Overcoming Addictions through Tearing Down Strongholds in our Minds

Addictions result from major emotional strongholds in our thought life. Overcoming addiction is possible. Learn about strongholds and how to pull them down in your life; a spiritual stronghold is similar to medieval fortress.

Healing addictions starts in the battlefield of the mind. Spiritual strongholds can be torn down that keep people stuck in patterns of addiction. Overcoming the thought patterns that lead to addiction is essential to healing addictions of all kinds: smoking, over eating, alcohol, drugs, sexual addictions and more. There is a connection between stress and addiction and disease and between negative emotions that the Bible calls sins. People who are stuck in a pattern of addiction often focus on the behavior and struggle to stop the unhealthy behavior but the truth is that the underlying negative emotions are the sin that is resulting in the manifestation of addictions. Overcoming addictions and healing addictions is possible as we look at the pathway of temptation into the sin that has us entangled in addictions. We must accept and acknowledge the link between negative sinful emotions and thoughts and addiction in order to get set free.

Major emotional patterns that lead to various addictions are all the result of negative thinking; this thinking comes from spiritual darkness and it is designed to separate us from God and the promises of the kingdom. Addictions are the result of major emotional strongholds. Overcoming addiction is possible as you learn about strongholds and how to pull them down in your life. A spiritual stronghold is similar to a medieval fortress. This fortress is created in our lives through unhealed wounds which are caused by traumatic events in our lives. These strongholds are built similarly to a castle; stone by stone and thoughts by thought. Over a period of time the thoughts become so common to us that we forget that they are there and we don’t recall ever thinking or believing differently.

Believing the lies of a stronghold can create a feeling of security but it keeps us in bondage or in prison on the inside while it prevents others from being able to help us from the outside. When you are dealing with overcoming a stronghold of addiction you cannot simply say no to the addiction. Strongholds are fortresses of thought patterns that give strength to addictions and other sinful life patterns such as depression, stress, and more. These thought patterns give the enemy access to our thought in order to harass or oppress us. A stronghold cannot be attacked successfully head on; instead it must be dismantled thought pattern by thought pattern. Healing addiction is possible as you dismantle the lies that allow that sin to have power in your life.

Strongholds are brought down as we take thoughts captive to the truth offered through Jesus Christ. We must cast down our own understanding and the thoughts that are protecting addiction in our lives. Breaking our agreement with our negative feelings and the enemy’s lies will set us free to agree with the Word of God. Confessing the truth of God and renouncing the lies of the enemy is similar to dismantling the stronghold block by block. Healing addictions and overcoming sinful patterns and negative thinking is possible as we accept the truth and renounce the lies. Break free from addiction by accepting the power over addiction that is available through faith in the Word of God.

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How Does Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Affect a Person?

There is another school of thought that the addiction is due to a mental disorder and causes physical dependency. The mental disorder must be treated first in order for any treatment plan to work properly.

One more argument is that the alcoholism and drug addiction is due to chemical imbalance. With this belief, it is thought that the addiction must be treated with some sort of medication after detox has been completed.

Scientific studies support each concept but there are no full answers and the fact remains there are millions of alcoholics and drug addicts still out there. When someone goes through the treatment process, his chances of staying clean can range between 16% and 20%. If we want recovery rates to rise, we have to come up with some sort of treatment that will make this happen.

The last thought on addiction is that the alcoholism and drug addiction problem probably has something to do with the life cycle of addiction, which means there is some trauma suffered at one time or another or a painful experience an addict can't seem to get through without the use of some sort of chemical.

An example of this reason for addiction would be the person who can't seem to fit in with others, a painful condition either physical or mental, or a person who may be dealing with another real or imagined problem. The alcoholic or addict may feel there is no other way out of the situation and the addiction begins. The first drink loosens him up and then the numbness sets in and the addict begins the downward spiral.

The relief that an addict may feel is only temporary but it is enough to get the addict over the pain. The feelings that are suppressed by the drink or the drug are something that the addict would rather feel so the continued drinking is never about pleasure; it is always a form of self medication that leads him down a road where returning is that hardest step ever taken.

Effects of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction

The quality of life for this individual will gradually begin to decrease and the addiction will start to be a way to hide from the facts. Each and every moment an addict feels the pain of life, he will choose to take a drink or get high so he can avoid the pain. Alcoholism and drug addiction becomes a vicious cycle from which there seems no return. There are usually only three outcomes: sobriety, prison, and the worst case scenario -- death.