Addictive Substances
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Proverbs 23:29-35
[29] Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
[30] Those who tarry long over wine;
those who go to try mixed wine.
[31] Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
[32] In the end it bites like a serpent
and stings like an adder.
[33] Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart utter perverse things.
[34] You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
[35] “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I must have another drink.”
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Holy moly .... addictions. My approach to help resolve my problems started with a mental/physical awareness of the problem and acceptance that it was a problem, then a psychological approach to creating a path towards rejecting the substance, and then the physical dues I had to pay and endure to break the immediate grip from dependency. The grip is loosened, but still dwells within ... hidden, but will undeniably reemerge if given the chance. A determined, sometimes daily decision must be adhered to in order to remain substance free. Once chemically "free", it then becomes a choice of lifestyle. God Bless the quality of life and relation to family and friends that will follow. But just because you may not be consuming the substance presently, make no mistake .... the neural pathways of synapses between neurons in your brain have been physically altered and there is a likelihood that your brain will not return to its processing of thought as done prior to addiction as to the processing of thought presently. Keep in mind that the past is what it is .... recorded history.
