If you want an in-depth description of the addiction cycle, read the works of men who are much smarter than me – such as Milton Magness and Patrick Carnes.
If you are a simple man like me, the following description may make sense. As I look back over the decades in which I lived in my addiction, I followed this predictable pattern:
- I think it.
- I plan it.
- I do it.
- I hate it.
- I cover it.
- I do it again.
I can identify with Paul, who wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15-16).
After all these years, I think I have finally figured out the key to staying sober, to staying out of this crazy cycle.
Don’t think it!
In other words, don’t give yourself the room to entertain sexually inappropriate thoughts in the first place. What you think today, you will do tomorrow. So the key is to be careful about what you think today.
Recovery Step: Guard your mind today.
