 Mmmmm Chocolate Where does this compulsion come from? Is it something that is internal or external, physical or spiritual? Those who struggle with an addiction often feel like they can’t help themselves—they feel as though giving in is inevitable—and so it can be hard to work out where this compulsion comes from and how it works. It would be simplistic to say that a drug addiction is just a physical dependency because a person is more than a biological bag of bones. Let me suggest that an addiction affects the whole person: physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Chocoholic Case Study: Your body likes chocolate and promises to make you feel satisfied if you give it chocolate. If you say ‘no’ to chocolate your body will make you feel bad. Other times you feel bad so you eat chocolate so that your body makes you feel good. With every addiction there is a partnership between your body and yourself. Can your body force you to eat chocolate? No. You eat chocolate because you want to. Your body might hold you ransom but the choice is yours. If you have been in the habit of doing what your body says then you have an addiction. You have given control to your body so that every time it gives you the impulse to eat chocolate you hardly think about it, you just obey the compulsion to eat. The good news is that you can learn to retake control over your body. The difficulty is dealing with the compulsion that comes from within; your own desire to give in to your addiction. So far we have only just begun to face addiction. God willing I hope to preach about this on the 5th August (www.godsgap.net/triumph) and write Part II to this article next month. the Rev (Chris Perona) |
