REINHILD NIEBUHR

In this episode of Young Africa TODAY I give a short overview over the principle of addiction, why our bodies get addicted and some approaches to helping you overcome specific addictions.

DISCLAIMER: Kindly note that this video DOES NOT CONSTITUTE MEDICAL ADVICE.

If you choose to follow the steps described in this video, you will need to accept full responsibility for any associated risk. Please also note that, while the section on fasting to assist you to overcome substance abuse is aimed at giving you some practical tools, you need to understand that if you need to recover from drugs such as heroin, or if you are suffering from diabetes, you WILL need professional supervision and care.

DO NOT ATTEMPT fasting on your own!

Also, while the steps are described as being easy, remember that once you are addicted to a substance, you ALWAYS remain at threat of falling back into the addiction. So you will need to AVOID ANY SOCIAL SETTINGS, PEOPLE and PLACES that will tempt you to use the substance to which you are addicted. Find or build a support structure, habits and behaviours that will help you to never fall back into your patterns that caused, or resulted from, your addictive behaviour. This may include seeking professional help. However, unless you are a heroin addict, avoid rehabilitation clinics or professional therapists or physicians which insist on providing you with tablets to help mitigate the withdrawal symptoms. Those tablets inevitably result in shifting your addiction from one substance to the next.

Also note that certain kinds of drugs, including marijuana, may be isolated from your bloodstream by your body, through being stored inside fat tissue, in order to protect your liver and your kidneys. This means that as your body heals from the impact of drug abuse, your body may release small doses of these drugs into your bloodstream, as fasting clears the bloodstream from your circulating blood. This may cause hallucinations and other withdrawal symptoms again, from time to time. When this happens, don’t panic! Just understand that this is what is happening and know that you will need to take sick leave again in order to again withdraw from normal life for at least 4 days, in order to complete another fasting and resting cycle. Over time these occurrences will happen more seldomly, as your body releases all the poison, to be expelled from your body. Keep on drinking filtered water throughout each day to speed up the process of cleansing. Eventually, your body can heal itself completely again!

THERE IS HOPE!

HELPFUL RESOURCES:

https://justbetweenus.org/topics/over… https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow…. https://goingfarther.net/life-issues/… https://www.focusonthefamily.com/pare… https://www.healthline.com/health/end… https://www.lifeworkscommunity.com/bl… https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/… https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/eat-y… https://www.detoxandcure.com/how-to-u… https://frankviola.org/addictions/** https://health.clevelandclinic.org/br… http://www.make-my-christian-life-wor… https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti… https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NB… https://www.medicinenet.com/pain_surp…

* This article encourages you to meditate. I believe that you need to mediate the biblical way – NOT just let your mind run empty! Meditate on a particular Bible Verse and ask the Holy Spirit in prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, to guide your mind in mediation, to enable you to gain clarity about the message that God wants you to gain from this Bible Verse at this particular point in your life. The reason for this, is that – as always – the devil will use every opportunity he has to distract you from focusing on God, the Bible, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit – including through ‘aimless’ meditation.

** This article encourages you to be baptized through full immersion. There are different views among believers in Jesus Christ regarding baptism. I’m not giving you this link in order to necessarily follow the advice given with regard to baptism in this article. However, I agree with the helpful advice regarding fasting and appreciate the list of Bible verses that you can focus on during your fast.