Uncovering the 3Cs of addiction in the Church: Christian Mental Health Conference

It is not just vices such as drugs, alcohol, smoking, gambling or pornography. You can be addicted to just about anything.

Playing video games, scrolling through social media and even watching K-dramas can all become addictions.

“Caffeine,” declared Rev Sam Kuna, President of the Association for Christian Counselling (Singapore), and Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Counseling with TCA College, Singapore. 

“I was a self-confessed caffeine addict.”

Rev Sam Kuna shared about a health scare that made him realise his addiction to Coca-Cola.

In his younger days, Rev Kuna would down up to nine bottles of Coca-Cola a day.

“I didn’t drink water.”

He was also working extremely hard in church as a youth leader.

“I was living off adrenaline, sugar and caffeine.”

Then he collapsed and had to be warded for five days for exhaustion. There, he was told he was “going to die young” because of his addiction to Coke.

“I stopped drinking Coca-Cola since 1974.”

Rev Kuna was moderating a panel discussion “Breaking Chains: The Church and Personal Addictions” that was part of the Christian Mental Health Conference 2025.

On the panel were Dr Munidasa Winslow, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and CEO of Promises Healthcare; Dr Ng Liang Wei, Executive Director of Indigo & Co; and Dr Jiow Hee Jhee, Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Singapore Institute of Technology.

(Left to right) Rev Sam Kuna, Dr Jiow Hee Jhee, Dr Ng Liang Wei and Dr Munidasa Winslow.

This report covers the first part of the panel discussion which dealt with our understanding of addiction.

How do you know it is an addiction?

Addiction is characterised by three Cs: Chronic, Compulsion and Consequences.

Said Dr Winslow: “For any addiction to happen, it needs to be chronic. Chronic means that it happens more than once, sometimes multiple times over time. It needs to keep coming back.

Dr Munidasa Winslow talking about the 3Cs of addiction.

“There must be compulsion that causes you to want to do that process because it gives you a reward that you want – it relives emotional stress or gives you a sense of achievement or a buzz.

“And the third is that you do it despite the consequences. Despite the fact that it is causing emotional or mental or spiritual destruction to your life, you continue with it. Sometimes you don’t even know why you’re doing it.

“These are the three Cs of real addiction, as contrasted with something that is just a habit. Habits are a lot easier to break,” said the psychiatrist.

Dr Jiow, who has dealt extensively with gaming addiction, added: “The research largely looks at correlational data. ‘Correlational’ means that you find this person playing and then you realise that it has other effects.

Dr Jiow Hee Jhee shared insights into addiction from his experience working with those addicted to gaming.

“One of the issues is time displacement effect. You spend more time in video games, obviously, you neglect other things.

“So we look at the damage to occupational functioning. For example, as a result of the behaviour in the past six months, has it changed your occupation? Has it resulted in you meeting your friends less, or not being able to study or work?”

Why addictions happen

Rev Kuna noted that there are “many contributing factors” when it comes to addiction.

Using the visual of an Addiction Tree, he said that below the soil or below the surface are the “many hidden faults”. These include, amongst many things, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, abandonment, neglect, persecution and perfectionism.

The Addiction Tree used to give participants a deeper understanding of addicts so as to shift them away from being judgmental towards addicts. Photo courtesy of Dr Munidasa Winslow.

These bring up shame and denial, victimisation, low self-worth, a sense of meaninglessness and hopelessness as the person goes into life. Addictions become a way to self-medicate to soothe the pains.

Added Dr Winslow: “Nobody goes into an addiction deciding: ‘My aim in life is to become an addict.’

“They all start with the behaviour or the substance that gives them the reward and it is the reward that they crave.”

The rewarding effects of anything involves activity – including activation of the brain’s dopamine and opioid signalling system – in the part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. As more and more rewards are sought, more and more activity takes places in the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is, in essence, the “addiction centre” of the brain.

Why some get addicted  

But why do some people become addicted while others do not? When helping people in addiction, Dr Ng often asks a few basic questions. These reveal the heart of why addiction takes root.

Dr Ng Liang Wei, who helps those struggling with sexuality issues, talked about the importance of drilling down to the “why” of a person’s addiction.

The first question deals with the “why”.

“Why do you want to get out of porn addiction? The answer may not be as obvious. Sometimes you want to get out of porn addiction because morally as a Pastor or as a Christian we may think it’s bad.

“But sometimes you want to get out of porn addiction or some addiction so that we can feel better about ourselves.

“So it’s important before we embark on a journey to get rid of something in our lives to ask ourselves, ‘Why do I really want to get rid of it?’”

Next comes the “what”.

“I ask, ‘Tell me a little bit about the porn that you watch.’ When you listen carefully to the stories, you realise that some are very lonely and so they are drawn to porn that is more intimacy-related.

“Ask, ‘What is it about this porn that helps you?’ because if it’s not helpful you wouldn’t watch it so much, right?”

In some, addiction deepens in tandem with work stress as a way of managing the stress. Knowing this “why” gives insight into both the person and the strategies for overcoming addiction.

The changing nature of shame

In the area of addiction to pornography, the changing way it is created and consumed has made dealing with addiction to it more complex, said Dr Ng.

In the past, pornography was usually shrouded in shame and, because it was also less accessible, very much hidden from the mainstream. Today, with the Internet, creating and distributing pornography has become easier.

“We’re beginning to see people who actually feel validated because they created content that other people like. Then there is also monetisation from the content.

“The person becomes stuck even more because it’s not just a hidden cycle of guilt and shame, but it is overlaid with the joys and happiness of being able to produce content. So they become quite addicted to it.”

The second thing that adds to the complexity of dealing with addiction is a “healthier relationship with shame”.

“We can be very high on shame or we sometimes go to the other side depending on whether you are more shame-informed or trauma-informed,” said Dr Ng.

“But shame is an imperfect indicator of whether something is right or wrong because some of us don’t feel shame when actually there’s something seriously wrong.”

Dr Ng shared from his personal experience to underscore this.

“I consider myself quite a greedy person. Money is quite important to me. It really took the Holy Spirit a lot of work to convict me that greed is wrong.

“For many, many years, if you ask me whether I’m ashamed, I was never really ashamed of greed. So just because there is no shame involved doesn’t mean that we are faultless before God.”

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this report.

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