Have you seen this Article from National Geographic?

I am always grateful to see the main-stream media highlighting the problem of addiction, especially from what is generally considered a “credible” news source.

We’d like to pass on this article from the September 2017 issue of National Geographic, titled How Science is Unlocking the Secrets of Addiction.

While this article takes a decidedly scientific approach to the problem, its statistics are sobering and bring awareness to the all-encompassing reach of addiction itself.  Far beyond drugs and alcohol, the article mentions several behavioral or process addictions (which would include sexual addiction, aka “hypersexual disorder”), and recognizes the current struggle to establish legitimacy in these arenas.

Certainly, we are living in a culture and climate that is forcing the “voices of authority” on this subject to reassess their definitions.

Until recently, these behavioral addictions received no official recognition from the American Psychiatric Association (APA), an organization that defines and categorizes mental health disorders in the U.S. However, this organization has now started to reassess its position on various process addictions, including hypersexual disorder.-Elements Behavior Health.com

As I read the latest research and scientific breakthroughs, concrete evidence of how our brain chemistry traps us into destructive cycles of behavior, and possibilities of medical treatments with encouraging outcomes, I felt gratitude for the scientific work that is being done.

But even more, I felt gratitude to know from my own experience what no chart or scanning device can measure or record: that true healing of broken hearts and minds is a gift from God…the gold at the end of a rainbow defined by utter surrender of heart, logic, desire, and will.

I felt gratitude to know that the cravings or neural pathways that can now literally be flashed on a screen have created openings in my soul to find God, One Day at a Time.

I felt peace to know that no matter how hopeless the research might seem or how overpowering the plague of addiction becomes, that there is a Higher Power who can use all of it to work His good.

I know that sexual addiction exists.  I have seen it try to destroy my loved one.

I know that trauma is real.  I have seen it try to destroy me.

I know there is a pathway to healing and wholeness.

With all the good that comes from medical treatments, brain research, psychiatrists, and science…only a Higher Power can free us from why we went there in the first place.

This has been my experience.

I am grateful for the spiritual journey it has brought into my life, today.

Much gratitude to the scientists and researchers whose work is helping the world understand what is actually happening to our loved ones.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and comments about the article posted below.