Addiction: How We Get Stuck and Unstuck in Compulsive Patterns and Behavior - Softcover

Vande Kappelle, Robert P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1532690207 ISBN 13: 9781532690204

Publisher: Wipf and Stock, 2019

Synopsis

What is addiction, and how do we know if we are addicted? Speaking sociologically, we are addicted because we live in addictive societies that turn us into consumers and materialists. Speaking biologically, we are addicted because that is how we are hardwired. Speaking spiritually, we are addicted because we seek spiritual satisfaction through things other than God. Humans can be addicted to most any object, ideology, and belief, but they cannot be addicted to the true God, for reasons disclosed in this text.
As this book demonstrates, addiction is a pattern of learned behavior that utilizes ancient mental pathways designed to promote survival and reproduction. When neural connections intended to promote eating, reproduction, parenting, and social relationships are diverted into addiction, their blessings can become curses. While heredity, parenting, trauma, and additional psychological and sociological factors play significant roles in compulsive behavior, addiction is essentially a developmental disorder, a way to manage an environment that feels threatening and overwhelming. Change (getting unstuck) is possible, but it requires five ingredients: acknowledgment, resolution, substitution, human help, and divine help. Because addictions represent complex interactions between biological, psychological, social, and spiritual forces, the solution must be holistic as well.
Designed as a study guide for groups or individual use, this book approaches the topic comprehensively, examining the nature of addiction; its cause, symptoms, consequences, and means of recovery.

About this title

About the Author

Robert P. Vande Kappelle is professor emeritus of religious studies at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is the author of forty books, including biblical commentaries, volumes on ethics and church history, and discussion guides on faith, theology, and spirituality. Recent titles include Holistic Happiness, Radical Discipleship, A Bible for Today, Christlikeness, and Soul Food: 106 Stories for Life's Journey.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1532690207
• ISBN 13: 9781532690204
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 214