Confronting Your Addictions

Lent is a season for introspection and acknowledging reality. For many, it calls us to confront the addictions in our lives.

The term "addiction" has been defined in various ways by authorities who treat particular addictions and impulse control disorders, such as with substances (e.g. alcohol, drugs, prescription medicines, smoking, etc.) or behavioral (e.g. pornography, gambling, sex, social media, intenret, video games, food, work, shopping, exercising, tatoos, plastic surgery, and so on). For example consider the following definition of "addiction" offered by the American Psychological Association:

A state of psychological and/or physical dependence on the use of drugs or other substances, such as alcohol, or on activities or behaviors. The term is often used as an equivalent term for substance use disorder or substance dependence and can be applied to non-substance-related behavioral addictions, such as sex, exercise, and gambling. A chemical substance with significant potential for producing dependence is called an addictive drug. 1

Many interrelated and complex factors can contribute in causing or continuing an addiction, such as: brain chemistry involving dopamine, serotonin, neurotransmitters, and other chemicals or systems of the brain; emotional triggers resulting in behaviors to cope with stress, anxiety, depression, lack of self-esteem, and the like; personality traits such as sensation seeking, risk-taking, boredom, and other traits; and social and environmental influences such as from peers and advertising.

One program that has been used to help someone recover from an addiction is the "Twelve Steps," originally formulated and published in 1939 by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Similar types of 12-Step programs have been developed since for responding to various other types of addictions and impulse control disorders. Also, various programs have been developed to assist in supporting those spouses, partners, children, or other family members of those persons who are addicted.

The 12-Steps program is conducted with others who are likewise addicted or who are recoverying from their addiction, that includes the affected persons actively accepting and engaging in the following process:

  1. Admit that you are powerless over your addiction — that your life has become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a Power greater than yourself could restore you to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn your will and your life over to the care of God as you understood God.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself.
  5. Admitted to God, to yourself, and to another human being the exact nature of your wrong.
  6. You are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked God to remove your shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all persons you have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continue to take personal inventory and when you were wrong, you promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with God as you understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for you and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, you try to carry this message to others wo are addicted, and to practice these principles in all your affairs. 2

One can readily see the spiritual dimension inherent in and a core principle of the 12-Steps program. As Carl Jung, a distinguished psychotherapist observed in his book, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, many patient's psychological issues that he treated throughout his long and illustrious career, especially those issues that arose in the second half of their lives, arose fundamentally from spiritual issues that required spiritual solutions to help resolve.

Your journey on the road of recovery from any addiction begins now with you ackowledging and admitting to yourself, to God, and to another "that you are powerless over your addiction — that your life has become unmanageable," and that you need to obtain appropriate medical, psychological, and other healthcare treatment now to evaluate and treat your addictive condition. Since there is a spiritual dimension to our human existence, you should also consider obtaining and engaging in appropriate spiritual counseling.


1 American Psychological Association. APA Dictionary of Psychology: "Addiction";" cf. "What is Addiction," Psychology Today, (accessed Februaru 11, 2025).
2 Alcoholics Anonymous, "The Twelve Steps.". Retrieved on February 11, 2025.