Engage In Physical Activity
Engaging in physical activity has been shown to positively impact the reward center of the brain which promotes overall well-being. Exercise is known to improve the physical and mental health of individuals by controlling the reward impulse, which may help explain its ability to mitigate internet addiction.45
Access The Wound That Makes You Return To Unhealthy Addiction
We live in a broken, fallen world. You can grow up in a perfect family with tons of support and still get hurt. Some people can process their pain relationally with others, but many of us cant do that. We dont know how. We find ways to numb our pain, and those can become addictions.
Ultimately, you must go on the journey of exploring your own life and ask, “Where have I been wounded and how do those wounds affect me today?”
Have you been hurt by abuse? Divorce? High school? If we dont identify these wounds, well end up treating the symptoms rather than the root problems. You must explore your own story with safe people. Discover where youve been wounded and allow yourself to process that pain. Then you can find healing.
Seek More Than We Are Satisfied
However, our dopamine system is stronger than our opioid system. This means that we seek more than we are satisfied. Seeking is more likely to keep us a live compared to sitting around in a satisfied heap. In summary, dopamine compels animals into action. This is why scientists refer to dopamine as the seeking circuit. Dopamine provides the motivation for us to pursue our wants and desires.
We receive a bigger burst of dopamine when we look at foods containing a bigger proportion of sugars and fats. This is because these foods are most likely to keep us alive when we are threatened with starvation. This is why you believe you are full until the waiter offers you that chocolate pudding. The anticipation for that pudding is fuelled by dopamine. Dopamine surges thus override feelings of satiety.
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What Is A Support Group
There are common misconceptions about support groupsincluding about what they can and cannot do. A support group can be defined as a group of people who share concerns or experiences. These groups meet regularly in order to provide each other with advice, comfort, and encouragement.
While support groups can be important in the recovery process, they are not meant to provide treatment. Instead, their focus is on providing peer support, allowing members to share their stories, celebrate each other’s successes, and talk about coping strategies that may help.
Family and friends are still an important source of support for people in recovery, but they aren’t always able to understand what the person might be going through. Support groups help fill in an important gap in social support by providing the opportunity to talk to people who have been in the same situation and may be better able to empathize and offer tips coming from a lived experience.
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Dont Beat Yourself Up If You Fall Off The Wagon
Trying to break a habit or recover from an addiction is a journey. Unfortunately, on that journey, you might find yourself slipping back into old habits. Whenever that happens, dont waste any time beating yourself up.
Do your research, try more coping mechanisms and treatment options and get back on the wagon.
A Mix Of Existential Loneliness And High Social Anxiety
Are you craving real, deep human connection? Are you feeling very lonely and bored? At the same time, whenever you muster the courage to go out and socialize, do you feel like everyone is judging you? Do you feel like you have no idea how to connect to others? Do you back out of social gatherings and rather stay home to binge Netflix, play video games, or well watch porn? If the answer is yes, you probably feel stuck in an endless loop that is keeping you mentally exhausted.
The correlation between social media and feelings of high social anxiety is scientifically proven. Considering the medias immense prestige and the amount of content being fed to us, its not surprising whatsoever that we feel the way we do.
Getting rid of your social media is a good way to start, but isolation is not the key. Joining a community of other like-minded individuals is the best way to combat this symptoms, especially in the first few weeks after quitting.
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Acceptance And Commitment Therapy
ACT is similar to CBT in that it helps you identify thought patterns that affect addictive behaviors, but ACT emphasizes acceptance as a way to manage negative thoughts.
Group therapy is also a helpful option for anyone who is dealing with compulsive sexual behavior. Research has found that connecting with others who are experiencing similar issues can make you feel less alone, and decrease shameful feelings.
Receiving Gods Forgiveness Is Essential
If you do not receive Gods forgiveness, you will attempt to fix everything your own way, and it will fail. Save yourself the energy and use these Scriptures the way He wants you to.
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. Habakkuk 2:1
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King David Was Also Set Free From Sexual Sin
There is light at the end of the tunnel for those that are humble. If King David recovered from an enormous amount of guilt to then minister to others, theres hope for all of us.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1
Regain Your Sexual Wellness
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a branch of CBT that works on the basis of accepting the thoughts of our mind and feelings of our body. Addiction is usually accompanied by a great deal of emotional stress so learning to be at peace with our feelings reduces suffering and promotes growth in this program.
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Reward Circuits: Seeking Pleasure And Avoiding Pain
At its most basic level, the reward circuit allows us to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. Our very survival depends on the avoidance of pain and the repetition of pleasure. To this end, the reward circuit encourages us to engage in activities that either further our survival or the survival of our genes. These activities include sex, eating, bonding, achievement, play, novelty and taking risks.
We literally do not make a decision without consulting our reward circuit. The reward circuit emotionally justifies what we do like and what we dont like. When you are addicted to something, your reward circuit is out of balance. This affects your mood, your perception and your decision-making powers.
Psychological And Emotional Needs
It is important to remember when working towards recovery that your addiction is routed in complex emotional and psychological causes.
You may need to alter your life in other ways to help you in your recovery. There may be certain relationships or habits in your life that jeopardize recovery.
It may also be necessary to consider how you process and express emotions and how you communicate with those around you. A professional treatment centre will help you to do this.
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Sex Addiction Disordered Relationships And Abuse
Support groups for sex addiction, disordered relationships, and abuse include:
- Love Addicts Anonymous: A 12-step program for those who have “distorted thoughts, feelings, and behavior when it comes to love, fantasies, and relationships.”
- Sexaholics Anonymous: A 12-step program for those who want to “stop lusting and become sexually sober.”
- Sex & Love Addicts Anonymous: Find a meeting by searching by state or province. This is a 12-step program for those with “an addictive compulsion to engage in or avoid sex, love, or emotional attachment.”
- Sexual Compulsives Anonymous: A list of International SCA meetings in-person and online. This is a 12-step program.
- Sexual Recovery Anonymous: A 12-step group for those who desire to stop compulsive sexual behavior.
- Survivors of Incest Anonymous: A 12-step program for those who are over age 18 who were sexually abused as a child.
Humility And Contriteness Are A Cure Period
No way around the hard way go through the honesty-door and trust there are good things on the other side. Evil spirits do not like to be reproved, but people that want to change do!
Have you heard the phrase, trust, but verify? Spirits of guilt and shame do not like that phrase because they want you to continue in darkness or get a superficial adjustment. The desire to walk in the light does not come naturally it is a supernatural choice before the desires kick in. Being reproved will not last forever . God will rebuild your life out of the ashes into a purity and joy that is worth celebrating.
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If Youre Concerned About A Loved One
It may be a problem if you notice that your loved one:
- watches while at work or at other inappropriate places and times
- is unable to keep up with their social, occupational, or other important obligations
- is experiencing relationship difficulties
- has tried to cut back or stop, but cant keep themselves away from it
If someone you care about shows signs of a compulsion or addiction, it may be time to open the lines of nonjudgmental communication.
How Desensitisation Occurs
To understand desensitisation, you must understand how individual nerve cells communicate. Dopamine-producing nerve cells affected by desensitisation originate from the beginning of the reward circuit and make connections with other nerve cells in the reward centre. Nerve cells send messages using chemicals such as dopamine. Nerve cells bond to each other to form a reward pathway.
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Go To Content Restrictions
It may be a good idea to restrict some of the content on this screen, depending on what apps you plan to use.
Financial And Acquisition Problem Behavior
Support groups for financial and acquisition problem behavior include:
- Debtors Anonymous: 12-step program for compulsive debtors.
- Gamblers Anonymous: A group to support recovery from problem gambling and are guided by 12-step principles.
- Spenders Anonymous: A 12-step program for those who want to recover from compulsive spending and taking on debt.
- Workaholics Anonymous: WA meetings include phone meetings, online meetings, or in-person meetings in the United States or internationally. This is a 12-step program for those who are compulsive about work.
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For Families And Codependents
These meetings are for those who have relatives and friends with addictions and problem behaviors. In addition to these groups, there are often links to family recovery groups for specific addictions or behaviors on the sites for the programs dedicated to them.
- Adult Children of Alcoholics: Find an ACA meeting by location search. They also have online meetings and phone meetings.
- Alanon and Alateen: Search for an Al-Anon Family Group meeting by location in the United States and Canada. You can also use the site to find online meetings, international meetings, or phone meetings.
- Codependents Anonymous: A 12-step program for recovery from unhealthy relationships.
- Families Anonymous: Get a PDF file of FA meetings by state. This is a 12-step program for those who have a family member with an addiction or problem behavior.
- Nar-Anon: A 12-step group for friends and families of people with substance use disorders.
- Recovering Couples Anonymous: A 12-step group for couples who want to restore and maintain their relationship in recovery.
Disordered Eating And Food
Support groups for problematic food-related behavior include:
- Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous: A 12-step program for those who have had an eating problem, including overeating or bulimia.
- GreySheeters Anonymous: A 12-step program for compulsive overeating.
- Overeaters Anonymous:A 12-step program for overeating, undereating, anorexia, bulimia, and other problem eating behaviors.
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The Great Gospel Deception
Exposing the False Promise of Heaven Without Holiness
David Servant examines what the New Testament actually teaches about saving faith, Gods transforming grace, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord . He questions the modern gospel that has become so popular, but which often lacks essential truths contained in the gospel of the apostles.
Deltafosb And Genetic Survival Via Memory And Repetition
Sensitisation begins with high levels of dopamine. This tells our primitive brain that this activity is really valuable and you should engage in this activity again and again. Dopamines goal is to have us remember and repeat behaviours that further our genetic survival. Dopamine achieves this by triggering a protein known as DeltaFosB. DeltaFosB remains in the brain for around eight weeks following your last binge.
DeltaFosB also activates certain genes that change the physical and chemical structure of the brain. As DeltaFosB levels rise, this protein begins to rewire the brain to crave for the substance or behaviour that led to a rise in DeltaFosB levels in the first place. This creates a circular process where wanting causes doing. This causes a surge in dopamine which leads to even more DeltaFosB being accumulated. As DeltaFosB accumulates, so does the urge to engage in the behaviour that created its accumulation in the first place. And so this cycle continues until you make a conscious effect to cease the addictive behaviour.
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The Magic Of Evolution Or A Miracle From God
On a side note, secular science credits the magic of evolution to explain human sexual desire and the brains susceptibility to be sexually conditioned. But why does the brain reboot itself sexually in the absence of porn? What evolutionary mechanism precipitated a phenomenon that only first surfaced in human experience a decade ago? From an evolutionary standpoint, rebooting is just about as easy to explain as is sexual desire, the brains susceptibility to be sexually conditioned, or the millions of other unexplainable miracles that regularly occur in human bodies.
If, however, God is the designer of all these things, then the reboot phenomenon is evidence of His grace. Prior to reading , I unthinkingly interpreted the God gave them over clauses in Romans 1 to be warnings of irreversible acts of Gods judgment. Now I see that, just as persisting in evil results in God-determined slavery to sin, so resisting evil results in God-determined freedom from sins slavery, and even for those who may resist only some evil, but still indulge in other forms.
How To Join A Support Group
For most support groups, all that is required to join is a desire to begin recovery. Most people join a support group by simply walking in the door of a meeting near them. No invitation is required and there are no dues or fees. For members, there is often a voluntary collection.
That said, there are “open” meetings for members and non-members as well as closed meetings for members and prospective members only. Depending on the type of meeting, you might come across some of the following codes that indicate a more exclusive support group or additional services offered:
- American Sign Language
- Al-Anon Family Groups from Al-Anon
You can still find a meeting the old-school way by looking up a phone number in the white pages of the local telephone book or online.
Some databases are detailed and allow you to see which meetings are for newcomers or are wheelchair accessible, non-smoking, or LGBTQ+-friendly, among other characteristics. Other pages are less detailed and may only have phone numbers or listings for you to contact the meeting organizers.
The following is a list of official mutual support group websites and their meeting listings. If you cannot locate a face-to-face meeting near you, there are many online meetings available.
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Go Through The Steps To Freedom
The Steps to Freedom in Christ is a spiritual and moral inventory of your life written by Neil T. Anderson.
We have found that a weekend retreat works the best to complete the Steps.
- It allows men to focus on what the Holy Spirit is saying and not be distracted.
- We strongly recommend disconnecting from smart phones for the weekend.
- It takes about 6-8 hours to go through the Steps. This is why the weekend retreat works well, but you can also do it weekly in your continued meetings
