The Brain, Self-Control, & Substance Abuse

When it comes to discussing opiates and their effects on the human brain and our abilities to self-control, we must pay special attention to the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is located in the most anterior portion of the frontal lobe in the brain. The dendrites (neurological cells) in this part of the brain contain up to 16x as many dendritic spines as neurons in other cortical areas, due to this, the prefrontal cortex integrates a huge amount of information.

The thalamus is a symmetrical structure of two halves, within the vertebrate brain, situated between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain. Some of its functions are the relaying of sensory and motor signals to the cerebral cortex, and the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness. The two parts of the thalamus surround the third ventricle, which contains cerebrospinal fluid, neurons, and fibers that connect the two thalami.

The orbitofrontal cortex is a prefrontal cortex region in the frontal lobes in the brain which is involved in the cognitive processing of decision-making. It is defined as part of the prefrontal cortex that receives projections from the magnocellular medial nucleus of the mediodorsal thalamus, and is thought to represent emotion and reward in decision-making.

Each of the areas of the brain I have just listed are those in the brain most heavily affected by opiates. The opiate receptors are located within the dendrites (neurological cells), which are far more numerous throughout the frontal lobe/prefrontal cortex. As we continue to indulge and abuse powerful opiates like heroin, we are directly deteriorating our ability to self-control. When we inhibit our brain’s ability to function properly, we inhibit our ability to live properly. Sure, it’s up to each individual to define what is proper for them, but we are not talking about ideologies or philosophies, we are talking about physical affects in the brain. If we have a corroded thalamus, we will have a warped perception of sensory and motor stimuli. If we damage our orbitofrontal cortex, we cannot properly make decisions or process cognitive information. When all of these crucial areas are each being harmed and suppressed from developing completely, self-control becomes something that is literally unachievable.

Another important feature of the brain regarding the detrimental effects of substance abuse is glucose. Glucose is the fuel that powers the brain’s many complex functions. Glucose is sugar, also known as blood sugar.

Every day people resist the impulse to go back to sleep, eat unhealthy foods, skip their daily exercise, and take illicit substances. The way by which we avoid such behaviors that feel good in the moment but bear long-term costs is self-control.

If an individual has a choice between an immediate reward or a more valuable reward which they can receive later, the individual will most likely try to control the impulse to take that immediate reward. If an individual has a damaged orbitofrontal cortex, this impulse control will most likely not be as strong, and they may be more likely to take the immediate reinforcement. Additionally, research and experimentation shows a lack of impulse control in children, because the prefrontal cortex develops slowly.

• Beginning addiction before the maturity of this part of the brain can occur, the opportunity for it to develop healthily and completely is endangered, if not completely lost altogether; if not until the substance abuse ceases
• Though many things affect one’s ability to exert self-control, exerting self-control requires sufficient glucose levels in the brain. Reduced glucose and reduced ability to transport it to the brain (known as poor glucose tolerance) are correlated with lower performance in tests of self-control, particularly in difficult new situations (which the life of an addict is plentiful in having)
• Self-control demands that an individual work to overcome thoughts, emotions, and automatic responses/impulses. These strong efforts require higher blood glucose levels, as lower BGL can lead to unsuccessful self-control abilities. (Ex. Alcohol causes a decrease of glucose levels in both the brain and the body, and it also impairs many forms of self-control.)

An untested theory states an alternative explanation of the limited amounts of glucose that are found is that depends on the allocation of glucose, not on limited supply. According to this theory, the brain has sufficient resources of glucose and possibility of delivering, but the personal priorities and motivations of the individual cause the glucose to be allocated to other sites.

What if we succumb to our impulses, not because depletion produces a loss of the ability to exert self-control, but rather it reduces our motivation to do so? Evidence shows that the beliefs, expectations, and motivations one has in regards to particular self-control behaviors can influence performance. Increasing internal or external motivation has been shown to encourage an individual to overcome ego-depletion and ‘tap into’ their remaining resources. Persistence in self-control behaviors also appears linked to an individual’s subjective perception of their resources.

In one particular experiment, participants who believed that self-control can be continually renewed exerted self-control well beyond their counterparts, who believed that their self-control was fixed and limited. Could self-control really be ‘all in your head’? It is plausible that those who believed self-control was limited looked for internal signals to suggest fatigue, and when these signals arouse, their motivation decreased and they prematurely abandoned the task. Alternatively, those with the belief that self-control was more flexible and infinite may have interpreted these signs as cues to work harder to exert self-control, but instead are unwilling or unmotivated, as to do so is unpleasant or requires too much effort or resources. With this evidence in mind, theories have begun to emerge that incorporate the role of motivation in self-control.

How does cognition, affect, and motivation influence self-control depletion? With each act of self-control performed, we become less motivated to engage in further acts of restraint. Simultaneously, we feel more motivated to engage in behaviors that we find rewarding, interesting, and enjoyable. Alternatively, our previous efforts may allow us to feel justified in ‘slacking off’. As one becomes more motivated to gratify impulses, their attention also shifts towards cues signaling gratification and reward. Although preliminary, these impressive findings suggest that repeated self-control exertion weaken the one’s monitoring system, reducing goal-orientated attention. Thus, unintentionally neglect the goal at hand.

True cognition is experienced when we feel our behavior is purely self-regulated and endorsed, and promotes our values and interests. Contexts that support autonomy tend to produce greater self-control outcomes than those that force individuals to restrain themselves. Such a trend has been replicated in various health-related behaviors, such as smoking cessation and alcohol/drug abstinence. Researchers offered two explanations for this finding. Firstly, feeling as though we are the sole agent of our own self-driven regulation is likely to produce a sense of subjective vitality- a positive feeling of aliveness and energy- which may lead to a more rapid recovery of self-control strength. Secondly, ego-depletion effects may be magnified when self-control is exerted in response to external pressures.

To combat/help against depletion of ability to self-control, as it does require energy and focus, and therefore can lessen over time, relaxation, rest, and changing the way one approaches their desires are helpful. The latter is a means to strengthen self-control through applying it to certain behaviors. To overcome unwanted desires, change the approach to such desires. If you are unsure as to what your passion is, take the time to find out. Work out what really matters to you. Let your passion guide you where you can find true fulfillment.

To aid in discovering your desires;

• take an inward look and become aware of what sort of motivation drives you through life.
• Break your old patterns, try something new, try something different.
• Go skydiving, eat something you’ve never eaten before, or drive a different way to work.
• Do something for others, spend the time doing things YOU want to do.
• After that day, or that week, integrate your discovered passions and style of living into your everyday life.

Because we all have responsibilities and priorities, convention obviously needs to be followed to a certain extent, but life is ending one day at a time, and living the way you want is possible.

In the next ‘Here to Help’, I will go into detail about ‘goals and motivation’. Since we now know so much about self-control and emotion-regulation, we have a good foundation for understanding motivation; and motivation is required for not only self-control, but setting and achieving goals, too. So tune in next time and hopefully learn something new. Thanks for reading, and God Bless.

Testimony, Scripture, and Devotion: of Faith, God’s Glory, and Redemption

God Wants to Lighten Our Burden; Christ is Our Leaning Post

This is not a place to glorify drugs and drug use, but a place to thank, praise, worship, and glorify God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is a place for people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Scripture tells us that we find rest in the Lord’s salvation. This is a place where we can find fellowship. Not only with those of like mind, character, life circumstances, or experiences, but with the Lord. He wants you to get to know Him. He sees your hurt, and knows your pain. And He wants to end your struggles right now! But He doesn’t force Himself on anyone, for He truly loves you, and that means He obliges your decision to reject Him up to this point in your life. But let me tell you, He doesn’t like it! It breaks His heart. And the instant you let go of that judgment, that anger, that resentment; when you open the door of your heart that you’ve worked so hard to barricade shut against the damage this world has done to you- the moment you open that door to let His Holy Spirit fill you, you will have taken the first step to peace, happiness, meaning, recovery, and faith.

God is not of this world, therefore unlike anything you can imagine or compare Him to. Nothing compares. Turn from your sin, have faith in Jesus Christ, and live the life He intended for you to live. Exchange your broken and desperate life for goodness and fulfillment. It doesn’t matter what kind of mess you’re in or what troubles you’re experiencing, where you’ve been or who you’ve hurt. The ones we hurt the most are ourselves and our loved ones- but as much as we all hurt, the Lord is watching in even more pain. And you know what? He’s ready and willing and capable to take the weight of your miserable load, to be put on Him. He will come right to you, through the mess and confusion, and carry you to new life. He will provide the clarity, strength, and hope where on your own there was merely weakness, fear, and hopelessness for tomorrow. Let your guard down and allow the Holy Spirit to enter into your heart! This is necessary! For your transformation, for your empowerment, for your renewal.

I stand two years sober as I write this. My life went from lost to found, from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light. I cannot express it through simple words how much the Lord has done for me, helped me, given me. In renewing my life, my faith is in Jesus Christ. For I asked Him to take the wheel, and my life has not stopped improving since. And that is no joke or exaggeration. I was shocked, really. It was almost supernatural! Not just physical, but spiritual rest, as He bears the weight and work of our exhaustive burden caused by our addiction. It is so exhausting to keep having to feed our addiction all day every day, and Jesus wants for us to lean on Him, to transfer the weight of our struggles and circumstances off of ourselves and onto Him. We are unable to carry the burden, as we are creatures. And creatures fall, creatures fail, and creatures get tired because of physical and mental weakness. Christ has no weakness and is unlimited in power. He can take our burdens and endure them, overcome them, and remove them from our accountability entirely, but only if we ask Him. Only if we have faith in Him and turn form our sins and addictions. To not have faith in Christ and belief in His gift of salvation through His sacrifice on the cross, is to have a heart of unbelief. To accept His gifts, we must believe.

• Isaiah 14:3 (KJV). And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou was made to serve.
• Psalms 37:7 (KJV). Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
• Psalms 37:9 (KJV). For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
• Jeremiah 6:15-16 (KJV). ‘Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore, they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down’, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, ‘Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not walk therein.’
• Hebrews 3:6-14 (NLT). But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
• Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT). Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

God Has a Plan for Each and Every One of His Children

God is amazing. There is such diversity and uniqueness demonstrated in an infinite scale throughout nature and all of creation. From snowflakes all having a different structure, to the sheer number of types of seeds in the plant kingdom, to the cellular structures of just even the human fingernail- let alone the human brain, and the celestial bodies in outer space. His intelligent designs are at work all around us, and each and every detail is unique. Just as we, as individuals, are all unique and special in various ways, we do have something in common. God has a plan and purpose for each and every one of us. Though our purpose may be hard to see at first, or difficult to discover, God has great and amazing things planned for each one of us. But for us to discover His use for us, we must seek Him. We must open our hearts up to Him and sincerely ask Him to enter our lives. We must end the separation from God through sin, and enter in to collaboration with His Divine Spirit through faith. God honors His Word, and His Word tells us that His plans and salvation, His gift of forgiveness and eternal life are available to all. God takes all things and makes them anew. He can take the bad and make it for good. Just as Joseph was sold out to slavery by his brothers through their evil intentions, God took Joseph’s situation and made it for good. “Though my brothers intended it for evil, the Lord intended it for good.”

Just as Jesus was tortured and killed on the cross, God had set it all up for good in the first place. Though we may perceive certain things as bad in our lives, God has already accounted for such things in His plans to result in goodness. It is up to us, as individuals, to receive the Lord’s love and goodness, so that it may be manifested in and through us. My nearly ten-year-long struggle with pain pills and heroin was certainly not a good thing. There was never one moment of my addiction experience that I would have considered even possible to be used for good. But I was wrong, for the Lord saved me and transformed me. And now I am using my experience and wisdom to help those still struggling; that no addict need suffer or die as long as I can help it. I am now a tool being used by Lord Jesus Christ to spread His Word, His love, and His mercy. As long as you are alive, it is never too late to repent and turn to Christ.

I’ll be honest- I used to denounce God. I thought that if He even existed, He must hate me, or be some cruel, malevolent old man in the clouds who enjoyed seeing me suffer, just waiting to send me to Hell when I died. And even thinking such things, I still viewed death as a sweet escape from the nightmare and torturous monotony that my life had become. A life of perpetual and endless suffering that I had manifested around myself. I used to want to overdose…but I now know why I was never successful. God had a plan for me. I was also highly misinformed of the nature of God, as to why I had such a pathetic, arrogant, and immature mental picture of who or what He may be.

• Proverbs 16:9 (NLT). We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.
• Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT). For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
• Matthew 6:31-33 (NLT). “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.”

Renewal and Forgiveness; God’s Salvation Available to All

Our heavenly Father blesses those who believe in Him and have faith in His oversight. Those who do evil and sin have caused a separation between themselves and God. We must seek Him, and love Him, and abstain from sin and the indulgences of the flesh. All we seek in life is found in Jesus Christ; so if it’s rest you seek, peace, love, support, uplifting, positivity, strength, the meaning to life, your purpose, what happens when we die, or anything at all, turn to Christ and repent of your sin. Allow the Holy Spirit to come upon you and into you, so that the Lord may begin to work throughout your life. We must initiate a collaboration with the Lord, not a separation. Ask and you shall receive, as the Lord Jesus Christ loves us so much that He died for each and every one of us- no matter how unworthy or undeserving you may feel or think that you are, Christ cannot wait to show you different…to show you the truth of His grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. It is not about what you have done, but what you are doing and will do. Jesus has already taken the suffering and destruction of death upon Himself, which was meant for you and me. We must honor His glorious sacrifice and take the offer of salvation God is presenting to us, for it is available to all who turn from evil and sin and invest faith in Christ. Redemption is a confession and prayer away! There are no rituals, secrets, or degrees of advancement to work through- but rather His offer of salvation, of eternal life, forgiveness of our sins, and peace in our lives, merely through our belief and acceptance, followed by a righteous lifestyle.

• 1 Peter 3:10-12 (KJV). For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
• 1 Peter 4 (KJV). For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
• 1 Peter 4:7 (KJV). But the end of all things is at hand: Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
• 1 Peter 4:12-13 (KJV). Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
• 1 Peter 4:16-17 (KJV). Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God: And if it first begins at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
• 1 Peter 5:8 (KJV). Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
• John 3:19-21 (KJV). And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil: For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! BUT IT’S NOT AN EGG-DUMPING BUNNY WE OWE IT TO!

Self-Control & Emotion-Regulation

How did we get here? How did I go from being a decent, clean, friendly, selfless, caring person, to becoming the selfish, victimized, unreliable, desperate and manipulative addict I have to overcome (or have already overcome)? Well, it is rooted in a lack of self-control. As we concluded from discussions of other articles of ‘Here To Help’, many addicts are a majority of people unable to regulate and manage emotions and emotional responses in a healthy and non-detrimental way. In this article, I am going to educate us on the various aspects of cultivating healthy self-control. This means we will be looking at the role we play as individuals with free will, in the balancing act between the external and internal environments by which we all live. Because there is both the internal aspect of our psychological existence as well as the external aspect of our physical world within which we live, I will explain the ways these two environments interact and have effect on one another.

Also, we will be taking a look at the part of the brain that handles self-control and emotional regulation, which is also an area which contains dendrites with a 16x higher concentration of dendritic spines as neurons compared to other parts of the brain. In other words, this very important and powerful area of the brain is highly susceptible to damage from the abuse of opiates, as well as develops slowly, reaching full maturity around age 30. So if you happen to have started your substance abuse or drug dependence before this age, it is absolutely certain that your prefrontal cortex has been hindered in its development and thus causes another very important aspect of why we struggle with addiction and relapse in the opiate abuse community like we do.

Ok, so let’s start by defining self-control and looking at what all goes into this most complex feature of our brains. Self-control is an aspect of inhibitory control. It is the ability to control one’s emotions and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function -like planning, working memory, problem solving, attentional control-, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one’s behavior in order to achieve goals. This ability underlies a multitude of everyday tasks and has been empirically linked to success and failure within a wide range of outcomes throughout the lifespan of any person. To strengthen one’s self-control is to enhance your capacity to alter your own behavior in order to pursue personal long-term goals and adhere to standards such as values and social expectations. Just as this ability can be strengthened, it can also be depleted. Whether we view self-control as a muscle or a malleable product of one’s beliefs, expectations, and the level and type of motivation a person has, there are ways to improve and hinder one’s self-control performance.

As far as strengthening our self-control, we can engage in long-term exercises that involve the act of self-regulation. Handling stress, overcoming cravings and temptation, socializing, and dealing with new, unfamiliar situations are all examples of such exercise.

The related concept of emotional self-regulation is very similar, in the sense that it too can be strengthened and depleted from over-use. But first, let’s define this particular aspect of self-control. Emotional self-regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed. Regulation of emotion is a complex process that involves initiating, inhibiting, or modulating one’s state or behavior in a given situation- such as subjective experience (feelings), cognitive responses (thoughts), emotion-related psychological responses (heart rate, hormonal activity), and emotion-related behavior (bodily actions/expressions). Functionally, emotional regulation can also refer to processes such as the tendency to focus one’s attention to a task and the ability to suppress inappropriate behavior under instruction.

Emotional regulation is a highly significant function in human life, as every day, people are continually exposed to a wide variety of potentially arousing stimuli. Inappropriate, extreme, or unchecked emotional reactions to such stimuli could impede functional fit within society; therefore, people must engage in some form of emotional regulation almost all the time. Individuals who are emotionally dysregulated exhibit patterns of responding in which there is a mismatch between their goals, responses, and/or modes of expression, and the demands of social environments. For example, there is a significant association between emotion dysregulation and symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating pathology, and substance abuse.

• Drug use: an example of response modulation, can be a way to alter emotion-associated psychological responses. (Alcohol produces sedative/anxiolytic effects, beta-blockers affect sympathetic activation)
• Opiates can become abused all-too-easily because of their ability to dull our emotional responses, affect our intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and also relieve negative feelings, both physical (pain) and emotional (sadness)

Because self-control through emotion-regulation is such a unique situation for every individual, we cannot affectively combat faults and weaknesses in this department via ‘one size fits all’ assessments or treatments. However, we can create a strategy to avoid vulnerability of the emotional mind.

Due to the complex and unique nature of emotions from person to person, it is most difficult to attain self-regulation during flares of vulnerability. It is essential to identify the emotion, the cognitive/situational stimulus, and the obstacles that it poses in a clinical setting. Increasing a person’s self-control is a trial-and-error learning experience for both the patient and the practitioner helping the person struggling. Anxiety, negative self-talk, dysfunctional cognition, and demoralized state (loss of hope) are identified through research as the pitfall-traps that can lead these persons into vulnerability. It is important to guide the person in reducing the frequency, intensity, and duration of emotional flare-ups. In a vulnerable situation, it is only natural for an individual to go into ‘fight-flight-freeze’ states. If not intervened or validated appropriately, it can lead to co-morbid mental health issues like stress, anxiety, eating disorders, addictions, compulsive disorders, etc.

Skills required in mastering a vulnerable situation are hope and positive action. Understanding the psychological model of emotion also aides it. Here is the ‘ABCPLEASE’ psychological model below:

• Accumulate positive emotions
• Build mastery by being active in activities that make one feel competent and effective to combat helplessness, hopelessness, and in creating positive events
• Cope ahead skillfully with emotional situations (preparation, plan, rehearse, relaxation techniques)
• Physical well-being through check-ups
• Low immunity and vulnerability to diseases, manage with health care professionals
• Eating healthy
• Avoiding mind-altering substances
• Sleep healthy (7-9 hours)
• Exercise regularly (psycho-motor activities like exercising, listening to music, socializing)

Adolescents show a marked increase in capacities to regulate their emotions, and their emotion-regulation and decision making becomes more complex. The significance of interpersonal outcomes increases for adolescents. When regulating their emotions, they are therefore likely to take into account their social context. For instance, they show a tendency to display more emotion if they expect a sympathetic response from their peers.

• ‘The adolescent years’ is the most common period of life by which experimentation and abuse of mind-altering substances occurs.
• Through substance abuse and experimentation at this crucial time of development, addiction can more-easily take hold of the individual.
• If drug abuse or addiction is present during this critical stage of life, much growth and healthy emotional development is prevented of halted in a stasis. (this stunts self-control, which contributes to ‘immature’ emotional responses to life’s challenges)
• With failure in emotional regulation, there is a rise in psychological and emotional dysfunctions caused by traumatic experiences due to an inability to regulate emotions.
• These individuals, failing to regulate emotions, become comparatively immature to their healthily regulated peers, leading to further trauma.
• Also contributes to dysfunction, inability, and degradation of developing healthy empathy, interpersonal emotion-regulation, life skills, regulation of own emotions, self-control, and stress management.

Certain types of drugs affect self-controls. Stimulants, like methylphenidate and amphetamine, improve inhibitory control in general and are used to treat ADHD. Similarly, depressants like alcohol and opiates represent barriers to self-control through sluggishness, slower brain function, poor concentration, depression, and disorientation. Depressants can often be used to help cope and escape from unwanted realities.

There is a process, however, of strengthening or weakening the impulse for certain behaviors, called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the process of strengthening a behavior by reinforcing it, or weakening a behavior by punishment. By continually strengthening and reinforcing a behavior, or weakening and punishing a behavior, an association- as well as a consequence- is made. Any behavior that is altered by its consequences is an operant behavior. There are multiple components to operative conditioning, including reinforcement such as positive reinforcers and negative reinforcers. Positive reinforcer– a stimulus that when presented immediately following a behavior causes the behavior to increase in frequency. Negative reinforcer– a stimulus whose removal immediately after a response causes the response to be strengthened or to increase in frequency.

 

Additionally, components of punishment are also incorporated such as positive and negative punishment. An example of this conditioning can be seen in the form of quitting a habit, such as smoking cigarettes- or more relevant to our studies, heroin. Where by using this technique to quit using heroin, self-discipline must be displayed to overcome the addiction. Of course with heroin, this technique would only get one as far as tapering to a manageable dose by which to increase the chance of success when detoxing. (As heroin is far more complex than smoking cigarettes.)

• Punishment of responses would be more like conformity than self-control, as self-control requires an internal drive. To a degree, the external consequences (reward and punishment) have capacity to cultivate internal drivers to behaviors.
• As an addict discovers through trial and error, heroin provides both reward and punishment; it creates a self-propelling, circular behavior of taking the substance to relieve & escape the negative environment and pain invoked by said substance.

The perpetual degradation of the addict’s life situation is inevitable, as the negative consequences of using are greater and longer-acting than the positive ones. This is due to their manifestation in the physical external reality, while the reward of taking heroin are internal and short-lived. The addict is only temporarily relieved internally by taking the drug, as their ever-degrading external reality corrodes from the larger consequences of using the drug. The physical addiction to the substance drives that addict to continue using, despite the latter consequences.

When it comes to self-control and regulating emotions, the manner in which these functions act is what makes us unique individuals. You could say that this is where our personality comes from. And our personality is located in the middle of an external and internal environment. Right in the center of our internal world and our external world is us; defined by our actions and reactions, thoughts and feelings, cognition and perception. So I have created a visual aid in expressing this idea.

Internal Environment	The realm of Self-control; freedom of choice, personality, emotion, perception, awareness (YOU) To the left is inside of you To the right is outside of you	External Environment
Wholly changeable (under one’s control		Only mildly changeable (not under one’s control)
Subjective		Objective
Temporary		Permanent
Psychological dependence		Physical dependence
Intrinsic		Extrinsic
Values, Motivation, Beliefs, Expectations (Causes)		Results, Consequences, Outcomes (Effects)
Values		Society’s Expectations

We must initiate a smooth interaction between the internal and external environments which we find ourselves living within. For this, we must utilize our brains. In the next article of ‘Here to Help’, I will give an in-depth look at the brain and how it is affected by drugs, and how that, in turn, affects our abilities to exert self-control and regulate emotions, which manifest the nature of our interactions between the internal and external.

In Defense of My Faith

When people arrive in the afterlife, and they respond to God as to why they didn’t believe, they will certainly say, “There was no proof! How could I believe what I couldn’t prove to be real?” And God will say to them, “What more proof did you expect? I gave you my Son, my Word, and my Spirit!”

I am a man, therefore I understand how stubborn and foolish we humans (especially us men) are. If things do not align with our preconceived or perceived visions of expectation, we do not acknowledge or believe it to be true. Therefore, for God to seem real to some of us, He must present Himself to us in a way that suits our ideas of what something like that would look and feel like. We disregard and disbelieve Jesus Christ and the Living Word of God (the Holy Bible) because it doesn’t fit with our own idea of what God is, or should be, or even those of us who denounce the idea of God altogether; the lack of a force, entity, or figure such as God. Thinking that there is no God is mostly derived and attributed to the person not having imperial evidence, or physical, spiritual, and/or material proof of God. And as I said, this is because they do not consider the Bible, the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, or the revelation of the Holy Spirit working in their life as evidence. They disregard all such things, rejecting the very proof they say they require to believe. But what proof or proofs would such a person accept? Well, I imagine they would only accept that which they have created and perceived as being proof in their own minds. They want God to be what they want God to be, rather than accept the God that is.

Now, such ‘antitheists’ (they are different than ‘atheists’, because an atheist is merely a person who has not been presented with evidence of the or a God of their acceptance or approval based on their own internal vision of what such a thing would be for them, and an antitheist is one who does not believe in such things as ‘God’) may then go further and argue with a believer. They always seem to desire prying into the foundations of why we Christians believe what we believe so they can pinpoint and nitpick various fallacies and inconsistencies that somehow validate their position of disbelief as opposed to our position of faith. This is, I believe, to somehow render a satisfaction within themselves at a Christian’s inability to convince them or present them with such impossible to procure evidence as what they usually don’t even know themselves to need for verification that God exists. And when such inquiries arise, the antitheist often delivers assumption-based, misinformed, delusional statements and questions that would not even exist in their mind if they knew half of a fraction about what they were arguing against in the first place. But let’s look at one of the most common misconceptions. For instance, the non-believer may ask, “Why would God allow evil in the world?”, or “Why would God send Himself to die on a cross for us to believe in Him?”

God is not the author of evil. God is the creator of all things, but man creates sin. God hates sin so much, that he was willing to atone for man’s corrupt and deadly disease of sinning by taking the full burden of man’s sin unto Himself, through the Son, Jesus Christ. He (the Father) then sacrificed Himself (The Son) on the cross, so as to kill the sin of man which He had taken upon Himself, and conquer death. He did so that man wouldn’t have to die, but live eternally. He did so that man would believe and have faith in Him, by shedding His blood from the physical body of Jesus Christ. Through Christ’s resurrection, He has given man the gift of eternal life after the physical death of our bodies, but this is only available of those who turn away from sin and have faith in the Holy Spirit. Only through repenting of our sin and acceptance of the Holy Spirit can we save ourselves- through and because of what Jesus did for us. (Now, this also requires the believer to educate the unbeliever on the concept of the Trinitarian God Christians are referring to: God- The Father, Jesus Christ- The Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus three entities of one divine essence)

Man is so self-centered, stubborn, corrupt with desire and lust, and reliant on physical perception, that God literally had to manifest the Word into Flesh, Jesus Christ. He was born to live amongst us and as we do, so that we may believe He is indeed real. Without such an action, man would still be in the primitive beliefs of mystical attainment of self-godhood, and polytheism, regarding various spirit entities that represent the elements and celestial bodies and forces of nature, but no one, singular cause or supreme deity responsible for the creation of all things.)

God is also just. He is merciful. He is loving. God the Father sent Jesus Christ to absorb man’s wickedness, darkness, and death because only He could overcome such things; man could never hope to overcome such things on his own. He did so to free us from them, but we must believe to live in that freedom. People say that believing in God is oppressive; that they aren’t free to do as they wish under God. I say you aren’t free until you receive the Holy Spirit, because until then, you are a slave to your sick, fallen will and sin. Opening yourself to God frees you from sin! You are not oppressed under God, but freed! If you think you are free without God, ask yourself, “Free from what? Free for what?” and I will tell you the answer…you are free to sin. That is all. That is the only freedom you experience outside of the Body of Christ. You essentially have ‘enough rope to hang yourself with’, as the old phrase says. God does not oppress us, but rather protects us. Man does not know all things, but God does. He knows that we must not sin, because it leads to death and destruction. By protecting us from sin, He is preventing our self-driven suicide! When a child wants to go running down a hill to a pond, but the father knows it to be dangerous and most likely result in the child drowning, the father is not oppressing the child from doing what he wants merely as cruelty or malevolence, but rather because of love and protection from harm!

Jesus did not die on the cross for ‘payment’ or because of some debt God owed Himself. Jesus died on the cross so that His blood may cleanse us, to heal us, to free us of our sinful nature, desires and lusts, and death. He received the destruction on that cross that was meant for each and every one of us. Because of His sacrifice, we will never face that destruction. You wanna talk about love, forgiveness, mercy, and care- well there it is.

God’s justice is rendered through mercy, not punishment. God does not punish, but rather shows mercy. He knows the results of meeting wrongfulness with wrongfulness, and it is only more wrongfulness. Therefore, He meets our wrongfulness with mercy and forgiveness. All we must do is accept it, believe in it, and cherish it.  It’s not about punishment, but restoration. God wants us- as we are fallen creatures- to be restored. And we are restored through faith in the Word and Blood of Jesus Christ! It could not be any clearer! God takes the wrong and makes it right. All we must do is have faith.

Suffering: The Blessing in Disguise

I’d like to start this article with a quote from the influential Carl Gustav Jung, prominent figure in contributing to the art now known as modern psychology. “The greatest souls are awakened out of suffering. The most impressive personalities endure many scars.” Besides having a deep understanding of the human mind and the way by which it affects and is affected by the external world, Jung laid the foundations for a view on psychology that is fundamentally different from the more well-known and mainstream Freud. C. G. Jung’s contributions to the field of psychiatry and psychological practice are invaluable and offer a far more ‘spiritual’, or metaphysical awareness to life than Freud’s rigid methods for peeling back the layers of our complex minds. But these men and their insights are not as important to this article as what Jung’s quote says about suffering.

As opiate addicts, we know everything there is to know about suffering. Whether physical or psychological, there seems to be some degree of suffering at all times while addicted to heroin or other powerful opiates. The only time there isn’t suffering is of course those brief moments of euphoria directly following ingestion of the drug. From my experience, I look back at all the suffering I endured as a necessary step to becoming the person that I am today. It was a blessing in disguise, as I gained incredible wisdom and reward from my struggles. Not only did it teach me a lot about myself in the sense of enduring anguish, my decision-making while feeling desperation, and what I was ultimately capable of and willing to do to react to such suffering, I always had a much greater appreciation for the times when I was/am not suffering.

Without suffering, one is incapable of experiencing true joy and real happiness. Sure, you can know what these things are, but without the times of suffering to contrast the good times, there is a lack of appreciation, respect, and gratitude that can only be realized through having suffered. As I mentioned in a previous article, when I detoxed my final time from heroin, I suffered unlike ever before. This experience stripped me down to the raw, inner me. There were no more distractions, no more barriers, no more excuses or deceptions preventing me from being ‘face to face’ with my true, inner self and what I really thought and felt about life, myself, and the world. I realized that receiving the blessings manifested as suffering required this ultimate stripping away of all ‘pollution’ that crowds the mind to discover my true self. Only in my most vulnerable and defeated state could I fully surrender and ultimately find strength. There is much power and strength within each of us, but we too easily and too often are unaware of it because it is forgotten and buried beneath all the activity and stimulation of life. To suffer is to destroy the existing structures of your internal environment. This is necessary to rebuild oneself into a new and more reliable internal structure. I cannot help but see it as an atonement. A renewing process, like dying to be reborn.

In order to rebuild, we must first have a solid foundation. As mentioned in my ‘Importance of Spirituality’ article, a comprehensive philosophy of spirituality is the most reliable, personally unique, and empowering foundation one could strive to achieve. Cultivating your personal faith/spirituality is done through discovering, understanding, embracing, interacting, and placing trust in your own higher power.

During the lowest points in my period of atonement, I was fully willing and literally desired to be rejuvenated by some greater force. Where I used to be skeptical and unwilling, the closer to death I felt I was, the more I became open to receiving help in the form of strength and guidance from my higher power. I began to understand that my suffering was not only necessary to begin my healing process, but also the way of atoning for my sins and detrimental desires, thoughts, and actions.

Out of intense suffering comes peace, contentness, humbleness, and compassion. A superior sensitivity to struggle, whether your own or another’s. This instills one with a sense of duty; acting mercifully and generously rather than hostility and judgement. One of Jesus’ most original teachings (in my opinion) is the emphasis of love and mercy in the place of fear and sacrifice. Knowing what it’s like to have suffered due to fear of withdrawal and sobriety, and having sacrificed so much over the course of my addiction, I am compelled to now see other’s suffering empathetically and sympathetically; as an oppurtunity to aid them by any means necessary.

Sadly, not all people believe in the word of God, so I will refrain from using such terminology as ‘sins’ and ‘faith’ and ‘Jesus’, but if one actually tries to comprehend the Christian worldview (not Roman Catholicism or any other false denomination, but true, Biblical followers of Christ’s teachings) they will find that it is completely true and relevant to every single thing of this world and of this life; it just utilizes a vocabulary all its own.

Anyway, suffering is a direct way to align oneself to receiving the wisdom necessary to grow and heal in life. It is a way by which to learn what is right and what is wrong and how to progress forward in a non-destructive way. Not to mention a great motivator to never fall into a place in life that can result in such agonizing experiences ever again! The kind of anguish I endured throughout the years of my addiction and drug abuse I wouldn’t wish on the worst man in the world, but I cannot view it as a waste. To do so would not only be foolish, but disrespectful. The way of the world is all about balance, and through my addiction I had tipped the scales plenty to one side. Suffering through withdrawal after withdrawal and detox after detox was the only way to level the scales back to a balanced state. Through my suffering I gave restitution to my years of suppressing pain and living in such a self-indulgent, careless, and reckless manner.

Knowing what I have gone through makes all other obstacles shrink in size through their perceived difficulty and my understanding of what I am capable of overcoming and enduring. Anytime things get tough or discouraging, -as often times things do in recovery- I think back to the successes I have already achieved and remember all the struggle I have already overcome as a motivation to conquer all that lie ahead.

Next Wednesday, check out my next ‘Here to Help’ blog on the topic of ‘Self-control and Emotion-Regulation’.

Defile Not Ye Temple of the LORD

As we proceed through our lives, day by night, night by night, we encounter many things. A lifetime of experiences can almost not be contemplated, for there is so much to experience. But as we go through this life, we are vulnerable to losing ourselves and our grip on truth, reality, and that which is good. There is so much stimulation, so much excitement, and so much anxiety, that we are always having to make decisions and use our best judgment to navigate the many waters. But when the water gets murky, or a fog settles around us, we lose our clarity and sure vision, which can leave us vulnerable. And as we all know, predators lurk in the murky water, for that very reason; easier prey. So how do we counter this threat? How do we prepare for such circumstances? Well, by building yourself up onto a strong foundation. That foundation being Jesus Christ.

As all things in manifest form in the physical reality have their source in spirit, we must develop our spirituality. Having yourself grounded spiritually is necessary for building your foundation. And you do not want to build your foundation on sand like the fool. You want to build it on rock like the wise man.

Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.     -Matthew 7:24-27

Once your foundation has been laid, and your house built, you must maintain it. You must reinforce and clean your house as time rolls ever forward. In scripture, we are told that our bodies are temples of the LORD. Since the LORD lives through us, his beloved creations, we must maintain a clean, healthy, strong and honest channel for which He may indwell us. In other words, we must be pure. This is done through repentance and abstaining from sin. The bible maintains that we are not to defile ourselves/our temples. When I process this information, I clearly understand my body to be of absolute importance and value. My body is sacred. A sacred vessel for life to occur in, as well as a vessel for the LORD to communicate and live as well. So I searched for some clarification on what exactly qualifies one as ‘Godly’, for Godly men are those who have not defiled their temple. I found Psalm 15, where David literally lists the characteristics of the Godly.

“LORD, who shall abide by thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in the Holy Hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is condemned; but he honoreth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.” -Psalm 15

Knowing that my body is not only for my sake, but for the sake of the LORD, I have a whole new respect and appreciation for it. When I was abusing drugs and basically all-around uncaring of my life and body, I disrespected it and abused it beyond what I can recall. I did not care if my body were to give out, and took for granted that my heart continues beat. I took for granted that I have a normal functioning set of limbs and extremities. I took for granted that my brain was not diseased, or that my body was not cancerous. I went on ignorantly and disrespectfully destroying my body with poisons of all kinds with no regard to thanking it for working properly. The fact that my body has held out through all my undue punishment rendered is a sure sign to me that God still has a use for my body to function properly. I believe that I am still alive and healthy (for the most part…I could lose a few pounds.) today to receive and spread the gospel and minister to other addicts that are trapped in the darkness of drug addiction and substance abuse. As long as you are alive, as long as you have breath in your lungs, it is not too late for you, and God has an amazing and awesome plan for you! All you must do is remove yourself from the toxic environments and cease putting the poisons into your body. He will come through the mess and the hell that your life has become to pick you up and lift you out of it! He’s not scared or unable! He just won’t do it until you ask Him to! And the whole time you are continuing to destroy your life, He is watching with tears in His eyes, wishing and wanting you to cry out to Him! Just as Jesus can love you enough to die on the cross for you, you can love yourself enough to stop living in sin. All we must do is receive the love and Spirit of God into our lives, and peace and prosperity are certain to come into your reality.

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”                      -1 Corinthians 3:16

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”        -1 Corinthians 6:19

“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; As God hath said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”                               -2 Corinthians 6:16

Ok, so having this wonderful new understanding and appreciation for my life and my body, I wish to use these blessings to the best of their potentials. And the sure way to do that is to stay away from all forms of defilement. As I mentioned before, sins are examples of defiling your temple. gives a nice, clear listing of examples. In the book of Mark, there is a good list of examples pertaining to defilement.

“For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:”                                       -Mark 7:2123

“Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”                                        -Matthew 15:11

“There is nothing from without a man, that entering unto him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.”      -Mark 7:15

(see also Matthew 15:18-20, 1 Corinthians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 8:7, 1 Timothy 1:10, Jude 8, Revelation 3:4, James 3:6)

Turn your entire life into worship. You don’t need to attend church to worship, nor must you go anywhere specific. You are worshiping the LORD every moment of your life. You don’t need to go somewhere to pray, for you may pray at any moment and in any place. You don’t just interact with the LORD in prayer or when attending church on Sunday, you are in constant communication with Him! So you must take seriously this life and this conscience experience of existence. We must focus and value our status of character. Integrity is a huge part of developing your character. Integrity is formed of your beliefs and discipline to those beliefs. You character is made of your integrity and wisdom. So you must stand firm and informed in your beliefs, you must be disciplined to your beliefs, and you must live through your integrity and the wisdom attained from such a way of living.

Where do we find wisdom? Where do I learn what to believe? How do I learn discipline? All of the answers to such questions are found in the scriptures.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.”                   -Proverbs 9:10

I enjoy a particular story in 1 Kings involving Solomon and his asking the LORD for wisdom. He prays and asks the LORD for wisdom, and surely the opportunity to share his newfound wisdom with the people presents itself the very next day. Two prostitutes come to the palace and are asking King Solomon to settle their quarrel. One of the women had just given birth to a newborn baby the previous evening, and the other had her baby three nights prior. In the middle of the night, one of the women had rolled over onto her newborn and smothered the three-day-old child. So she awoke before the other woman and swapped her dead baby for the live baby while that other woman slept. In the morning, the woman who had her baby taken and replaced with the other’s dead child recognized that it was not her own baby in her bosom. The women brought their argument for settlement in the king’s court. The woman who’d cheated the other and killed her own child, was holding the other woman’s baby but would not give it back, falsely claiming that it was her’s, and that the other woman had smothered her own child. So Solomon hears the details of the situation, and he says, “Take the live child and cut it in half, right down the middle with a sword, and give each woman half of the child.” And when he said this, the woman standing alone cried out and said no, and that the other woman could just keep the child. So Solomon had successfully revealed who the real mother of the living child was, and ordered the traitorous woman to return the child. (1 Kings 3:16-27) This is genius! For the true mother of the child would never wish the child’s senseless death, and would rather lose the child to the other woman, than have the child murdered. This caused a situation that forced the truth to be known, thus Solomon’s wisdom became evident and highly sought after all throughout the land.

It’s not merely about what you experience in this life, but how you react to such experiences. We must take control of ourselves, take every thought captive. We are in control, and if we begin to live in the Word of God, we are able to live as an advocate for Jesus and the way He would handle situations. You’ve certainly heard of ‘WWJD?’ Right? Well, think to yourself, what would He do? Just as Jesus is our advocate for eternal life, the Father, and the cleansing of our sin debt, we can be His advocate in our current life experience. It’s the least one can do, considering…No longer allow evil or unsatisfactory thoughts and actions to be attributed to you. You make the choices in your own life, you have the ability and power to do what’s right, so do it!

“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”                                                 -Titus 1:15

The Importance of Milestones and Setting Goals

As time goes on, that ‘rediscovery of life’ awareness that we experience after detox or recovering from addiction seems to wear off. No longer does every single day clean feel as important a victory as they once did. When I first got clean, every single passing day was a meaningful victory over my addiction. Every day sober was a day worth celebrating and remembering. But now that I’ve been sober for over 2 full years, the excitement has sort of worn off. The time of counting days has come and gone, and if I hadn’t of recorded in my writings the very day I used my last bit of heroin, I would be forced to ‘guesstimate’ how long I’ve clean. Though each and every day that I am clean is indeed a victory, it just isn’t as powerful an accomplishment to me anymore. I have found that when my sobriety was new and fresh, every day felt like I had won some great battle (which is truly accurate), but I am no longer ‘battling’ each day to maintain my sobriety. I have reached a point in my recovery where it’s honestly quite normal and simple to remain sober. So how do I renew that excitement in my sobriety? How to I keep my ambitions to remain clean from becoming stagnant and inevitably not that important? Because when you no longer value each day you remain sober, thoughts and temptations that you could ‘treat yourself to one little drug here or there’ more easily creep into the mind. Sure, not all recovering addicts have this happen, but I notice that the less emphasis I place on my continuing sobriety, the less important it seems to be. And when upholding my sobriety no longer appears important, temptations and thoughts that may lead to craving or weakness have a stronger affect, and thus become substantially greater threats to the prevention of relapse in times of vulnerability.

One major thing that I have found to be of great importance is continuing to set goals for myself. Whether they are new or already established goals, it is important to work toward them. Setting goals not only gives one a direction to go in life, but something to work for. When I had no goals, I was basically wandering through life with no ultimate point to anything I did. I would often sit at home all day not knowing what to do, hoping and waiting for something I could do to come about. Of course, this is a very unproductive and unhealthy way to live, as tremendous potential is wasted and having ‘nothing better to do’ all too often results in thoughts of drug use and mood alteration to cope with the stagnant environment we have created for ourselves. By setting goals and working toward them, you are no longer trapped in a stagnant and pointless environment, but have the constant opportunity to work productively toward your goal and enrich your life.

When it came to figuring out what type of goal or goals I wanted to work toward in my life, I had to dig deep within myself and rediscover my talents, passions, and things that I love to do. It is important to align one’s ambitions to their personality, core values, level of confidence and level of motivation. Setting unrealistic or unattainable goals is pointless. As human beings, we are creative and intelligent creatures, so coming up with achievable goals is certainly possible, it just requires some thought and some work. Apply yourself to understanding what you love to do, what makes you happy in life, and what you feel you would be good at. I realized that my wisdom and experience from many years of struggling with addiction leads me to want to make a contribution to the field of opiate addiction and recovery. I then went further and combined my love for creative writing with this ambition, and began to create articles for education and provoking discussions in group settings for addiction recovery. My next challenge is getting a book published and furthering my education to become qualified to work as a substance abuse counselor.

Another major benefit to setting goals in your life is not only having a direction by which to direct your ambitions and desires, but it gives you meaningful purpose; something to fulfill and work toward. When you have no direction, you have no reason to care or motivate yourself. You instead constantly find yourself wondering what to do and time passes by wastefully. Furthering your education, participating in something new, or assisting others in their endeavors are all great places to start as far as broad approaches as to what to do. Getting more specific from there, one can find out exactly what it is they wish to do. Not having goals leaves you susceptible to relapse, as you inevitably feel unfulfilled or feel like you haven’t accomplished anything since your initial achievement of sobriety. To keep moving forward in life is to eliminate drifting into unhealthy frames of mind. To keep oneself from becoming unmotivated, you must have some sort of end-result in mind with all that you do. Rather than spread yourself thin across every and anything that comes about in your life, focus on yourself and your goals and your motivations will not be wasted on random, meaningless accomplishments.

When it comes to being somewhat uninspired with your sobriety, and you feel as though every day clean is simply just another day, creating and celebrating milestones can transform the passing months and years into the great and meaningful achievements that they truly are! Just because we lost the awareness of just how critically important each day we are sober is, doesn’t mean each day we are sober means less in the grand scheme of life. Before you know it, a couple days becomes a couple months, and that becomes a couple of years. I personally reward myself with a sobriety medallion for every full year I have been sober since the time of my last detox on Dec. 28^th, 2013. For many in the NA program, keychains and tokens are given for each significant amount of time passed in sobriety. Whether it’s the 24-hour token, 3 or 6-month keychain, or 1-year medallion, these little rewards symbolize a great success over a greater struggle! So take pride in these achievements and honor your hard work and dedication with a celebratory ceremony, or even a nice dinner or something.

Celebrating the reaching of milestones is just one way we can enhance our motivations to remain sober and diligent in our life’s quest for completion and meaning. Due to the large amount of information required to explore the topic of motivation, I am going to speak more in-depth on motivation and goal-setting in the next entry of ‘Here To Help’.

I wish to end this entry with a quote.

      “If it is not of sobriety/recovery, it is of addiction.”

What this quote means to me, is that if my current thoughts and actions are not conducive and supportive of sobriety and recovery, they are conducive and supportive to addiction. It is easy to underestimate the importance of reminding ourselves just how easily things can fall apart and get tough. As confidence is an essential part of confronting and overcoming challenges in life, over-confidence can lead to laziness. And life always seem to coil and bite just as we begin to slip into a relaxed and careless state of mind.

Why I’m Still Here

God did not save me from continuing my selfish and destructive life of addiction so that I could go on in some other similar fashion of self-centered ignorance. He has given me this second chance for a reason, and at first, I wasn’t sure what that reason was. He has given me the clarity and understanding necessary to see that I use every bit of my experience and energy in sharing His Word, His love, His grace, and His glory with others. He has given me the strength to utilize my second chance at a meaningful life to help anyone else who may be struggling or suffering with the darkness and hopelessness of drug addiction.

When I was using, I was foolishly trying to fill a void within me with drugs There was never going to be an end to my perpetual self-annihilation. There was never going to be enough drugs to fill that space. But let me tell you, that void within me has since been filled; in fact, it’s overflowing! Finding God through the love of Jesus has quenched my spiritual thirst, has healed my soul’s wounds, and has given me the strength to go back out into this world and walk in His light. I walk in His light through service to others.

I used to be very angry and depressed about my life and certain things that happened in it. The contributing factors to the manifestation of my addiction were all these negative things that had occurred in my life. But I failed to realize, that it wasn’t these negative things that were creating the void inside of me, it was my disconnection to God. A separation had formed, and I was ignorant and unwilling to seek a solution to changing that. Instead, I sought material pleasures, I fulfilled my selfish desires, and became self-absorbed with serving only myself. I justified my sick philosophy and actions with a victim’s perspective; that the world had ruined my life, therefore I shall ruin the world for the sake of helping myself.

Drugs became my only aim and ambition. The only source of joy and peace in my life was in a tiny bag of powder. My entire life was trapped in those little, knotted baggies. And when those bags were empty, so was my life.

My addiction to heroin and excessive abuse of LSD sure didn’t help matters improve. I began to move further from God in my arrogance, and even embraced ideas, philosophies, and religions that denounced God. Researching witchcraft, Luciferian doctrine, and gnostic occult teachings took me the rest of the way into darkness. I became possessed by evil; my thoughts and actions all self-serving and sometimes so vile, I couldn’t believe such thoughts could exist in my mind. In my heart I knew that surely I wasn’t having these thoughts, but rather they were being projected into me from somewhere else. My pain and suffering were so great and constant, that I wanted to drag others down into my pit of hell and use them as stepping stools to climb my own way out. Rather than warn others or help them to avoid a similar peril to mine own, I wanted to see them in my pain and watch as they whore themselves, their values, and their morals while squirming in disbelief of the unbearable anguish.

Sometimes life has to get very, very dark before some of us begin to see the light shining in the distance. Like a star; invisible until midnight. I thank God every day for bringing me back to life. I now experience joy and peace as a standard to my existing.

My experiences with detox never rang so powerful in meaning to me, as they do now. I understand that my pain and suffering was a necessary purification process to prepare me to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit. And my seemingly pointless existence now has a purpose. I am compelled to share and teach, as a way to warn, educate, inspire, and serve others. No matter how far into the wilderness, no matter how far into darkness, no matter how big a mess you’ve made, no matter how far you’ve strayed, if you open your heart to Jesus, he will come for you. Open your heart and let the light of the Lord come into your life.

– Jason S.

– Have Faith – Stay Strong – God Bless –

 

SIN: Selfish Desire and Lust

Sex, lust, fornication…however you speak or spell it, sex is an animal desire. Yes, it is a natural human function, but when under divine guidance. We learned in the previous article ‘The Devil’s Weapon of Choice: Deceit’, desire is craving and craving is suffering. In order to know our inner-light as Children of God, we must free our consciousness from all animal desire. As long as we remain trapped in animal desire, we will only suffer. But we shall not despair, because our loving Father has given us His word, and a living example for us to learn from. That word is the Holy Bible and that example is Jesus Christ.

Building on what we learned from Adam and Eve, let’s visualize the serpent that was in the garden as representing sexual desire. Desire manifests in many forms, but the form of sexual desire is what Genesis 3 is warning us about.

Ok, so Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden and everything is perfect and divine. One day, when the serpent (sexual desire) tempted Eve, she and Adam experienced the forbidden fruit (fornication) and all that comes from it. The sexual force within them, which is the divine force (vital energy) which creates or destroys all things in the universe, was used for their personal desires; rather than contained and cultivated for use under divine guidance. As man rejected divine authority and guidance, man and woman began to bear children outside of balance with nature; the results being pain and hardship. By using the sexual force to stimulate desire, the fire of Eve became inverted, flowing in the opposite direction to God’s original design. It fell, forming the ‘tail of Satan’.

Genesis 3:16. “And to the woman He said, “I will make most severe your pains in childbirth. In pain shall you bear children.”

The serpent fell, stimulating the 7 inverted virtues; the 7 capital sins. Giving, action, chastity, humility, love, abstention, happiness for others became greed, laziness, lust, pride, anger, gluttony, and envy.

Revelation 17:3, :4. “So the angel took me in Spirit into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that had 7 heads…In her hand she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality…”

As we sin, we are made impure. Though Jesus will come for you no matter what sin, no matter what kind of obscene situation, no matter how big a mess you’ve made of your life, if we are to remain in His word, and walk in His light, we must first be made pure again. And only through excepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior can that purification begin to occur.

To replace the void of disconnection to God within, mankind created his own civilizations, ideas, and religions; seeking only wealth, power, and sexual satisfaction. This mythological story of Adam and Eve can be found ‘hidden’ in the stories and teachings of other religions, all around the world. In story after story, there are these ‘enlightened heroes’ brought to ruin by desire and lust. By expelling the vital energy (through sexual immorality), humanity lost their inner senses (the 7 superior senses, chakras) and could no longer perceive God directly, and were thus cast out from Eden.

Genesis 3:24. “He drove the man out, and stationed East of the Garden of Eden the Cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

The way to get back to Eden- back to a direct relationship with God- is through the same gateway by which man was cast out. But this is only possible for those who have conquered their sinful nature and desires. The Cherubim guards the entrance to grant access to those who’ve earned it.You must conquer the tempting serpent within you!

“If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.”                                     -Jesus, Gospel of Thomas 70

The serpent is a very powerful energy; an atomic, vital power. It has a polarity to be either used to create or used to destroy. Because this energy is so powerful, the individual requires great will power to overcome the lure of the serpent. The temptation of the serpent is through material pleasure and self-edification. This temptation of the aspect of the serpent is Lucifer (fire, bearer of light). He is ignited and empowered through selfish desires and always tempts man to know and have such fulfillment. It is through the individual’s actions whether it will be a power of good or evil. It’s the difference between obeying the serpent and controlling it. The lesson contained in the story of the serpent is: only those with the strength in will to control the cravings of the mind can raise the energetic serpent to transform themselves from intellectual animals to true human beings.

It is necessary to conquer the dragon within, as it has been taught and told through mystical and religious teachings for ages. The dragon is one’s own lust, passion, anger, pride, fear, and envy. The deceptions of the serpent are legion; they are many in number.

In much of the important imagery, pictures, paintings, and renderings of the great religious figures, heroes, and gods throughout man’s history, they always have the serpent under their control. With the serpent under their control, it protects them and conquers their enemies; in contrast to the serpent that tempted Eve, causing her to fall. There is the serpent of Moses, who commanded his serpent’s power and conquered the Egyptians and healed the dying during the great exodus of God’s people Israel. When they (the Egyptians) degraded into black magic, Moses appeared to deliver them the true teachings…

Next article, I will continue with Moses, and go into the dynamics of marriage and the mind of man; how sexual desire and selfish lust can degrade the mind and poison the harmony intended for nature. Thanks for reading, may God Bless you.

The Devil’s Weapon of Choice: Deceit

Deceit: deception, beguilement, bluff, mystification, and subterfuge is the act of propagating beliefs in things that are not true, or not the whole truth (as in half-truths or omission). Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda, and sleight of hand, as well as distraction, camouflage, or concealment. There is also self-deception, as in bad faith.

We are living in a time called, “The Age of Deceit”. Therefore, we are being deceived, have been deceived, and will continue to be deceived. But where is this deceit coming from? What- or who– is the source? Well, the answer is clearly given in the scriptures.

Revelation 20:1-3. ‘And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up and set up a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after than he must be loosed a little season.’

Revelation 20:7-10. ‘And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: the fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.’

Now, many people who read the bible take the words very literally. There are others who take every single thing as a metaphor. This is fine, but there must a balanced approach of both, as you will find this technique of more benefit to yourself and your comprehensive understanding. Reading a bit deeper into the potential interpretations and meanings of these scriptures, think of the devil/Satan as an idea; a principle or power; a type of energy, rather than a physical creature. Although I do believe there is such a creature, I perceive that certain references to His Infernal Majesty are of different manifested forms. I urge you to perceive God as you understand Him to be, and see Jesus Christ as an example of the perfect intended person, or uncorrupted child of God. Of course he is the only begotten Son of God. This is said of Jesus, as he is the only human to have lived on earth that embodied the pure, spiritual essence of God in the flesh. Satan would be the opposite essence; the essence of sin and corruption.

So in terms of energy, or spirit, we are to be like Christ and defeat or overcome the corrupting nature of the devil, which is of the world. As we are spirit beings having a flesh experience, our physical world is a reflective manifestation of our inner, spiritual world. So if you allow the devil to influence and control your life, you will surely suffer and die. If you give your life to Jesus Christ, you will prosper and live eternally.

As we find ourselves living between the divine realm of spirit and the morose realm of physical matter, we must understand the profound consequences and true meaning of what we believe in and stand for. We must overcome the sins of our flesh by the strength of our spirit. The flesh is flawed; the spirit is flawless.

1 John 4:4-6. ‘But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people (people of the world), because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from this world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.’

We are like computerized pawns living in a matrix, and we may choose to run one of two operating systems: either sinner or saint.

The Bible also tells us about the origin of deception. In Genesis, during the creation of the world and mankind, God is in direct communication and is directly perceived by man, as he had not yet been corrupted by sin. For in order for the divine Spirit of truth to indwell us, our temple (our body) must be clean and pure (free of sin). But one day while Eve was alone in the Garden of Eden, a serpent came to her and enticed her to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. This, of course, was the only tree and fruit of which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of by God.

Genesis 3:2-7. “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” Eve replied to the serpent. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was now with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.’

Now since we are looking these stories as representing spiritual concepts, what is the fruit and the tree of knowledge? What do they symbolize? Well, I personally think that the fruit represents desire, while the tree represents free will. When man’s desires are no longer driven by divine guidance, they are driven by his fleshly/worldly desires. Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God symbolizes man turning from God’s grace and guidance to serve his own agenda. Because of this, man is no longer fit to have a direct perception of God, and must be redeemed to obtain his former state of divinity. As punishment, they were cast from the Garden of Eden, down to the earth; to wander in the wilderness of suffering and ignorance. This is also an allusion to being thrown from the 4^th dimension to the 3^rd dimension; from the heavenly realms to the physical realm.

When Adam and Eve tasted the fruit, desire was learned. From this moment forward, right and wrong is filtered subjectively through the need to feel pleasure and the need to avoid suffering. This is to know good and evil, rather than being guided directly by the Spirit of God. Humanity has already known good, innocence, purity, and simplicity. Now they also know evil, shame, pain, fear, and emptiness. All desire leads to suffering.

Hinduism. Skanda Purana 1.1.21. “Desire caused all the gods to fall from their places…and it is desire that leads all creatures to Hell.”

Desire is craving and craving is suffering. Desire always leads to suffering. The slave to desire is the slave to sin, and only suffering and death await him.

Buddhism. Samyutta Nikaya XLVII 37. “Through the atonement of desire, the deathless state is realized.”

Eden exists inside every soul united with God. Expelling the light of God (vital energy) from within, expels the soul from Eden, and creates a great emptiness.

In the next article, I will go into the gnostic teachings of how Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden by having sexual relations outside the balance of nature. From this perspective, the forbidden fruit is the orgasm and the vital energy of God is the sexual energy within man. This energy is powerful and cannot be contained. It either destroys or creates, and is up to our choices using free will how this energy is used in the world.