Transcription
Dr. Koh, let's talk about addiction. How big of a problem is it in the United States?
Yeah, addiction is the number one cause of death in the United States. When you look at food, tobacco, alcohol, and other illegal drugs, it's the number one killer. Forty-seven percent of our society this year will have an addiction to tobacco, alcohol, drugs, prescription drugs, or what we call process addictions like workaholism, exercise, sex, and love. Forty-seven percent. Forty-seven percent. This year, just this year. That doesn't include caffeine or pornography, which are the biggest chemical and the biggest process addictions.
Well, you know, when we talk about addiction, you think about that process. You don't just become an addict now. How does how does it work?
Yeah, so the medical, you know, our medical definition of chemical addiction is when somebody uses or pursues a chemical even though consequences are starting to pile up. So whether they be financial consequences, legal, relational, you know, they're still using even though—wow—in the balance, it's not good to use, but they still use. That's an addiction. A process addiction is that same definition, but instead of using "chemical," we use "behavior." So for some people, it's workaholism, gambling, shopping, sex, pornography. These days, social media, the internet, Facebook, cell phone, video games are huge in our teenagers and young adults as far as something that is starting to bear consequences in their life, their marriage, you know, in their parenting and their finances, if they continue to use it.
When you say that, it makes me think of the consequences of the addiction. It takes us down a path, and then this isn't a good path.
No, it's not. So another way to look at addiction is there's five stages of addiction. So the first stage is experimental. So if a person is just experimenting, they don't have any goal, any agenda. They show up at a party or a friend's, and they have something to use, and the person uses it, leaves. You know, no real inclination to take it or leave it. After a few times of that, usually then, for some people, it evolves into recreational use, where they go again. It's more of a social climate, and they use socially. But for some people, it stops there. For some people, it continues. We call the next stage circumstantial, and this is the dangerous third stage where people start to realize that there's some benefit they get from that use. So whether it's they can study better and have better concentration, they can stay up later, they can go to a party and ask a girl out because they've had some alcohol first to decrease their anxiety level. They drink, and now they're escaping their problems from work, from relationships, from marriage. So that's dangerous when they think that they can get some benefit and they're ignoring the downside of it as they continue to use. The consequences start mounting, and the fourth stage is intensified use where they're starting to use even though consequences are happening. They're using more and more and more. Then the fifth stage is that sort of addiction, full-blown addiction, where it's compulsive use, where even though the person might want to stop now, it's such a huge part of their life and so controlling that they can't stop on their own.
It is that. That's the place with the drug or the aqua or the or the or the circumstance takes over their life.
Exactly. Now they're they're powerless in the process, and now that's taken over.
Yes. I want to encourage our viewers that there's hope in this.
Oh, definitely. Yes. So as we look at a biblical definition of of addiction, you know, the first two Commandments are, you know, "I'm your Lord your God, have no other gods before me," and "don't make any graven images and worship other things." And so we're made for worship. God designed us to worship Him. Unfortunately, Satan is also in this game too, and he's made a lot of imposters that promise the peace, the joy, the love, the fulfillment, but they don't offer it at all. They're very empty, but the world pushes them out, and we start to gravitate to them. Just like even in the Garden, "I'll take that Apple," you know, we gravitate to these imposters. We start to use it, and now we start to fall into that path. So instead of that that chemical or that behavior being out on the periphery of our life, it's charged to move closer and closer and closer to the center, and then eventually it boots God out of the center, and now it's in the center of our life. So our life orbits around that alcoholism or that workaholism or that, you know, marijuana addiction instead of orbiting around God, who should be the center of our—
Do you think there's some value, and at least the person's mind, in saying that they are an addict? You know, "I'm I'm an alcoholic," "I'm a—" Does that give them identification at some level that you can declare yourself to be in that place? Because I know I know that that's part of the treatment is to identify where you are in that process.
You have to be real with yourself. I mean, part of that, you know, addiction movement is you got to be real, you know. So you got to be able to say, "I'm I want to humble myself and be honest, what's really going on here? Do I have power over this situation?" And to be able to start to to look at my definition of addiction is pursuing something other than God to get your needs met or a coping skill that doesn't involve God. You know, so we need to take a look and say, "When I'm stressed, when I'm facing adversity, when something doesn't go my way, what do I turn to first? Do I turn to God and turn to prayer and seek His guidance in the situation, or am I turning to a drink, by turning to marijuana, by turning to work and a work project? Am I turning to isolation or anger?" And so whenever we start to take a look at our everyday life and how we're reacting to things, that shows us, yeah, maybe I am an addict, maybe I'm addicted to something. I think we're all addicted to comfort. We all want comfort, and we all pursue something other than God to get our needs met, to get comfortable in a situation, to escape, to anesthetize, to soothe, you know, and God is the only one that can really soothe lastingly those situations.
Are, doctor, doctor, are you saying that it's a choice between a chemical or some other some other natural means or looking to God as our source? And that's is that a doubt? Idolatry? Is that worth a lot? Idol worship?
Exactly. So you know, in Ezekiel talks about idols of the heart. So we're talking about idol worship, you know, something moving to the center in our heart instead of God being at the center of our heart. So when we look at addictions, you know, you know, real prevalent over the last 20 years or so is this disease model. So we hear about the disease aspect of addiction, and it is a disease. You know, when we use a toxin, it affects our brain chemistry. When we make decisions to use pornography, it affects our brain chemistry. But it's also psychological. We're making poor decisions instead of using good, healthy coping skills for stress. We're using poor coping mechanisms. But it's also a sin issue where we're choosing something other than God to soothe us, and that's just never going to work. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, "Hey, everything's vanity under the sun without God." I think the except of finding our our answers in Jesus, in our relationship with God above our chemical or alcohol or any other type of self-medication, is the process of becoming whole and healthy. That's what we're here to talk about. We'll be right back.