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Lust Addiction vs. Alcohol Addiction

Lust addiction is not like alcohol addiction, lust is normal!

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Someone asks on the Forum:

To lust is something very normal, we just over do it. So why are we carbon copying AA and saying "don't lust"? In the SA book, it even mentions complete abstinence. Why? We aren't allergic to lust in a physical way. We just have to learn not to let lust control us. So why all this talk of "the first drink"? To me, this sounds like telling an overeater to stop eating. If our issue really starts after the first drink, then the twelve steps won't help us at all.

Elya Responds:

All "S" groups use the Big Book of AA as their guide. There are two types of addictions,physical addictions (drugs and alcohol) and process addictions (sex, gambling, food, work). We parallel the first drink in AA to the first look of porn or the first look of lust. Who says lust is very normal? We just overdo it. Addicts overdo it. Some people could care less about looking at porn or other women. But we have a mission to fill up an emptiness inside us. Some people do this with alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, food or work. Pick your poison. And because of this, we can exchange books. The principles of powerlessness, prayer, resentments, viduy (5th step), working on our midos, working with others, are all globally applicable. I can show you each step and its corresponding issue in both the Rambam and in Shaarei Teshuva.

We're not saying you cannot have and enjoy sex, as long as it is with your spouse. But just like overeating and drinking too much whiskey will make you fat and drunk and sick, engaging in lust for an addict will progress into more exotic and dangerous situations, if you keep feeding the lust. Also when we substitute being with our wives in true mutual intimacy for lust, it is no different. The lust chemicals take over our brains and we're drunk once again.