Breaking Free - A Christian's Guide to Overcoming Addiction

Start Filling your Life With Good

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

What you take in affects what you put out. If you're constantly listening and watching things that you know aren't good for you, those are going to begin to affect your actions and your mindset.

So as you work on breaking free from your addiction, what you watch and do daily is going to affect you.

Try filling your life with more positive messages, or at least try to pay attention to what you're taking in. Start trying to notice patterns. How does the content and interactions you partake in daily affect you? How does it affect your mindset?

Begin realizing what is more likely to have negative effects on you and what creates more positive effects.

Sometimes this is just cutting out some movies or TV shows that are becoming temptations or just not affecting you in a positive way. Sometimes it means cutting out interactions with people around you who are damaging your mental health or putting you on the path to fuel your addiction.

Be mindful of what you're exposing yourself to.

Battling an addiction is no easy task, and you should surround yourself with helpful, positive, and beneficial resources, content, and people.

Something else that helped me as I struggled through an addiction was reading my Bible. I began setting aside a time to read it every day, and this really helped my mindset. I was filling my heart with good things—God's word.

Your mindset it so important during this battle.

Finding what is negatively impacting you and cutting it out is just another tactic towards overcoming an addiction.

And, as I write this now, I've definitely slipped up. My path to recovery hasn't been perfect, and I recently fell back into some old patterns.

I just wanted to say that it's okay if that happens. Recovery is not easy, and it's not usually an instant success. Eventually, it becomes a daily choice.

Choose to beat that addiction.

Every day.

There may be days where you don't choose to. That's alright. We all have those days. But don't give up. Don't think you're too far gone or that it isn't worth it to try to stop anymore.

It's never too late.

You're never too far gone.

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What's something good that you have in your life right now? This could be a person, a source of entertainment, a pet, a job—anything that is positively affecting your life.

I'm incredibly thankful for God and his unending grace. But aside from that, I'm really thankful for books. They've been a huge comfort over the past few years.