What's been going on the last seven years

 So, my life has been 'topsy-turvy' the last few years.  New assignment to a mission, and with that moving house and several secular jobs.  Working full time, keeping a small mission afloat during COVID, a fixer-upper house... and questions.

I'd been asking myself a lot of questions about the fundamentals of addiction.  I wasn't happy with the answers, or perhaps the lack of answers.

The problem I was struggling with is the "ping pong ball" I see in modern alcoholism and addiction treatment.  It goes something like this: when an addict sees he has a problem, he goes to a psychology expert, who sends him to a 'treatment program, which sends him to a 12-Step group, but he still ends up back in the office, and then back to the group, and so on.  Back and forth.  meanwhile, the rates of recovery are still abysmal.

In America, addiction treatment is a big business.  Between court referrals and even just social expectations, American addicts go 'back and forth' without really the overall addiction problem in America getting any better.  In fact, I'd say we now have more addicts than we ever had, just spread along a wider spectrum of addictions.

It seemed to me that lots of people are getting paid salaries to do nothing other than assuage the guilt of the 'unafflicted'.  Addict develops, it worsens, and few find a way out.

Perhaps it shouldn't bother me, but it does.  I watch people go in and out of treatment, able to regurgitate all kinds of platitudes about recovery... only to relapse.

The other thing I really struggled with was the inquiries about sexual addictions.  I read and read about pornography and its effects on the brain, but also couldn't square it with what I was hearing both from counselors and addicts.  Nothing was adding up.  I hit a wall.  And, so I gave up on posting here, figuring there was nothing more I could say.

Then, all this changed a few years ago when I began to consider a new angle... a traditional angle.

What if the problem is with how we understand human consciousness?  I began to think of addiction not as a thought problem, but a sensory one.

Eventually, the ideas have come together, and I now plan to gradually roll them out here.

Here's an example specific to sex, but you will be able to see how this can work back into most addictions: https://www.patristicfaith.com/orthodox-christianity/orthodox-christian-theology/sexual-appetite-in-historical-christianity/

In the meantime, stay tuned as I try to bring readers up-to-date with where I believe the discussion about addiction should be heading.