#384 - Your Recovery Labels Determine Your Cure! | Dr. Mark E. Shaw#384 - Your Recovery Labels Determine Your Cure! | Dr. Mark E. Shaw
The Addiction Connection Podcast
Dr. Mark E. Shaw argues that the labels used for addiction, such as calling it a disease, can divert people from what he calls the biblical solution in Christ. He contrasts terms like alcoholic with biblical words like drunkard and idolater, stressing that language shapes how people see responsibility, sin, and the possibility of change.
14:26•26 Oct 2026
Your Recovery Label and the Cure You’re Looking For
Episode Overview
- Labeling addiction as a disease such as alcoholism is described as a wrong diagnosis that points people away from Jesus as saviour.
- Using biblical terms like drunkenness and idolatry frames addiction as sin, which can be confessed and forgiven through Christ.
- Language is said to act like a signpost, directing people either toward or away from a biblical solution for their struggles.
- Biblical counselling is presented as addressing both inner heart beliefs and outward behaviour, rather than focusing on just one.
- Dr. Shaw argues that those who see themselves as having a disease need to reinterpret their struggle as sin before they will seek a redeemer.
“If you diagnose the problem incorrectly by using the language of alcoholism, then you’re going to incorrectly get a solution that’s going to point you away from Christ.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This episode takes that question and shakes it up with a bold twist: Dr. Mark E. Shaw argues that the labels you use for your struggles might actually block you from the very help you’re searching for. Speaking directly to people wrestling with addiction and those who care for them, Dr. Shaw challenges the common “disease” language around alcohol and substance use.
He argues that calling yourself an “alcoholic” with a disease shifts the focus away from personal responsibility and away from what he sees as the only true solution: “Any of those worldly labels point you away from the solution who is the rescuer, the saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Instead, he leans hard into biblical terms like “drunkard” and “idolater,” pointing to Ephesians 5:18 and other passages to frame addiction as a sin issue rather than a medical condition.
That shift, he says, changes everything: sin can be confessed, forgiven, and transformed by the “redeeming grace of Jesus,” while a disease simply gets managed. You’ll hear him stress how much language matters – he compares words to road signs, either pointing you toward Christ or sending you down a dead-end. He also talks about biblical counselling as both heart-level change and practical behaviour change, not just one or the other.
The tone is direct, sometimes provocative, and aimed at Christians who are uneasy with blending 12-step concepts with biblical teaching. Dr. Shaw even jokes about not really wanting to go to Disney World, using it as a picture of how direction and signposts matter – spiritually as much as on the motorway.
If you’re wrestling with what to call your addiction, or how faith and recovery fit together, this episode pushes you to ask a hard but important question: what is your label really leading you towards?
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