Is Addiction a Mental Problem or a Spiritual Problem?
Addiction is a mental disease marked by compulsive drug-seeking and self-destructive behavior.
It has nothing to do with lack of self-control or moral failing. You may have made poor choices that opened the door to addiction, but millions of fine, upstanding people make poor choices and do not become addicted. Don’t park there.
” … Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 3:13-14
No matter how you got here, you’re in the right place. Anyone who judges you for becoming addicted or entering rehab doesn’t know much about addiction. Anyone who tells you that you’re unlovable now doesn’t know Jesus very well.
Addiction is a spiritual problem in the sense that it keeps you from experiencing the contentment, peace, freedom, sense of purpose and sheer joy that God wants for you. It also inhibits your ability to love God with your entire being as he desires:
“He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind … ‘” — Luke 10:27
” … May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — I Thessalonians 5:23
These are just two of the many Bible verses that illustrate how we’re made.
We have a physical body. We have a soul, which encompasses the mind, will, and emotions. We have a spirit, sometimes referred to as the heart. By design, these work together and perfectly complement one another to form a complete, well-rounded person.
At St. Gregory Recovery Center in Iowa, we believe that the only effective treatments address all aspects of your being: the body, the soul, and the spirit. Our Christian drug rehab is designed to nurture all three and restore them to health so that you can enjoy the exhilarating life God has in store.
