The topic of addiction can hit close to home and stir difficult memories. For many, the mere mention of addiction can be painful.

There are two main types of addiction categories: behavioral and physical. Examples of behavioral addictions include ones to gaming, pornography, exercise, and work. Physical, also known as chemical addictions, are to substances like alcohol and drugs that often require the help of a medical professional to overcome safely.

Here, we’ll explore the topic of addiction and offer some basic guidance on how to address it biblically. To do that, we start before the beginning of the addiction — then move to the addiction itself and explore God’s desire to free people from dependencies.

Addiction, Emptiness, and the Search for Relief

Addictions seek to fill voids — which means that before there’s an addiction, there’s a need not being met. Sometimes, it’s just loneliness and boredom; other times, it’s a lack of support or simply not knowing how to handle a traumatic event.

Many studies attest to this fact, including one published by the APA. It found that “environmental factors, including access and exposure to substances of abuse, (and) neighborhood disadvantage and disorder” are common contributors to substance addictions.[1]” An online article by the National Institute of Health (NIH) reports that children who experience trauma are more likely to develop a substance addiction later in life than their non-traumatized peers[2].

Just as an unstable childhood environment can contribute to the development of an addiction, so can an aversive adult environment. Stressful home and work environments, like a conflict-stricken marriage, a demanding or toxic workplace culture, or the unexpected loss of a loved one, create or expose emotional emptiness.

Sadly, people respond to aversive life events by seeking refuge in an addiction. In many cases, there are overlapping voids; trauma, stress, and loneliness tend to go hand-in-hand, for example. But while emotional voids often precede the addictive behavior, addiction only deepens the void by adding shame, feelings of helplessness, and then more shame on top.

Alcohol Addiction: How Family, Trauma, and Social Circles Shape Dependence

Three of the top contributing factors to alcohol abuse are family modeling, trauma exposure, and adult social environments.

Family Modeling

For decades, research has shown a direct correlation between an adverse childhood environment and alcohol abuse later in life; a recent study published by the Journal of Adolescent Health adds to the growing body of research that confirms this[3]. The study found that children whose parents drank more than 5 days per week had a much higher chance of drinking than their childhood peers. In many cases, the drinking habits developed by youth bleed into adulthood — data shows that teens who drink at an early age increase the risk of developing a long-term alcohol dependence that lingers through the 20s, 30s, and beyond.[4]

Parents are supposed to be teachers and models for their children, and when they model addiction, their children are likely to imitate them.

Trauma Exposure

In addition to the trauma of poor parental modeling, other forms of adolescent trauma, like physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, are linked to alcoholism in adulthood.[5] The reason many childhood trauma survivors seek alcohol is that it directly reduces the physical and emotional effects of that trauma. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant that gives instant (but temporary) relief. It dulls emotional and physical pain, provides the user a sense of disconnection from painful memories, and suppresses shame, which is often a central emotional wound of abuse. Alcohol offers predictable and pleasant-feeling effects that counteract unpredictable, unpleasant life circumstances.

Social Environments

Because alcohol is easy to access, legal, and popular, social environments form around it. Bars, parties, and drinking-focused gatherings give people a socially approved way to avoid vulnerability, numb awkwardness, and dodge emotional discomfort. Drinking in the company of others smooths out insecurity and gives people a temporary social confidence they don’t have without a drink.

Porn Addiction: How Isolation, Trauma, and Secrecy Shape Dependence

Pornography may be the most widely destructive of all addictions today. According to AddictionHelp.com, roughly 67% of American men and 41% of American women view pornography each year[6]. In 2023, the top-ranked pornography site received more visitors than Amazon, TikTok, OpenAI, LinkedIn, Netflix, and The Weather Channel.[7] Behind these devastating statistics are real people who view porn to cope with isolation, trauma, stress, and boredom.

Isolation and Lack of Strong Emotional Support Systems

Pornography offers its users an illusion of affection and intimacy. In many cases, people who lack close friendships and familial ties, a network of emotional support, and genuine relationships often seek porn to combat isolation and loneliness.[8] While porn’s illusion of intimacy offers a momentary escape, it only deepens the root issue — and because porn is secretive, the porn addict often becomes too afraid and ashamed to disclose the addiction.

Trauma

Pornography is especially tempting for survivors of physical or sexual abuse because it allows the user to feel a sense of control over their sexuality, in contrast to the helplessness they felt at the hands of their abuser. Pornography is one-sided — it puts the consumer in total control of the specific sexual characters, techniques, and outcomes. And for a survivor of abuse, this sense of control is often very alluring.

Consequence-Free Digital Access

Pornography often seems like a harmless and controllable act. There’s no mutual level of emotional or physical commitment, no meet-up or departure times for an in-person encounter, and the freedom to discontinue porn use whenever the user would like. Pornography sites are widely available to every user of the internet — they’re both easy to find and easy to exit. These facts make pornography seem like a harmless, consequence-free encounter that doesn’t carry any emotional risk

Substance Abuse: How Trauma, Loneliness, and Stress Factor In

Emotional Pain & Trauma Escape

People carrying unresolved trauma — whether physical, sexual, or emotional — often reach for substances because drugs blunt the internal distress that trauma leaves behind. This numbing effect becomes a way to quiet the intrusive memories and emotional pain that feel unmanageable. As Meyer notes, trauma-related emotional dysregulation is one of the strongest predictors of substance use, with users often seeking chemical relief when their trauma symptoms spike[9].

Loneliness & Social Disconnection

Persistent loneliness often leaves people with an emotional vacuum that drugs temporarily fill with warmth, relief, or altered emotional experience. Individuals without strong relationships or support systems frequently self-medicate emptiness with substances that create feelings associated with comfort and connection. A 2020 BMC analysis found that loneliness and other negative emotions were strongly associated with substance use patterns, reinforcing the tie between disconnection and drug misuse[10].

Stress Overload & Inadequate Coping

Many people use drugs as a quick escape from chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, or pressure they cannot manage on their own. When life demands more than someone feels capable of handling, substances become the easiest way to turn down the emotional intensity. Hand et al. show that stress is a critical factor driving both substance misuse and relapse, as individuals repeatedly use drugs to self-soothe the relentless internal strain[11].

Social Media and Screen Addiction: The Emotions Behind the Behavior

The Need to Feel Seen & Belong

Many people don’t form genuine connections with people in their everyday lives, so they settle for a digital version that’s fast, easy, and low-risk. Social media provides people with fleeting moments of attention that mimic the sensation of belonging, even though the feeling disappears the moment the screen shuts off. İnaltekin and Yağcı (2024) show that people who are already emotionally vulnerable or depressed are the quickest to fall into this trap, which makes perfect sense if you’ve ever scrolled to numb sadness[12].

Avoidance of Negative Emotions & Past Trauma

Screens are a perfect escape hatch for people afraid to face what’s going on inside them. If someone is carrying trauma or heavy emotional baggage, endless scrolling feels safer than sitting alone with their thoughts. Amirthalingam et al. make the point that avoidance isn’t just a side-effect of social media addiction — it’s the engine that keeps the whole thing running[13].

Boredom, Emotional Flatness & the Need for Instant Stimulation

When life starts to feel dull, empty, or painfully routine, the phone becomes the easiest way to feel something — anything — immediately. Social media use causes the brain to release dopamine instantly, which is why we often reach for our phones without even thinking. One study describes this self-perpetuating addictive cycle: boredom drives scrolling, scrolling provides a quick thrill, and then everything feels even flatter afterward — which usually leads to more scrolling[14]. According to researchers, the average American spends 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media each day[15], with teenagers averaging over 5 hours daily[16].

Christ Offers Freedom from Addiction

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? —  Romans 6:16

In the original Greek, the word Paul uses for “slave” is doulos, which describes a person who is fully mastered by something or someone. While Greco-Roman slavery wasn’t the same as American chattel slavery, it was still slavery. There was no individual identity for a doulos; he was in complete subjectivity and submission to a master. Paul calls himself a doulos of Christ (Rom. 1:1), and James and Peter follow suit (James 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:1). Here in Romans 6, Paul uses doulos to make one point unmistakably clear: all of us are mastered by something.

If you’re a Christian, you are mastered by Christ. You’ve realized your sin, confessed and repented of it, and are actively working to put it to death. Yes, you still sin — but your life aims to please Christ, your new master. In thought and deed, you’re increasingly becoming more pure, self-controlled, and holy. You’re putting off old sin patterns and replacing them with Godly patterns, renewing your mind with Biblical truth about your sin struggles, and (slow as it can be) making progress in Christian maturity. In Paul’s words, you are “fighting the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7).

As you grow in Christ and continue to be His doulos, you’re also coming to a fuller realization of just how much better of a master He is than the sin you once served. In Christ, you’ve found a joy that far outweighs the counterfeit joy you once sought in something else. For many, an addiction is a “something else” — but unlike enslavement to Christ, addiction is enslavement to sin.

Addiction begins with and persists in a search for lasting healing or relief in a place (substance or behavior) that can’t offer either. It is enslavement — a repeated placement of faith in something that repeatedly promises relief but repeatedly delivers the opposite. While addiction may offer “fleeting pleasure” (Hebrews 11:25), it is sin — and sin ends in death.

If you’re battling an addiction, you know this to be true. Maybe you’ve been abusing a substance for months or years, and as time passes, the toll it’s taking on you is becoming harder to ignore. When you’re without a drink or drug, you’re not yourself; you feel weak mentally and physically, and the more emotionally drained you are, the more emotional relief you seek in a substance.

In addition, you might be experiencing forms of death. Perhaps you have gained or lost drastic amounts of weight (physical death), burned bridges with people who confronted you about your habit (relational death), or have constant paranoia and loud, racing thoughts that dominate your mind (emotional/mental and spiritual death). And if you have a job, financial death tightens its grip on you as an increasing portion of your paycheck goes toward your fix. You might be reluctant to admit it, but it’s true: your addiction is killing you. You are constantly sowing sin and reaping death.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

If you humble yourself, confess your sin to God, begin the hard work of repentance, and turn to him in faith, He will lavish forgiveness and grace on you — grace to wipe away the eternal penalty of your sin, grace to overcome your addiction, and grace to live a life of joyful freedom in Christ: a good, life-giving master who wants you to be His new doulos. Consider Romans 6:1-14:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Christ’s desire is for you to share in His death and resurrection by dying to yourself (Romans 6:6-7), believing His sacrifice on the cross to be sufficient for paying your sins’ penalty (Romans 6:6-8) and fighting by the power of the Holy Spirit to kill your addiction — all while entrusting yourself to the free and irrevocable gift of God’s grace (Romans 5:20-21, 6:9-14, 11:29; Ephesians 2:1-9) to cover all of your past and future sins.

Meeting with a biblical counselor, a biblically sound Christian counselor, or a capable pastor will also be a tremendous help to you in the early stages of addiction recovery, as will getting involved in a healthy local church, where others can help bear your burdens, pray for you, and show you hospitable, Christian love. If you’re addicted to a hard substance like opiates or alcohol, it is wise to consult with a medical professional, as quitting cold turkey can be dangerous and life-threatening.

Christ Also Addresses the Emotional Voids Behind Addiction

While there are far too many emotional voids to address in a single article, we’ll briefly touch on how Christ meets two of the most common: trauma and loneliness.

Childhood Trauma

God is a good and faithful parent to those whose biological parents failed them.

Here are just a few of many verses that illustrate the loving, fatherly nature of almighty God — the all-powerful creator of the universe who is gentle, meek, lowly in heart, and fully committed to providing loving care for his children.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. —  Psalm 27:10

The Lord takes in those whose parents have forsaken them. If coming out of an addiction has led you to face a difficult childhood, know that the Lord is present and ready to receive you. He will provide for you, minister to your most tender wounds, protect you, and be a better father to you than even the best human father ever could be.

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. — Psalm 68:5

God has a special kind of concern for the vulnerable. He intervenes, sometimes in ordinary ways and sometimes in miraculous ways, for the fatherless and widowed. Just as God cared for Moses when he was abandoned as an infant (Exodus 2), the disabled and orphaned Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9), a starving single mother with no protection (1 Kings 17:8-16), and Israel in exile, God continues to protect and provide for widows and orphans.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. — Romans 8:15-16

The original Greek for “Abba! Father!” is “Abba ho patër” — a rare and particularly affectionate term of familial intimacy. Here, Paul says that believers, whom God has adopted as sons and daughters, enjoy this kind of paternal closeness with Him. God is not an uncaring or distant father — he is constant, stable, and steady.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject ot the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. — Hebrews 12:5-11

Many abusive parents discipline selfishly for their own pleasure and power, but God disciplines His children lovingly for their good. God’s discipline is not wrathful, mean-spirited, or vengeful. It’s a loving discipline designed to help us grow — the kind of discipline a good father gives, not the kind a bad father gives. While abuse is unpredictable, self-serving, and rooted in parental weakness, God’s discipline is predictable, loving, wise, and intended for the good of his children.

Loneliness and Boredom

Loneliness and boredom are two of the most difficult and common experiences known to man. Night after night, many single or widowed people retreat to homes with nobody to share the evening with. Being siloed at work, lacking a close network of social connections, and other factors can contribute to and aggravate feelings of loneliness and boredom. Sadly, many turn to substances to mitigate these lonely, boring moments — but Christ offers a better solution of far greater worth: communion with Him.

But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. — Luke 5:16

Consider Jesus himself. During his earthly ministry, seclusion was precious to him. The Lord used his private moments to commune with the Father through prayer, and he found rest in doing so. Spending time alone with the Lord is a staple of a healthy Christian life — and if you find more lonely moments on your schedule than you’d like, consider that God might be pursuing you. He wants to hear from you, and he’s not afraid to arrange circumstances to make your communion with Him possible.

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with your whole heart — Jeremiah 29:13

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you — James 4:8

Although Jeremiah 29:13 was written to the Israelites, God’s promise to reward those who seek Him remains. God does not hide from the sincere. James reinforces the same truth: when you draw near to God — through prayerful and contrite honesty — He draws near to you. God delights in being found by people who genuinely seek Him. The next time you’re feeling lonely, remember that God wants to hear from you — and that if you seek Him, he’ll respond.

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. — Psalm 139:7-12

Theologians call this aspect of God omnipresence — meaning that God is everywhere, at all times. We are never truly alone. Even when your emotions tell you otherwise, God’s presence is sure. You may feel isolated, hidden, or forgotten, but the God who fills heaven and earth is near — fully aware, fully attentive, and eager to commune with you.

Leaving Addiction for a Better Master

Addiction is more than a habit — it’s slavery. Alcohol, porn, drugs, and social media feeds promise relief and deliver slavery; they numb for a moment, then tighten the ropes. Addictions offer you control, then proceed to control you. They promise to fill a void, then make the void bigger.

Romans 6 is clear: everyone is mastered by something. There’s no neutral ground, middle category, or noncommittal life where you “kind of” serve God and “kind of” serve the addiction — one always masters you instead of the other. And the point of this article is not simply to share that; it’s to point you to the better Master.

Christ doesn’t ignore your wounds; He directly addresses and heals them. He meets you in the lowest pits of loneliness and brings you into His family. God succeeds where your parents failed and shows Himself to be the best father by giving you His Spirit, His people, His Word, and His own presence to resist temptation, overcome addiction, equip you for every trial you face (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and experience “life abundantly” (John 10:10).

God doesn’t want you to cope with your addiction, replace it with a less harmful one, or try to achieve sobriety through self-love. He wants to transform you into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) with a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), a new mind (1 Corinthians 2:16), a new nature (2 Peter 1:3-4), and a new eternal destiny with an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Peter 1:3-4). All this is offered to you as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), which you can never lose once you believe (Romans 10:13; Hebrews 13:5).

Everyone is born a slave to sin, but God saves and transforms the most broken people. If you’ve grown weary of being mastered by addiction, it’s time for you to serve a new master — a good one who will bring you from death to life.

Sources & Research

This article draws on peer-reviewed research from journals including Acta Psychologica, Translational Psychiatry, and Frontiers in Psychology, as well as data from the APA, NIDA, and University of Michigan Medical School.

Bibliography

  1. Amirthalingam, J., & Khera, A. (2024). Understanding Social Media Addiction: A Deep Dive. Cureus U Psychiatry & Psychology: Monthly Curated Collection of Recently Published Articles.
  2. Bohm, M. K., & Esser, B. M. (2023). Associations Between Parental Drinking and Alcohol Use Among Their Adolescent Children: Findings From a National Survey of United States Parent-Child Dyads. Journal of Adolescent Health, 961-964.
  3. Brailovskaia, J. (2024). The “Vicious Circle of addictive Social Media Use and Mental Health” Model. Acta Psychologica.
  4. Davis, J. P., Tucker, J. S., Stein, B. D., & D’Amico, E. J. (2021). Longitudinal effects of adverse childhood experiences on substance use transition patterns during young adulthood. Child Abuse & Neglect.
  5. DeAngelis, T. (2024, April 1). Teens are spending nearly 5 hours daily on social media. Here are the mental health outcomes. Retrieved from American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/04/teen-social-use-mental-health
  6. Hand, L. J., Paterson, L. M., & Lingford-Hughes, A. R. (2024). Re-evaluating our focus in addiction: emotional dysregulation is a critical driver of relapse to drug use. Translational Psychiatry.
  7. Howarth, J. (2025, June 23). Worldwide Daily Social Media Usage (New 2025 Data). Retrieved from Exploding Topics: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/social-media-usage#daily-time-social-media
  8. Inaltekin, A., & Yagci, I. (2024). Social Media Addiction and Emotional Intelligence in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder. Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 127-133.
  9. Jha, D., & Singh, R. (2020). Analysis of associations between emotions and activities of drug users and their addiction recovery tendencies from social media posts using structural equation modeling. BNC Bioinformatics.
  10. McNichols, N. K. (2023, September 25). How Many People Actually Watch Porn? Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/everyone-on-top/202309/how-much-porn-do-americans-really-watch
  11. Mennis, J., Stahler, G. J., & Mason, M. J. (2016). Risky Substance Use Environments and Addiction: A New Frontier for Environmental Justice Research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
  12. Meyer, P. J., & Segal, G. (2023). Editorial: The role of emotional dysregulation in addiction. Psychol.
  13. Miller, J. (2025, October 19). Porn Addiction Statistics. Retrieved from AddictionHelp.com: https://www.addictionhelp.com/porn/statistics/
  14. (2024, Feb. 6). Trauma and Stress. Retrieved from National Institute on Drug Abuse: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trauma-and-stress
  15. University of Michigan Medical School. (2018, May 7). Teens and Alcohol. Retrieved from Michigan Medicine: https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/teens-and-alcohol
  16. Vescan, M., Flack, M., & Caudwell, K. M. (2024). Loneliness and problematic pornography Use: What is the role of emotion regulation and interaction with content Creators? Addictive Behaviors Reports.

All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.