A Resource for Resisting Addictions

I was up playing computer games late and fell asleep for a few hours. Then finally got working on a new post about my addiction to computer gaming, since I must face that as part of identifying myself fully as a Christian. Part of posting on my addiction involves studying the material at PureIntimacy.org.

This site is primarily about overcoming sexual addictions, but you may find it helpful in coping with gambling, substance-abuse, pornography, workaholism, and other addictions. My own difficulty is primarily about computer gaming, but it used to have a pornography aspect. Every form of addiction has similar components, including fantasy by the addict, harm to the spouse and children of the addict, and risks to the career of the addict.

From PureIntimacy +Intimacy and Addiction +Why do people become addicts?

Addictions create substantial family trauma. The addict becomes preoccupied, gets lost in fantasy, and invests significant time in his harmful behaviors, as the addiction becomes the focus of life. In families, the addicted parent is present but is mastered by his addiction. The other parent develops his or her own preoccupation centering on controlling the addict’s behavior and protecting loved ones from the actions of the addict. This behavior is referred to as co-addiction or co-dependency.

Note that addiction creates family trauma, but it is also a response to personal trauma. PureIntimacy is a Christian funded website but it isn't openly Christian to evangelise. I found this helpful under Why the God-talk?

No matter where you are on the spectrum of faith, you are welcome here. This site is devoted to providing the best available resources on sexual addiction, pornography use, and other areas involving sexual brokenness. We want to help all who come to us looking for hope, whether or not we agree on matters of faith...

Our faith motivates us to reach out to those who are hurting and to do whatever we can to make them whole again. If you wouldn’t refuse treatment at a hospital called St. Luke’s, consider accepting our assistance as well.

For far too long our culture has worked to devalue, denigrate, and dis-integrate the human person. Many used to decry the separation of sex from procreation, but now people separate sex even from human emotion. The most profound, beautiful, and mysterious connection between two people has been reduced to a transaction or an exercise in fluid mechanics. This is a seriously impoverished view of sexuality and humanity.

The Christian view of sexuality, which informs this site, teaches that the human person is comprised of body, mind, and spirit. Sexual brokenness indicates the dis-integration of these various components. When we separate sex from its emotional and spiritual attachments, problems arise.

Part of what gives the PureIntimacy information power is that it tries to address the spritual component of addictions with the point of view of believers in the Word of God, where true personal spiritual power can be found and developed. Christians can be seriously addicted and still be truly Christian, in fact the Word of God promises that real Christians will suffer spiritual attacks which can be in the form of addictions - because mankind gave this world to its current god, who grows increasingly desperate to do harm as his time runs out for that.

Having actually read some of this and with this post actually done something to help you Defend Others as Yourself - I plan to read more later. For now I feel empowered to leave my troubles and get some sleep. Notice the time this was originally composed.