Can Addiction Be Cured? Well, it depends on your understanding of what addiction is. There are many in the mental health and medical community who will say that addiction is a chronic disease that has no cure. This is both depressing to those who struggle with this human condition known as addiction, and an oversimplification. I want to lay out for you what I believe is the more complete answer to what addiction is and is not, and whether or not it can be cured or treated. Having worked with the addicted through the RU Ministry now for many years I have come to discover some truths about addiction and a biblical basis for the treatment of addiction. And how my personal understanding of the subject has grown over the years. But first I want to give you a short answer and then I will explain further.
Addiction is not a disease but rather it is a part of the human condition. It is man’s nature to seek pleasure and to seek escape from pain. Every human being that has ever been born has been born with this condition. Is it curable? You can’t cure the human condition, but there is hope. You can overcome this human condition which is not the same as remaining sober. We overcome the human condition which biblically is the sin nature by faith in Christ. This is why RU Recovery Ministries is a faith-based program. Living our life in Christ is a victorious life. When we live in the flesh we can remain sober for as long as we have the will to do so, but without the power of Christ, we can never live victoriously. The sin nature the human condition remains until we are removed from this world either by death or through the return of Christ.
What is Addiction? Can Addiction Be Cured?
Addiction is the seeking of pleasure to escape the pain vs. seeking Christ to overcome the pain as He has overcome the world. Addiction can manifest itself in many forms. It’s not just drugs and alcohol. It is anything that we put a priority on over our relationship with Jesus. This is what the Bible calls sin. We must understand that there is a spiritual aspect, a mental aspect, and a biological aspect of addiction. The addicted do become biologically and chemically dependent on their addiction. Addiction can be caused by mental imbalance, or be the cause of mental imbalance. There is certainly room for mental and medical professionals to deal with these matters, but without a whole man approach to addiction with the spiritual condition of a person taken into consideration most treatment will only be sober maintenance at its best or failure at its worst. People’s lives are at stake in the treatment of addiction. This approach of the whole man is professionally called the Biopsychosocial–Spiritual Approach (1). We must get this right. I am not going to tell someone that has a chemical imbalance in their brain that they need to get off a depression medicine and just trust Jesus as much as I am not going to tell a diabetic to stop insulin. That is foolish. But if the person is not also seeking to put their faith and trust in Christ and finding hope, and satisfaction in their faith the depression medicine will only ever be a bandaid to the real issues of their heart.
What about Mental Health and Chemical Dependancy?
Is there a Cure for Addiction? What about Mental Health and Chemical Dependancy? To ignore the mental health aspects and chemical dependency of addiction is equally as foolish as ignoring the spiritual condition of a person in addiction. Mental Illness is real. Do not make the mistake of thinking that it is not. There are those who are born with chemical imbalances, and there are those who develop chemical imbalances. If you are constantly overloading the dopamine receptors in your brain with serotonin by using an opioid or watching pornography you are going to create imbalance. Stressful or traumatic life situations can create chemical imbalances in the brain as well. Sometimes these imbalances can be worked through with counseling and sometimes they require medicine. There should be no stigma especially among the people of God towards those that struggle with mental illness or need to take daily medicine to keep their mind balanced. Faith has a role to play as well. Faith in Christ and the Bible can go a long way to helping a person struggling with depression to discover the joy in Christ. Doctors can help relieve the chemical dependency addiction, a mental health professional can help bring balance to the chemicals in your biology, but faith in Christ can bring hope and joy back into your life and help you achieve freedom through faith in Him that overcomes the world.
How Does Faith Help Overcome Addiction? Is Faith a Cure for Addiction?
Even the secular world of phycology and mental health recognizes the importance of faith in recovery (2). But how exactly does faith work? Some might call it a coping mechanism. Which is a term that I feel degrades the power and importance of faith in Christ. Faith works because it brings hope to the hopeless. Hope that Christ is the answer to all of their problems. Hope that there is more to life than this world. Hope that we can cast our burdens on Jesus and he will carry us through this world. Faith brings Joy and Love through Christ, but also through the network of people that have a like mind and faith that we surround ourselves with. This is through the church. God’s family surrounds the addicted with Hope, Joy, and Love. Faith also brings accountability. Without accountability, we have no reason to give up our addiction. Realizing that we are accountable for our actions is an important motive to seek to overcome our addiction. But most importantly Faith works through relationships. Read More About the Faith-Based Appraoch to Addiction Here (3).
Addiction Can Be Overcome Through a Relationship
Can Addiction Be Cured or the better question might be Can Addiction be Overcome? Relationships are vital in the treatment of addiction. Relationships are also easily destroyed by addiction. Faith in God leads to a relationship with Christ. As with all relationships, it is a daily continuing relationship. We know that God speaks to us in a number of ways. Through His Word the Bible, through prayer, through wise counselors, through the preaching and teaching of His Word, and lastly through the Holy Spirit which dwells in our life when we through faith trust Jesus as our Savior from the human condition of sin.
God stepped down from heaven into the flesh to experience the human condition as His Son Jesus. Jesus overcame the human condition of sin being tempted with pleasure to relieve the pain just as we are. He overcame sin the same way that we do through faith and the power of God. Jesus being perfect lived Victoriously and willingly gave his own life submitting to death as a sacrifice to pay the penalty of man’s sin. Three days later Jesus overcame death that we might have through faith in His death, burial, and resurrection the ability to overcome sin and death. Faith in Jesus is the cure for the human condition. We can overcome addiction even as human nature continues to exist through faith and trust in Christ.
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5750603/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943841/
- https://rurecovery.com/faith-based-addiction-recovery-programs-work/
