:16) and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). We become New Creations! 2 Corinthians 5:17
| Read more: Treatment.pdf |
The VICTORY Prayer:
Lord, I invite you into my life today. Guide my footsteps and help me make wise decisions in order to manage my feelings, my emotions. Help me to regain control over emotional circumstances in life, that make me feel helpless, trapped, powerless and lacking control. I accept that I cannot control everything and I delegate that control to you, so that you will transform my thinking and empower me, through the Holy Spirit. Empower me to regain control with (Direct), assertive, Christ Driven values and behavior and not with (Displaced substitute behaviors), the quick fixes or mood changers of chemicals and other errant behaviors. Always allow me to be sensitive to Your Will, especially if You desire to change my plans and behavior.
Lord, I invite you into my life today. Guide my footsteps and help me make wise decisions in order to manage my feelings, my emotions. Help me to regain control over emotional circumstances in life, that make me feel helpless, trapped, powerless and lacking control. I accept that I cannot control everything and I delegate that control to you, so that you will transform my thinking and empower me, through the Holy Spirit. Empower me to regain control with (Direct), assertive, Christ Driven values and behavior and not with (Displaced substitute behaviors), the quick fixes or mood changers of chemicals and other errant behaviors. Always allow me to be sensitive to Your Will, especially if You desire to change my plans and behavior.
