Not long ago I came across a story about an auto mechanic. In the process of doing his job, he accidentally got some brake fluid in his mouth and ended up swallowing it. Strange enough, he liked the taste. One day, remembering the sensation of the brake fluid in his mouth, he decided to try and drink some. Before he knew it, he had downed the whole bottle. One of his co-workers saw this developing pattern in his friend and was horrified. He told his friend that he needed to quit drinking the stuff because, “It will kill you”. He went on to tell his friend “You need to give it up”. The mechanic responded “Hey, don’t worry; I can stop anytime”.
While I think the story is hilarious, there is an underlying story here about addiction that is tragic. In our Western world many of us are caught up in some kind of addiction. A statistics Canada website article that I read indicated that as many as 1 in 5 Canadians will meet the criteria for a substance abuse disorder in their lifetime. Those are scary numbers. My personal guess is that every one of us has some kind of addiction though we may not call an addiction or even realize we are addicted.
Think of something you love, something you “indulge in” from time to time. Now ask yourself, how long can I go without that item? For example, some people like a glass of wine with dinner. Can you go 48 hours without drinking that glass of wine, or any kind of alcohol? If not, then I would suggest you have an addiction to alcohol. What about smoking? Can you go 48 hours without smoking? If not, then you’re addicted to nicotine. Now those are known as very addictive substances, but what about caffeine? Can you go 48 hours without a coffee? Or how about sugar? Can you go 48 hours without something sweet? If not, perhaps you are addicted to sugar. Obviously, this is a far cry from a scientific experiment, but the point is very real. All of us have areas in our life where we seriously struggle with a virtue that the Bible calls “self control”.
Addictions, or things that control us, are not confined to drugs and alcohol. We also give in to other addictions. Consider some emotions: anger, self pity and jealousy. These feelings, if left to fester, can become consuming. In fact, some have described anger as “a form of temporary insanity”. Our emotions, like some physical addictions, can be consuming; we need to learn to become masters of and not servants to our emotions.
Anyone who has known the confining, binding feeling of addiction has at one point or another desired to be free, to regain self-control. There are some basic things that a person can do. To regain self-control, one needs to learn to control their thought patterns. When you begin to think of that thing you are addicted to or find yourself in an unhealthy thought pattern, you need to learn to break the cycle. You need to capture that thinking and change it. Another simple strategy involves avoidance. If you are addicted to pizza, stay away from pizza restaurants. If you are addicted to alcohol, don’t spend time in a bar. One of the best tools that most people will suggest is having an accountability partner. This can be challenging for some because it involves a great deal of trust, but in the long run it is very beneficial.
When you look at some of the major programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous, or Celebrate Recovery, they all start with two basic points. The first is that to be set free from your addiction, you need to first recognize that your addiction is just that, an addiction, that your life is not being controlled by you, but by the thing to which you are addicted. The second step, which I think is absolutely essential, is to recognize that in our own human strength we will not be able to overcome the addiction and regain self-control. In fact AA uses the words “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Self control is not attained by our free will. It is a product of inviting God into our lives to help us overcome our addiction. We can do all kinds of things in striving for the virtue of self control, but let me encourage you to start with admission of it and turning to God for help.