This Week’s Recovery Application Challenge
Stages of Change in Recovery
In the addiction field, we attempt to help clients to examine where they are at in their “stage” of change, or recovery. The “Stages of Change” are as follows:
- Pre-contemplation—you begin to recognize the more obvious consequences in life due to your problem (addictive behavior). The problem is that you fail to connect the consequences with the behavior.
- Contemplation—as you experience the consequences of your problem (addictive thinking and behavior) you have considered the connection, and have likely concluded that you need help.
- Preparation/Determination—you have decided that you need to do whatever it might take to recover from your problem. The question is, “What will it take?”
- ACTION—you are actively participating in doing whatever it takes (!) to change in order to solve your problem (recovery from addictive thinking and behavior).
Please read Psalm 38 and Psalm 51. Also read the FFMP articles,
King David had problems with addictive thinking and behavior. It is clear to me that, upon reading David’s life story in I and II Samuel that he had sexual addictions and deliberately used his power as king to have his way with a whole bunch of women (wives and concubines). David, in my opinion, was in the Contemplation Stage in Psalm 38, and in the Preparation/Determination Stage of Change in Psalm 51. What is unfortunate about it is that David likely wrote Psalm 38 later on after writing Psalm 51, which was his initial prayer of repentance after his sin with Bathsheba. David struggled mightily with the battle of recovery and relapse. His confession and repentance was sincere before God every single time, which likely led to his deep sense of sorrow and discouragement feeling like he had failed God again and again. Imagine his overwhelming sense of shame.
These questions are intended to challenge you to move from one stage of change/recovery to the next:
1. Even though you’re probably not a king over anything, how might you feel like you’re in control, or need to be in control?
2. How do your “control issues” affect you?
3. How have you failed to meet expectations set for you, whether by you for yourself or set by others for you?
4. What do you do to manage feelings of failure and disappointment?
5. Describe your feelings when you experience disappointment due to your inability to control stuff?
6. How might you identify with David in Psalm 38? Is this your impression of God?
7. How might you identify with David in Psalm 51? Is this your impression of God?
8. In terms of your personal recovery, what stage of change do you feel you are at now?
9. What needs to happen in your heart and mind to get to the next stage of change?
10. What needs to happen in your activity to move to the next stage of change?
11. When your recovery is healthy and consistent, what does your life look like?
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