Why “Just One More” Feels Like Relief But Turns Into Chains

Ever told yourself “just one more” and felt the instant relief… followed by the same old shame? We dig into why escape becomes addiction and how quiet, “respectable” habits—phone, food, porn, shopping, hustle—can run your life while looking normal from the outside. Without fluff or clichés, we map the loop that keeps you stuck and offer real steps to break it, rooted in grace, honesty, and smart design.

We start by separating struggle from addiction and then use a simple, practical definition that makes sense in real life. Drawing on Scripture’s language of broken cisterns, entangling sin, and misplaced obedience, we pair spiritual clarity with psychology: dopamine, triggers, and neuroplasticity. You’ll hear a clear breakdown of the pain–escape–relief–shame–isolation cycle, why it works in the moment, and how it steals your presence with God, your relationships, your creativity, and your calling.

From there, we get tactical. You’ll learn how to be radically honest with God, break secrecy with one safe person or counselor, and design a break-the-loop plan that actually changes your autopilot. We walk through identifying triggers, choosing interrupt points, and replacing numbing with grounding practices you can do anywhere. We also show how environment redesign—filters, budgets, room layout, app limits—reduces friction for better choices. For deeper wounds like trauma or anxiety, we talk about therapy, support groups, and recovery pathways without shame. Freedom often unfolds as a process, so we give you a seven-day “trigger and loop map” to spot patterns and rebuild by design.

If you’ve felt stuck, this conversation offers language, tools, and hope. Share it with someone who needs a way back to themselves. And if it helped, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: which step will you take this week to move from numbing to healing?

Truth Be Told Project Podcast introduction

Transcript

The “Just One More” Trap

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You ever had that moment where you tell yourself, just one more, just one more episode, just one more drink, just one more scroll, just one more puff, just one more look, just one more purchase. And in that moment, it doesn't feel evil, it doesn't feel rebellious, it doesn't feel like you're spitting in God's face. It feels like relief. You're tired, you're stressed, you're lonely, you're hurt, you're disappointed in yourself, you're disappointed in life. And this thing, whatever it is for you, is right there. Available, easy, predictable. You know what it'll do. It'll quiet your thoughts for a second, it'll give you a little buzz of pleasure, it'll help you forget how heavy the day felt, even if that day was in the past, at least for a moment. And somewhere deep down, there's this whisper I don't want to keep doing this. I hate that I depend on this, but right now I just need it. For some of us, our hearts wander, they drift toward people, emotional affairs, flirtations, entanglements. But for a lot of us, our wandering hearts drift toward patterns. We don't necessarily cheat with a person, we cheat with a habit, we cheat with a substance, we cheat with a screen, we cheat with a website, we cheat with food, we cheat with our bank account. RScape doesn't always have a face and a name. Sometimes it has an icon on your phone. Sometimes it lives in our pantry, sometimes it's sitting in a bottle or hidden in a folder. Sometimes it's in a little bag. And the wild part is this most of our addictions begin as help. They start as relief, and over time they become chains. Today we're continuing the drift series, and we're talking about what I'm calling the numbing drift when escape becomes addiction. Because not every drifting heart ends up in an affair, some hearts drift into addictions that feel invisible, respectable, or not that serious until they're running your life. And here's what's in it for you today. You're gonna get language for why you keep going back to something you really hate. You're gonna see how spiritual and emotional drift set you up to reach for numbing behaviors. And you're gonna walk away with a starting framework, not a magic fix, but a real path for breaking out of cycles and beginning to live by design again and not by default? I'm not here to condemn you. I'm here to sit with you in the mess and tell the truth about the struggle and about God's ability to heal. So let's start with a simple, honest question. What if that thing you keep running to isn't just a bad habit, but a symptom of a deeper drift? Let's talk about it. That's what comes up today on the Truth Be Told Project Podcast. Let's start simple. We throw the word addiction around a lot. I'm addicted to coffee, I'm addicted to this show, I'm addicted to my phone. Sometimes we say it as a joke, sometimes we say it half serious. Sometimes we avoid the word at all costs because it feels too heavy. But let's give it a working definition that fits this drift series. From a spiritual and practical angle, here's how I describe it. Addiction is when something you turn to for comfort starts to control your choices, even when you know it's hurting you. Let me say that again. You turn to it for comfort, you start to depend on it. You feel like you can't stop, even though you can see the damage. That's bigger than a one-time slip. That's bigger than I made a mistake. That's a pattern. Now, we do need to make a distinction here. A struggle is when you battle something, you fight it, and sometimes you fall, but there's clear resistance in you. Addiction is when that thing starts to dictate your schedule, your emotions, your energy, and especially your secrecy. It's not just something that happens in your life, it starts to shape how you live. The Bible doesn't always use the word addiction, but it absolutely describes the dynamics. In Jeremiah 2.13, God says, My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. That's addiction, leaving the real source of life and digging broken wells that leak, hoping they'll hold enough water to get you through the day. Hebrew 12 and 1 talks about the sin that so easily entangles. That's addiction. The thing that wraps around your ankles makes you trip in the same places over and over again. Romans 6 talks about slavery and freedom. You are slaves of the one you obey. That's addiction. The thing you keep obeying, even when your mouth says, I love God, and your body is already opening the same app, going to the same site, picking up the same bottle, picking up the same bag, rolling up the same blunt, and maybe even doing some other kind of substance. So in the context of drift, spiritual drift feels distant, not personal. Emotional drift, you feel lonely, numb, resentful, unseen? Addiction is you find something that gives you fast relief and you quietly make it your coping system. Addictions are often just drift with a coping strategy attached to it. So, how does drift become addiction? Like everything else in this series, it's not a jump, it's a path. Let's walk through what I'll call the loop. And the loop is pain, pressure, emptiness. It starts with a feeling stress from work, conflict with your spouse or another loved one or friend, loneliness, rejection, feeling like a failure, old wounds getting poked by new situations. You feel tension building up inside, your mind starts racing, your chest gets tight, you're restless, you feel heavy. Your soul is basically saying, I don't want to feel like this. And then there's the escape attempt. Next, you reach for something that helps you escape or numb out. It could be porn, masturbation, alcohol, weed, pills, binge watching, gaming, endless scrolling, online shopping, uh, what is often referred to as retail therapy, overeating, late-night snacking, that's been my issue. Overworking, grinding and grinding and grinding, that's been my issue. Alcohol has been my issue. Even over serving in ministry, so you don't have to sit with your own pain. That's also been my issue. Whatever it is, it's your go-to. You might not even think about it consciously. It's almost automatic. You feel something, you run to the thing. Then there's temporary relief. And here's the part we have to be honest about. It works for a moment. You your brain releases dopamine, your body relaxes, your thoughts slow down, you feel pleasure, you feel numbed. You finally get a break from feeling like trash or from feeling overwhelmed. This is why you keep going back. If it didn't work at all, you wouldn't even bother. The next part of that loop is regret and shame. When the high goes away, when the numbing goes away, when that moment passes, the show ends, the bottle was empty, the website is closed, the package arrives, and the thrill wears off, the plate is clean, but your stomach hurts. What replaces it? Guilt, shame, self-disgust. I said I wouldn't do this again. God must be so done with me. You feel dirty, you feel distant from God, you feel disappointed in yourself. And then there's isolation. Now, shame starts doing what shame does best. It pushes you into hiding. You pull back from honest prayer, from deep conversation, from community, where people might ask, How are you really doing? You may still show up physically, church, small group, group serving, but you're not really showing up. You're you're performing, you're managing appearances, you're hoping nobody sees through you. Next part of that cycle is repeat. And because now you feel even worse than before, the next time stress or loneliness hits, you remember the one thing that gave you quick relief. So you go back, and the loop continues pain, escape, relief, shame, isolation, more pain, escape again. Drift plus unprocessed pain plus an easy escape equals addiction. And it's not always the big dramatic addictions we talk about in church. Sometimes it's the quiet ones we actually compliment. I want to name some of the ways this shows up so you can see yourself honestly, not just those people. First, we have the obvious addictions, these are the ones we usually think of pornography and masturbation. That's secret sexual escape that helps you unwind, but leaves you feeling shameful and disconnected. And then there's alcohol and drugs. Always something in your system needing a buzz to relax or function. Gambling, the thrill of risk, losing money you didn't plan to lose, still going back. Then you have sex and hookups, using sexual encounters as escape, validation, or numbing. These get talked about ad nauseum, more so because the consequences can be very, very dramatic. But there are others. I'll call these the respectable or hidden addictions. These are the ones we often don't call addiction because they feel normal, culturally acceptable, or even praise. Phone and social media addiction. You cannot be alone with your thoughts. Every quiet moment is filled with a scroll, a TikTok, a reel, a notification check. Your phone has become your emotional pacifier. Then we have overeating and emotional eating. Food is not just fuel, it becomes comfort, reward, distraction, medicating, sadness. You're not hungry, but you eat to change how you feel. And this is a big one for me: overspending or a shopping addiction, buying things you don't need with money you don't have to feel how you want to feel for a moment. Packages arriving becomes tiny hits of dopamine and identity. Then another issue I've had, I know I'm not the only one, but workaholism or ministry addiction. You're addicted to productivity, to being needed, to being applauded. You can't stop working or serving because slowing down would force you to face your own heart. Another issue I had is the addiction to people pleasing and approval addiction. You will do anything to avoid disapproval. You say yes when you want to say no. You're addicted to being liked, needed, praised. Some of us are stone cold, sober in our bodies, but spiritually, emotionally, we are intoxicated with validation, success, hustle, control, or fantasy. And I'm not saying this as an outsider looking in. There are areas of my own life where I'd have to admit this isn't just a quirky habit. This is how I'm coping with deeper wounds. This is how I'm trying to manage feelings, feelings I never learned to handle in a healthy way. That's the painful truth, but it's also the doorway to freedom. Addiction is not just about behavior, it's about what's beneath the behavior. If we don't talk about the roots, we'll keep snipping leaves and wondering why it keeps growing back. So let me walk through a few big roots. The first is unprocessed emotions. Some of us were never taught what to do with our feelings. We were told get over it, stop crying, toughen up, chest up, chin out, don't be so sensitive. So we learn to shut down, swallow, or spiritualize our feelings instead of processing them. We didn't learn how to name our emotions, sit with them, bring them honestly to God, or share them vulnerably with safe people. So now as adults, every time those emotions rise up, anger, grief, fear, sadness, we feel overwhelmed by them. And because we don't know how to feel them, we try to numb them. What you refuse to feel, you will eventually try to numb. Addiction is often the way we silence the feelings we're afraid will swallow us. Second, is we have identity wounds and self-worth issues. Another route is the belief I'm not enough. No matter what I do, I will never measure up. I'm broken beyond repair. That might come from harsh parents, constant criticism, bullying, rejection, abandonment, or even church environments that only ever called out sin, but never spoke identity. If deep down you believe I'm unlovable, I'm defective, I'm trash, then addiction becomes this twisted combination of self-soothing and self-punishment. You run to it to feel better for a second, and then you use it to beat yourself up afterward. See, this is who you are. You're a failure. It becomes a cycle of confirming your worst fears about yourself. Then there's shame and self-hate. Shame isn't just I did something bad. Shame says I am bad. Once shame seeks in, it fuels addiction like crazy. Because if I believe this is just who I am, I'm the guy who always messes this up, I'm the girl who can't get it together, then in a twisted way, giving in again feels consistent. It's like your brain says, Why fight it? This is just you. You're already messed up. Might as well do it again. And that lie keeps you stuck. Then there's loneliness and disconnection. We were created for connection with God and with people. I know that's totally against what the culture teaches. You know, we got to be all about self. We gotta be Lone Rangers, but God didn't design us to be that way. If you don't have a place where you can be fully known and fully love, no mask, no performance, addiction becomes the fake friend that never talks back. It doesn't judge, it doesn't argue, it doesn't require vulnerability, it just takes. You always pay for it later, but in the moment, it feels like the only constant in your life. Another thing, we often disregard this part, but the spiritual warfare. We can't leave this out. There is a real enemy who studies your wounds, your patterns, and your story, and looks for ways to keep you enslaved. He knows which lies work on you. Things like you'll never be free. God is tired of forgiving you. You done did it how many times? Everybody else gets it together except you. This is who you are now. Just accept it. You might as well go all the way. Halfway is pointless. And the enemy, he's ruthless. He will absolutely use addiction to keep you from your calling, your purpose, your joy, your relationships, and your intimacy with God. But the good news, he's not more powerful than God's grace. But we do have to see what he's doing and stop agreeing with his lies. Now, I'm not going to camp here too long, but we have to talk about the costs because addiction will always tell you it's manageable. You can stop whenever you want. Nobody has to know. It's not that serious. Let's gently push back on that. Addiction has a cost to your relationship with God. When you're stuck in an addictive loop, you start avoiding honest prayer. You feel fake when you sing worship songs. You feel unworthy when you read scripture. You hear sermons and think that's for people who aren't as messed up as me. So what happens? You you pull away, not because God left you, but because shame convinced you to hide. You end up living at a spiritual distance, physically present, emotionally checked out. Secondly, there's a cost to your relationships and marriage. Whether you're single or married, addiction impacts how you show up. You're more distracted, you're less present, you're quicker to be irritable or withdrawn. You can't fully engage emotionally because part of your energy is going to hiding, planning, or recovering. In marriage, addiction can become a third party in the relationship. Your spouse feels something is off, even if they don't know why. Trust erodes often before anything is even confessed. If in friendships and community, you struggle to let people get too close because you're afraid they'll see the real you. Third, there's a cost to your purpose and calling. Addiction is a thief. It steals time, hours lost to acting out or numbing. It costs energy, emotional hangovers from shame. It costs your focus, mental bandwidth spent on secrecy and self-hatred. And it steals your creativity. I know there's a myth going around, you know, when I'm high, I'm more creative, but addiction steals your creativity because you're living in survival mode instead of design mode. There are ideas you haven't executed, books you haven't written, skills you haven't developed, relationships you haven't invested in, because so much of your life is getting siphoned into a loop that gives you nothing lasting in return. Addiction robs you twice, once in the moment you escape, and again in the future, you never fully step into. All right, take a deep breath. If we ended here, this would just be an episode that exposes you and leaves you bleeding or leaves us exposed and bleeding. That's not the heart of God, and that's not the heart of the Truth Be Told Project. We're going to talk about the rollback. Not a quick fix, not a magic formula, but a real path toward freedom. First thing you need to do is be radically honest with God. Your first step is to stop performing in prayer. You don't need to talk to God in King James language. You don't need to sound like a worship song. You need to sound like you. You can pray something as simple as, God, I keep running to this thing. Part of me hates it, part of me likes it, part of me feels like I can't live without it. I feel ashamed. I feel stuck, but I don't want to keep living like this. Help me. That's a powerful prayer. First John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and will purify us from all unrighteousness. Confession isn't just I did something wrong. It's I'm agreeing with you, God, about what's real. I'm not hiding anymore. When you bring your addiction into God's light, he doesn't recoil, he doesn't flinch, he doesn't say, wow, that that's just too much. He says, Thank you for trusting me with your truth. Let's walk this out. Second thing is the breaking of secrecy. You want to tell one safe person, and this might be the hardest thing. You cannot heal in hiding. Addiction grows in secrecy. Freedom grows in confession and community with safe people. And I'm not saying tell the whole world, I'm saying tell one safe, wise, mature believer. That might be a pastor in some cases. A pastor may not have the expertise to help you navigate addiction. So I always recommend a Christian therapist or a Christian counselor, somebody who could help you get to the roots. If you have that access and the resources, I would strongly recommend a Christian counselor or a Christian therapist. Some pastors are qualified and have wisdom and have been in ministry and have experience in helping people navigate the complexities of addiction. So pray for discernment. Ask God for direction. You might want to talk to a mentor, a trusted friend of the same sex. Now, I talked about the talked about this in the last episode. You want to avoid being intimate with somebody who's of the opposite sex. You know, talking about personal problems and addictions and all that kind of stuff and getting to root causes of things with the opposite sex creates intimacy between the two of you, especially if you're attracted to them. But you have to listen to last episode for more details on that. Another thing you could do is bring it out to a support group and support group leader. Here's some language you can use if you don't know where to start. I've been stuck in a pattern with porn, overeating, drinking, overspending, etc., etc., for a while now. I tried to handle it on my own, but I can't. I don't want to live this way anymore. I'm not asking you to fix me, but I do need support, prayer, and accountability. That one conversation can feel like dying. It and one thing it does do it kills your pride, which is a good thing. But it's usually the moment you finally start to live. You're not meant to fight this alone. The next thing you want to do is design a break-the-loop plan. Now let's get really practical because spiritual freedom and practical strategy go together. Don't just pray for freedom and keep your life arranged for slavery. A lot of times we accidentally or intentionally make provisions for the flesh. The Bible says make no provisions for the flesh. So let's design a break the loop plan. First of all, you want to identify your triggers. For the next week or two, pay attention to when do you feel the strongest urge to act out? What time of day? Where are you usually? What emotions are you feeling? What just happened before the urge hit? You might notice patterns like late at night when you're bored, after conflict, when you're home alone, after scrolling certain types of content, payday, feeling rejected or criticized. Write them down. Secondly, you want to choose some interrupt points. Now that you see the triggers, ask where can I interrupt this cycle before it goes all the way? Here are some examples: phone, porn, social media. You could add filters, accountability software, no phones in bed, charging your phone outside your bedroom. If it's alcohol, don't keep it in the house. Avoid being alone in certain environments. Set boundaries with your friends and your hangout buddies. If it's spending, delete save cards online. Set a 24-hour rule before any nonessential purchase. Create a budget. This has helped me a lot. Food, don't keep binge foods in re easy reach. Create an alternative comfort plan. Now this helped me as well. Another thing you want to do is when you're scrolling, set time limits. Put up app blockers, designated off-screen hours. You're not being extra, you're being wise. If your right hand causes you to stumble, Jesus said, maybe he's inviting you to change how you use your hand. A third thing you need to do in your break the loop plan is you need to have a plan to replace the rhythms. If you just remove The behavior without replacing it, you're going to feel empty and miserable. Ask when I feel triggered, what can I do instead of whatever it is that still brings comfort or grounding, but in a healthy way? Here are some ideas. Go for a 10-minute walk and talk honestly with God. Journal what you're feeling for five minutes. Text your accountability partner. I'm tempted. You know, pray for me. Do 20 push-ups. Put on worship music and breathe deeply. Take a shower. Read one song out loud. Create something. Doodle something. Write something. Play something. Design something. You're training your brain to build new pathways. And I believe psychologists refer to this as neuroplasticity. It means your mind can be changed. You can change. You're training your brain to build new pathways. Over time, your autopilot can change. And another thing that is most important, I was telling somebody about this. This is something I never considered. And I was frustrated with myself when I will fall into certain loops in the same addiction loop. You want to redesign your environment. Make the healthy path easier and the destructive path harder. Move apps off your home screen. Use a separate device that your spouse or accountability partner can check. Rearrange your room so your TV isn't the center of your world. Don't bring certain things into your house at all. Liquor, drugs. If it's certain foods, don't bring certain foods into the house at all. Schedule healthy activities into your week so your time isn't wide open for temptation. The Bible says to make no provision for the flesh. And one of the ways we could stop making provision for the flesh is by redesigning our environment. Remember, freedom isn't just about willpower, it's about wisdom, design, and dependence on God. Some of our wounds run so deep that the only way to stop the loop, the addiction loop, is to seek professional help through counseling, therapy, and other recovery pathways. If addiction has deep roots in trauma, in abuse, or mental health struggles, you might need more than a podcast and a prayer. And guess what? That's okay. That doesn't make you less spiritual, it makes you honest. God can work through Christian therapists, support groups, recovery programs, books, and community. Sometimes you need someone trained to help you unpack attachment wounds, family systems, anxiety, depression, PTSD. You're not crazy. You're just patterned. And patterns can be rewritten with God's grace and real tools. The last thing in this section, freedom is often a process. It's not a single moment. Yes, God can deliver in one moment. He absolutely can. Please don't think that I'm that's not what I'm saying. Freedom is a process, not a single moment in a lot of cases. For many people, the journey looks like progress. It's going to look like setbacks. It's going to look like learning. It's going to look like deeper healing. It's going to look like more honesty. It's going to look like more growth. If you slip, that doesn't mean it's over. Instead of saying, see, see, I knew I was trash. Say, okay, what did I learn from this? Where was I triggered? Where did I bypass my escape plan? How can I adjust my design? God's not just counting your clean days, He's forming your character and healing your heart. All right, let's move into the Live by Design spotlight for this episode. I want to give you a simple but powerful tool. And I'll call this tool the trigger and loop map. Here's how it works. For one specific behavior you want to change, just one, we're concentrating on one. I don't want you to get overwhelmed. I want you to track it for the next seven days. Every time you feel a strong urge or you give in and act on the behavior, take a moment afterward and jot down five things. What was I feeling? Was I feeling lonely, bored, angry, rejected, stressed, ashamed, tired? Secondly, ask yourself, what was happening? What time of day was it? Where do you where were you? Who were you with or not with? What just happened? Third, ask yourself, what did I do? What exactly you ran to? Was it a site, an app, food, drink, a pill, a blunt, a store, etc., etc. Another thing you need to ask yourself, how did I feel right after? Did I feel a little relief? Did I feel a numbness? Did I feel some excitement? Did I feel distracted? Fifth, how did I feel later? Did I feel shame? Did I feel regret? Did I feel a sort of emptiness? Did I have a little anxiety? Was there a little disconnection from God and people? At the end of the week, look back over your notes. Apples, and there's a lot of phone apps where you could jot down notes pretty quickly. You don't have to try to wait till the end of the day to keep note of how you're feeling and these questions that I've asked. Ask yourself, what patterns do I see? Are there repeating emotions? Is it always around a certain time? Does it usually follow a certain type of conflict or stress? Here's why this matters you can't change a pattern you refuse to look at, but you can see your loop. You can start redesigning it. Take that trigger and loot map to God in prayer. If you have a counselor or accountability partner, share it with them. This isn't about beating yourself up. This is about saying, Lord, here is the map of my drift. Help me to build and loot map by design. Let's slow down and walk through some design check-in questions. You can journal, pray through, or talk about with someone you trust, a safe person that you trust. You don't have to answer all of them right now, but I'd encourage you to sit with at least a couple. First is escape pattern. What do I consistently run to when I feel overwhelmed, lonely, ashamed, or bored? After I run to this thing, do I feel closer to God or further away? More present with people or more disconnected? If my addiction to habit could talk, what is it promising me? Relief, comfort, pleasure, validation, forgetfulness? What might God be inviting me to face and feel with Him instead of numbing myself? Have I started to call this addiction who I am instead of something I'm battling? How does God describe me instead? If nothing changes and I stay in this pattern for another year, what will my life, my relationships, and my calling look like? What about five years? Who is one safe person I can invite into this with me this week? What's one honest sentence I can say to them? These questions aren't here to crush you. They're here to wake you up and invite you into something better. You are not meant to live numb. You are meant to live by design. Here are some words to live by in this episode. I want you to sit with these verses or sit with this verse that has carried a lot of people in temptation. And as 1 Corinthians 10 13, as no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can endure it. A few quick reflections. Common to mankind, you are you. This means that you are not the only one. The enemy loves to make you feel like you're uniquely broken. God says you are not alone. Others have walked this road. God is faithful. Your faithfulness may be shaky, but God's faithfulness is not. His ability to sustain you is greater than your ability to sabotage yourself. Another, some more key words I want you to pay attention to in that verse is a way out. There is always a door. It might be a prayer, it might be a phone call, it might be turning off the device, going outside, breathing, crying, reaching out. It might be confessing before you act, but you are never trapped in a room with only one option. When temptation hits, you can pray, Lord, show me the way out. You promise, help me choose it, even if I don't feel like it. Those are words to live by. As we wrap up this episode of the Drift series, if you're listening and you see yourself in these patterns, I want you to hear me clearly. This is not the moment where God disowns you. This is the moment where he names what's going on so he can heal what's going on. You're not your addiction, you're not your worst thing, you're not your most shame filled moment. You are a son, you are a daughter, you are someone Jesus thought was worth dying for. Addiction is part of your story right now, but it doesn't have to be the ending. In this series, we've talked about spiritual drift when your passion for God slowly dries up. We talked about emotional drift when love grows quiet and you feel unseen. We talked about wandering hearts, when that emptiness starts looking for a way out. And now the numbing drift, when escape becomes addiction. But for some of us, our escape doesn't just have a pattern, it has a person. If this episode hit home for you, share it with someone, use it as a starting point for an honest conversation. And if you're wrestling with both addiction and emotional entanglement, I really want you to lean in for the next part of the series because drift doesn't have to define your story, design can. Thank you for listening, for being honest, for letting God poke at some places that might be tender. If something in this episode spoke to you, write it down. Pray about it, talk about it to someone you trust and who is safe for you to talk to. Take one small step this week to move from numbing to healing. You can reach out to me by email at J Wilson. That's J A Y W I L S O N at Truthbetoldproject.com. That's J A Y W I L S O N at Truthbetold Project.com. All one word. We're in this together. You don't have to figure it out all in one day. You just have to take the next step. Until next time, remember don't just live by default. Live by design, God's design. Peace.