To better illustrate how an addictive mindset comes to be, we’ll be focusing entirely on how hunger and thirst, two of our most common and powerful primal drives influence our behaviors.
These primal drives fall under the umbrella of these three prime directives, which govern how the limbic system operates which are known as survival, comfort, and safety.
These drives are deeply rooted in the instinctive part of the brain, not necessarily in the soul.
But when the urge to eat or drink is generated by that part by means of feeling, we suddenly get to become consciously aware of it through our higher functioning brain being the seat of the soul.
That’s where we understand with clarity what this uneasy sensation is trying to transmit to our mind. That’s also where we get to decide what we will be eating or drinking, where, when, and how.
But here’s the deal:
There’s a well-established mindset pattern regarding these drives being embedded in our mind which revolves solely around survival, comfort, and safety since we need them to survive on from a physical level.
That’s what we’ve been doing since we were little.
You can see these prime directives plainly at play when there’s an impending natural disaster being forecast which will end up causing food and water shortages.
Generally, people quickly flock to the markets in order to stockpile them.
Our soul understands that these drives are essential to our survival even though it doesn’t need any of them to sustain itself.
When these urges manifest themselves in animals, they simply respond to them instinctively. They cannot either think or plan what they will be eating or drinking.
But as humans, we have a preprogrammed mindset system containing all the basic plannings based on how we’ve been responding to these urges previously telling us what we need to do in a given situation.
Usually, our way of thinking tends to fall in line with what has already been recorded within that mindset. We normally go and eat or drink our favorite foods or drinks.
In this case, what we’ve already had in mind on the basis of past experiences get to decide what we will do when the upcoming needs show up.
These three prime directives guiding our primal drives are mediated by the very mindset and belief system found in the mind in order to regulate responses to these drives.
But some of you might be wondering how does that have something to do with porn addiction?
As I said above, sin is a virus. In fact, sin is the virus of viruses. Like all viruses, it cannot self-reproduce. It cannot exist all by itself externally.
It needs to exploit something that God created to fulfill an essential purpose by defiling it. I strongly believe the main reason God hates sin is because it sustains itself by corrupting the very abilities or faculties He has placed in mankind to enable them to glorify Him.
Sin is all about defiling God-given abilities for evil purposes.
With that being said, porn addiction has hijacked these very same survival, comfort, and safety prime directives found in the brain by implanting itself as an artificial drive.
Porn supposedly provides some form of survivability, comfort, and safety from the issues of life.
There is a mindset accompanied with a belief system that have been built around all of these indulgences. This is a process that has been solidified over the years.
That’s why it can be quite difficult for you to abstain from such behavior while going through challenging times when knowing that it has been helpful to you in coping with problems in life.
Porn injects into our mind a mindset similar to the one we have regarding the two primal drives.
But it does that in a perverted fashion since we don’t need it to survive. It also does so in a highly aggressive, pervasive, and brutal manner by dysregulating the brain.
That’s what creates that huge internal imbalance found within where the brain has developed a strong inclination toward the limbic system.
Consequently, that drastic reversal taken place within the internal structures of the brain has emboldened the irrational part to overturn the ability of the rational part.
It gets to overrule our sense of morality along with the knowledge of the truth we have.
As a result, how we feel gets to dominate how we think. The mind then becomes preoccupied with the thought of indulging in.
Your brain isn’t operating on the same program it used to prior to the addiction.
The brain will continue to operate in that horrible state unless that imbalance problem is rectified.
This maladaptation is something that needs to be reversed in order for restoration and healing to take place.
That’s what all addictions inherently do. This is, in fact, what makes them so hard to be broken away from since they tap into our hardwired instinct for survival, comfort, and safety.
They embed themselves in the very part of our being which sustains our lives from a physical or natural level, thus giving rise to what is called physiological and mental dependency.
When it boils down to your porn addiction, physiological dependency is the process by which your physical body gets to become dependent on porn to operate properly.
Therefore, your body has come to want the pleasures derived from such practice. It wants that spike of dopamine to make you feel good at times.
The same way that your body needs food and water to operate properly is nearly the same way it comes to want porn due to such maladaptation taken place.
When you haven’t eaten and drunk for a long period of time, you start experiencing intense feelings of discomfort, such as weakness, lightheadedness, lack of concentration, and so on.
These feelings just invade the soul, thus creating a strong desire within for you to do something quick. This is natural.
But addicted individuals do experience these types of feelings in a different way after days, weeks, or months of abstinence due to the fact that the brain can no longer get that spike of dopamine it used to get. This is what called withdrawal symptoms.
There’s also a mental dependency that has been built on porn by which the soul has embraced indulging in as something it needs to do just to relieve itself from the immense pressure flooding it just to be in a better state of mind both mentally and emotionally.
You need to understand that porn can satisfy your soul both mentally and emotionally, but in a deviant fashion by depriving it of the true satisfaction it needs which can only be found in God. That’s what sin does.
Therefore, this causes your soul to become trapped into the very scheme of becoming reliant on something that it doesn’t even need lying outside of the will of God to sustain itself as a result of trying to cooperate with the body to satisfy its insatiable urges.
The soul develops such a desperate tendency to adapt itself to the massive influences of the limbic system just to avoid more unwanted pressures. It sort of gets out of the way by allowing the limbic system to get what it wants.
With both dependencies, addicted individuals have become trapped into the false belief that they need to keep on relying and searching for something outside of God’s will in order for them to be able to feel a certain way.
This is actually the tendency that takes over people’s minds to the point that it shapes their own mindset and belief system. Their mindset is nothing more than a program by which the devil gets to run their lives.
That’s why you tend to feel like you can’t live without viewing porn.
You cannot see yourself through the lens of living an addiction free life.
You cannot really grasp the reality of you dissociating yourself with porn permanently.
You tend to feel that you won’t make it without being able to view that upcoming porn scene which you are so eager to watch.
It’s as though you are very concerned about what will transpire if you were to change your mind while you would be able to do just fine.
There are times, thinking about quitting troubles the mind. Your mind has become filled up with fears, anxiety, and worry about the future in the sense of what you’ll lose.
The mind has become caught up into the faulty messages about survival, comfort, and safety being sent by the limbic system.