An Inquiry: I have a 25 year addiction that I can’t get under control. I’ve tried everything… 12 steps, God, church, professional counseling, pastoral counseling, willpower – EVERYTHING
How We Would Respond: The obvious response to addiction is some form of assistance. It sounds like you’ve tried various forms of assistance and, unfortunately, none has been as helpful as you’d like. If we were in your situation we would really focus upon our thinking, and work with that.
There may be a physical component to addiction but there is certainly a psychological component; which is to say there is a mental compulsion to use some substance or another. If this mental compulsion were not there then the urge to use would not be there either.
Rather than trying to get rid of this compulsion to use, simply observe it. Allow the compulsion to be there, sit with it, but don’t act upon it in one way or another. This is not necessarily easy to do and may be quite uncomfortable, especially at first; but sitting with thinking in this way does significantly dissipate thinking’s effects — the urge to use in this case — after a period of time.
