A question for ex-addicts and/or addicts only

[Depleted]

How long did the addiction beat you? I'm asking because someone seems to think if enough people pray the addiction is just over and then life goes on from there. So, I would like honest answers.

(And I'm asking addicts and ex-addicts only, because everyone else tends to think if they just preach at us, gives us the this-is-how-God-fixed-me speech, or gives us a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps speech, they've done their duty. This isn't for that.)

For me:
Drug addiction -- four years.
Cigarettes -- 41 years and still going on.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

perscription drugs
on and off for 3 years

(15 to 18)

weed 9 years
(16 to 25)

nicotine
well
cigs from 17 to 26....
i still crave em

and even though now i may only break once every week or every other week or whatever

even if its just an e-cig

i still crave them

i never BEAT that addiction yet...
id like to say i have

but i want one right now

(i did worse stuff.. but never enough to get addicted to it... thank God)

 

[Seekingfamily]

For me....if I understood your question.
drugs..one month...I did not like what I was seeing in myself and others
alcohol..five years...I was saddened by my son's heartache
cigarettes...36 years, still fighting this battle

I really wish there were rehabilitation (in care) centers for cigarette addiction. If I had the money, I would see about starting one, and check myself in. Prayers do to me help, at a certain level, but it is my heart and will that get me going.

 

[Laish]

How long did the addiction beat you? I'm asking because someone seems to think if enough people pray the addiction is just over and then life goes on from there. So, I would like honest answers.

(And I'm asking addicts and ex-addicts only, because everyone else tends to think if they just preach at us, gives us the this-is-how-God-fixed-me speech, or gives us a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps speech, they've done their duty. This isn't for that.)

For me:
Drug addiction -- four years.
Cigarettes -- 41 years and still going on.

Well for me alcohol and cocaine and pills over a decade. I was abel to kick it white knuckle before I came to believe.. I was still a nutcase for nearly 10 more years. . I was depressed at times and had anger issues. It was not until I came to believe and was then restored to sanity. Yea through prayer but also thru the blessing of Christian friends that would kick me in the south side when I got caught up in stinking thinking. Yea prayer works . You still need to move forward and change your behavior or you will be throwing away what you have been given . That how it was for me.
I hope that helps .
Blessings
Bill

 

[Laish]

One thing I would add is my addiction was physical but what led to it was my sinful character. That can't for the most part be prayed away . If so we could pray a bunch of folks into Heaven.
Blessings
Bill

 

[dalconn]

To be quite honest I think we just have to come to the end of ourselves, feeding the new creation with the Word will ultimately starve the old creation to death

 

[dalconn]

One thing I would add is my addiction was physical but what led to it was my sinful character. That can't for the most part be prayed away . If so we could pray a bunch of folks into Heaven.
Blessings
Bill

1 Cor 1:26-29
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.[SUP] [/SUP]But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,[SUP] [/SUP]so that no one may boast before him.

 

[PennEd]

I think we are all prone to addictions. I have had many. Even the supposedly harmless ones, like a raging Scrabble addiction, are not really harmless at all. Addictions, when boiled down to it, are really idols that we put in place of walking in the Spirit.
[FONT=&quot]12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

[/FONT]My worst addiction was porn. That monster took years of being an effective Christian away. It also almost totally destroyed me.

Our dead flesh, and the temptations of the enemy, aren't going anywhere. But Scripture tells us to resist the enemy and he will flee from you. BUT, if we don't renew our minds DAILY, and walk in the Spirit, they will come roaring back.

Revelation from the Holy Spirit, in the form of a greater understanding of His Grace, has given me power to resist, although I know it's evil desire lurks, like a hungry lion.

 

[oldethennew]

for hub and myself, at different times of our lives, 'CHOSE' our addictions freely, although,
our past emotional experiences had great influence in our wanting to 'self-medicate'...

but, we both reached a point where we knew, that enough was enough and somehow,
and we know now how, we 'over-came' them...these were not easy times, and we certainly
'fell' many times before 'Something 'kicked-in' and gave us the will and strength to put such
un-healthy things behind us...
we have learned, that when we are in such awful bondage, that we don't seem to make it a priority
of how our loved ones are effected and how they will have to deal with our self-inflicted deaths...

of course, we give Jesus all of the Glory for His amazing Love and patience!

 

[resurrection33]

How long did the addiction beat you? I'm asking because someone seems to think if enough people pray the addiction is just over and then life goes on from there. So, I would like honest answers.

(And I'm asking addicts and ex-addicts only, because everyone else tends to think if they just preach at us, gives us the this-is-how-God-fixed-me speech, or gives us a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps speech, they've done their duty. This isn't for that.)

For me:
Drug addiction -- four years.
Cigarettes -- 41 years and still going on.

I got over my cigarette addition, after trying to cut down and quit for two years, in under six weeks. As for beer, I gave that up overnight after an unpleasant experience I had.

 

[Huckleberry]

Doesn't matter what I am/was addicted to or the duration.
What matters is strength of mind.
The weak-minded will not overcome.
If you won't control your own mind,
how will you control your behavior?

 

[wwjd_kilden]

Doesn't matter what I am/was addicted to or the duration.
What matters is strength of mind.
The weak-minded will not overcome.
If you won't control your own mind,
how will you control your behavior?

Substance addiction is as much a physical aspect as a psychological one. and sometimes it is difficult to tell the two aspects apart

 

[Huckleberry]

Substance addiction is as much a physical aspect as a psychological one.
and sometimes it is difficult to tell the two aspects apart

Baloney.
Overcoming the physical is the easy
part and is done in a matter of days.
The real war is in the mind.
The addict relapses because he continually ponders his vice.
I'm not some ignoramus on the subject.
I've lived this.

 

[tourist]

Never smoked pot or took drugs. Social alcohol drinker for 10 years, decide to abstain 25 years ago.

Cigarettes at 40+ years.

I believe God does deliver from evil habits instantly but for most of us it is a long involved process with sporadic results at best.

 

[tourist]

For me....if I understood your question.
drugs..one month...I did not like what I was seeing in myself and others
alcohol..five years...I was saddened by my son's heartache
cigarettes...36 years, still fighting this battle

I really wish there were rehabilitation (in care) centers for cigarette addiction. If I had the money, I would see about starting one, and check myself in. Prayers do to me help, at a certain level, but it is my heart and will that get me going.

I would check me in as well.

 

[maverich]

when Jesus looks at you he sees a Woman who happens to have an addiction, never an addicted woman. I was a drunk through 1993 from early childhood. Jesus never saw an addicted man he saw a man with an addiction. He came to set you free, symbolically put his blood on your door post. as you walk in let the feeling of safety from the death angel flood your soul. sleep peacefully, and come out of the door a free person. side note stop calling yourself an addict or recovering addict, what you speak with your mouth it will be so. I speak thank you lord Jesus for removing the addictions in my life and its because you love

 

[Yahweh_is_gracious]

My problem with alcohol will likely always be a problem for me.

I still crave cigarettes 5 years later after quitting.

 

[stillness]

How long did the addiction beat you? How long did I take things in my hands?
A 40 year journey in the wilderness from the time the Lord first spoke to me when I was 22.
Not claiming to have arrived, neither is entering the promised land arriving, but entering the relationship of Jesus to do the will of the Father. Jesus said, "I can do nothing of myself but except what I see the Father doing." Having come to us in the likeness of a man. This was no longer the case after the resurrection, "All power has been given to me in heaven and earth..."

11 years ago the Lord told me: Enter in as a little child and put away your divided Spirit.
I asked Him how old I was as a little child, He said: 12
In addiction at the time, smoking pot every day, then craving cigarettes (cigarettes not addictive when straight) and falling from bad to worse than described ss addictions don't satisfy gradually leaving us in want. While in this condition a few weeks latter, the Lord told me with compassion in His voice and no blame, "Come to my house, I'M coming to My house. This relates to what happened when Jesus was 12 years of age. Being in the Fathers house is about the will of the Father. A year later still stumbling in and out of addiction and turning to the Lord for help, woke up herring, "This kind does not come out but by prayer and fasting." referring to what He called me to do: Enter in as a little child and put away your divided spirit."
It's been 10 years since the word, "This kind does not come out but by prayer and fasting." The trouble I have presently is codependency for the Love of a woman, that was why I became addicted to pot after the marriage break, 16 years ago. I had been free from smoking pot for 23 years with no craving. Still struggle at times, tempted to smoke pot, haven't for 16 months, living in a recovery community made that possible, but mostly still struggle with adoring women.
For more information on the Journey of recovery, read Journey to enter into rest, in Poems and poetry.
Your brother in Christ Raymond

 

[Depleted]

Doesn't matter what I am/was addicted to or the duration.
What matters is strength of mind.
The weak-minded will not overcome.
If you won't control your own mind,
how will you control your behavior?

If I could control my mind, why do I need the Lord?

 

[Depleted]

Baloney.
Overcoming the physical is the easy
part and is done in a matter of days.
The real war is in the mind.
The addict relapses because he continually ponders his vice.
I'm not some ignoramus on the subject.
I've lived this.

Oh boy, an up-by-my-bootstraps sermon. Sorry, gonna follow God, not you. And sorry, I'm not really sorry.