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Hope in the Age of Addiction: How to Find Freedom and Restore Your Relationships
Between alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, pornography, gambling, and eating disorders, fully 25% of the population of the United States is addicted to something. Those addictions are taking a massive physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial toll on individuals, families, and communities. The problem can feel insurmountable. But there is a solution, at once ancient and supported by the latest in neuroscientific research.
With an honest assessment of the facts, yet always reaching out toward hopeful solutions, counselors Chip Dodd and Stephen James explain what addiction really is, how it works, and why it is so damaging to our hearts, souls, minds, and relationships. They then take us beyond mere coping techniques that allow us to function to the real solution--restoring our broken relationship with our Creator so that we can rediscover how to live fully the way we were created to live. Each chapter includes the personal story of a recovering addict, told from the addict's point of view. The authors also include a list of books, organizations, workshops, and treatment centers people can turn to for help along the road to lasting recovery.
With an honest assessment of the facts, yet always reaching out toward hopeful solutions, counselors Chip Dodd and Stephen James explain what addiction really is, how it works, and why it is so damaging to our hearts, souls, minds, and relationships. They then take us beyond mere coping techniques that allow us to function to the real solution--restoring our broken relationship with our Creator so that we can rediscover how to live fully the way we were created to live. Each chapter includes the personal story of a recovering addict, told from the addict's point of view. The authors also include a list of books, organizations, workshops, and treatment centers people can turn to for help along the road to lasting recovery.
224 pages, Paperback
Published August 4, 2020
8 people are currently reading
856 people want to read
About the author
Chip Dodd
20 books28 followersChip Dodd is a teacher, trainer, author, and counselor, who has been working in the field of recovery and redemption for over 25 years. It is the territory in which people can return to living the way we are created to live-where we can move from survival to living, from isolation to loving, and from controlling to leading. After receiving his PhD in counseling from the University of North Texas, he founded a treatment center, The Center for Professional Excellence (CPE) in Nashville, dedicated to helping people be who they are made to be, so they can do what they are made to do.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 22, 2024
“We are created to live in dependency on God and others; we are created to become fully present as feeling, needing, desiring, longing, and hoping creatures; and we are created to live the truth of how we are created in spite of the reality that life if difficult and extremely painful.”
October 17, 2023
Reading this gave me Hope.
Those were my first thoughts upon turning the last page of this book; only after, did I realize how truly the title spoke.
For anyone who has experienced hopelessness in the face of their own weaknesses, self-loathing at their list of failures, inability to simply quit a destructive behavior, breakdown of every relationship they hold dear, or spirals of depression in the absence of "forward progress;" may I, with love in my heart and a hug given to you from across the world, offer a tender smile and a whisper that there is hope?
Dodd and James aren't marketing a product, glamorizing a trending "healthy lifestyle," or flinging a list of behavioral modifications to the world with a careless "good luck" tossed over their shoulder on the way out. These authors are compassionately offering an opportunity to really look at what addiction IS, how widespread it reaches, the danger of leaving the sleeping dragon untouched, and the fullness of life in relationship with God, self, and others that is possible if we refuse to continue to let it slumber in the dark.
For those who are experiencing what feels to be an isolated world of hopelessness, shame, and secrecy in what they know to be full-fledged addiction - you are not alone.
For those who don't have any inkling of what is wrong, but just sense that SOMETHING is off - this read may be more eye-opening than you expect.
For those who see their family or relationships falling apart from the lies, the tension, and the distress caused by addiction in a loved one's life - understanding, perhaps just a bit more, their struggle and how intricately you have been tied, is relieving.
This book is an aide for any and all of us, from those entrenched in their own addiction to the one watching his co-worker drown in it.
Weaving together psychological research with the breathtaking truth of Jesus Christ's love, pursuit, and grace, these pages contain hope for the weary and encouragement to feel deeply the pain and gladness of this tragic life. No more running, hiding, and numbing all those sorrows. No more pretending you have it altogether when you know you don't. Enough of the striving for independence and invincibility. There is peace in the admittance of our own brokenness, and such wonder in the reality of our reliance on Christ! There is hope to live life in 3D once more, and break free from the chains of addiction.
A few quotes:
""We are created to live full-heartedly, and that means life is going to hurt terribly. We live pushed and pulled between the truths that life is tragically difficult and life is incredibly glorious. We survive and thrive east of Eden and West of glory, between a place where we were created and a place where we will find our complete fullness and freedom. We have two options: (1) live on life's terms or (2) attempt to control life." - Page 28
"The dragon of addiction incubates in our attempts to manufacture internal experiences that are free of pain, anxiety, and shame. Emotionally and spiritually, addiction is an impaired attempt to find a full life without having to pay the price of feeling all that life requires us to feel." - Page 37
Those were my first thoughts upon turning the last page of this book; only after, did I realize how truly the title spoke.
For anyone who has experienced hopelessness in the face of their own weaknesses, self-loathing at their list of failures, inability to simply quit a destructive behavior, breakdown of every relationship they hold dear, or spirals of depression in the absence of "forward progress;" may I, with love in my heart and a hug given to you from across the world, offer a tender smile and a whisper that there is hope?
Dodd and James aren't marketing a product, glamorizing a trending "healthy lifestyle," or flinging a list of behavioral modifications to the world with a careless "good luck" tossed over their shoulder on the way out. These authors are compassionately offering an opportunity to really look at what addiction IS, how widespread it reaches, the danger of leaving the sleeping dragon untouched, and the fullness of life in relationship with God, self, and others that is possible if we refuse to continue to let it slumber in the dark.
For those who are experiencing what feels to be an isolated world of hopelessness, shame, and secrecy in what they know to be full-fledged addiction - you are not alone.
For those who don't have any inkling of what is wrong, but just sense that SOMETHING is off - this read may be more eye-opening than you expect.
For those who see their family or relationships falling apart from the lies, the tension, and the distress caused by addiction in a loved one's life - understanding, perhaps just a bit more, their struggle and how intricately you have been tied, is relieving.
This book is an aide for any and all of us, from those entrenched in their own addiction to the one watching his co-worker drown in it.
Weaving together psychological research with the breathtaking truth of Jesus Christ's love, pursuit, and grace, these pages contain hope for the weary and encouragement to feel deeply the pain and gladness of this tragic life. No more running, hiding, and numbing all those sorrows. No more pretending you have it altogether when you know you don't. Enough of the striving for independence and invincibility. There is peace in the admittance of our own brokenness, and such wonder in the reality of our reliance on Christ! There is hope to live life in 3D once more, and break free from the chains of addiction.
A few quotes:
""We are created to live full-heartedly, and that means life is going to hurt terribly. We live pushed and pulled between the truths that life is tragically difficult and life is incredibly glorious. We survive and thrive east of Eden and West of glory, between a place where we were created and a place where we will find our complete fullness and freedom. We have two options: (1) live on life's terms or (2) attempt to control life." - Page 28
"The dragon of addiction incubates in our attempts to manufacture internal experiences that are free of pain, anxiety, and shame. Emotionally and spiritually, addiction is an impaired attempt to find a full life without having to pay the price of feeling all that life requires us to feel." - Page 37
October 19, 2025
“Genuine recovery of the heart requires facing our condition: we are made to desire more than life can deliver. Our dreams will always exceed our efforts to fulfill them. Therefore, struggling well to receive the benefits of the blessing of being human begins with facing the fact that from the beginning of our lives until the end of our lives, we are works in progress.”
Such a good book about how humans try to dissociate
And deny the fact we are human beings made by God to experience dreams, hope, needs, desires and try to accomplish them on our own terms vs acceptance that in life you can know two things for sure: Gods goodness and life is tragic. But God doesn’t just leave us but embrace us and gives us tools to live life on life’s terms
Such a good book about how humans try to dissociate
And deny the fact we are human beings made by God to experience dreams, hope, needs, desires and try to accomplish them on our own terms vs acceptance that in life you can know two things for sure: Gods goodness and life is tragic. But God doesn’t just leave us but embrace us and gives us tools to live life on life’s terms
August 20, 2025
4.5⭐️ The content of this book is helpful to address how addiction subtly takes over a life and what happens to the family. The authors have chapters on different aspects of addiction followed by personal stories to give real examples of what living with addiction looks like. Because denial in these spaces is so prevalent, the info and personal stories may help people connect that their stories are also impacted.
January 30, 2021
Wonderful book on not just addiction, but living a life of recovery with Christ.
“In his response, Jesus showed them that the one who is dependent, the one who is most vulnerable, the one who is the most truthful about their human condition will grow into someone who lives fully, loves deeply and leads well.”
“In his response, Jesus showed them that the one who is dependent, the one who is most vulnerable, the one who is the most truthful about their human condition will grow into someone who lives fully, loves deeply and leads well.”
Read
March 25, 2021A really helpful guide and helped me empathize with those I know who addiction is part of their story. Recovering addicts are honest with their brokenness and I appreciate that level of transparency.
January 14, 2023
Good information relevant to any kind of addiction.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews