When a person’s centre of interest is jarred and he or she is no longer pointed in the direction they have known, a person is vulnerable to addictions. This is especially the case when a person’s God-image is lost. The infinite power of the Deity steadies the soul. When the God-image is lost, there is an insatiable drive to fill the emptiness. A person seizes any temporal good at hand. However, everything that is not God will never fill the emptiness left by a displaced God-image. So the distraction seized becomes insatiable. One craves it as a God. But it is not God. So a person cannot get enough of it. This is the origin of addictions.
There are biological factors that figure into addictions. Alcoholics have an allergy to alcohol. Other addictions are said to turn on the neuro-transmitter called dopamine. Addictions give a person a shot of dopamine. But this shot of dopamine cannot compare to the ongoing peace and serenity of God. When a person has a God-image in his or her heart, one does not crave the transient pleasure of a dopamine rush. The Prince of Peace brings lasting contentment and a person feels whole.
This is particularly the case when a person loses a job, or moves to a new location. Then there are also shocks to a person’s psyche when a new truth is dawning. All these things shake a person’s soul. They may lead to a new God-image. But in the transition period, a person can be vulnerable to addictive behaviour.
David Fekete 