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- Thread starter Thomas More
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RedLagoon
Heritage
Why the AI fake shit?
I disagree with this video. Plenty of addicts (the human ones) have incredibly supportive and loving families and friends... and have incredibly loving bonds with the people around them. Personally, I believe a large part of substance addiction is a form of self-harm/self-loathing (coupled with physical drug dependance). No outside factors can fix a spiritually broken person...
I've seen addicts like that too, and they were fixed by sending them to a different environment.
I only partially agree with the video. It's not about "connection," but it is about the environment.
Not sure what it is, but some people don't react well to certain environments and look for addictions to cope. Take the same person, and send them somewhere completely different, and they change. It's very strange but it's the only thing I've known to cure addicts.
For example, I knew an addict who stole from his loving family... he was sent to the everglades to work for the US Park Service. 7 years later he's still clean.
I understand what you mean but it is still a superficial "fix" and doesn't address the core problem which is coping. I'm glad it worked for the person you knew but for a lot of people struggling with this issue "wherever they go, there they are" because it's an internal spiritual problem. The most profound and long lasting recoveries I've seen are the ones where the person has completely submitted themselves before Jesus and are completely transformed by Him.
RedLagoon
Heritage
Environmental depression and addiction is a real thing though and I'd agree with both arguments.
But the spirit and God's creation are intimately connected. Why do you think, for thousands of years, monastics have copied John the Baptist and other prophets who've left civilization and gone into the wilderness to find God? Because God's face is across all of creation, including His deserts, mountains, swamps, islands, and plains. And men seeking God, in order to remove all temptation so that they may focus on God entirely, have drastically changed their environment for thousands of years in order to improve their spiritual relationship with the Lord.
Hence it is with addicts. Their search for God is stymied, for one reason or other, by the environment they find themselves in, and they turn to addictions in order to numb their problems of the soul. They cannot find God, because the environment they are in has too many temptations they are unable to overcome. Like the holy monks have done, and continue to do, addicts who leave their old life behind are able to start a new one by drastically changing their circumstances.
While this is not for everyone, it is the path for some. Even though there is just one God, there are infinite paths to Him. For some, that means leaving their old life behind.
"Pick up your cross and follow me."
Our soul and the land, which is God's creation, are intimately connected in ways we cannot perceive or understand, and that is why relocation can be so powerful for so many. The effect the environment has on our spiritual state cannot be stressed enough.
I disagree about the environment angle. Some of the greatest saints were from the worst scenarios. And this is going beyond the original discussion of the mouse experiment.
