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Every human in
our world experiences moments of self-reflection, doubt and skepticism.
We search for answers that help us define God's role in our lives and
our relevance to the universe and beyond. These are not new questions.
The Urantia Book can be a valuable source of enlightenment and comfort
when a soul is faced with Life's Toughest Questions. Click on a question
you've struggled with and discover The Urantia Book's perspective on
some of life's most difficult and frequently-asked questions.
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Our degree of self-control is the measure of our soul. Is it cheating to use medications to increase ones control of emotions like anger, sexual lust, anxiety or any other emotional unbalance?
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It may be a measure of a person's soul that they think enough of
themselves and other people to want to do whatever they can to get help
if they feel out of control in the way of harmful emotional states.
These states can be due to so many things - environmental, inherited,
or simple imbalance, some of which can be addressed through
medications. Sometimes people are not thinking of anything but relief
from their symptoms...getting that relief may help them in their
spiritual life.
Whether or not such a person is "cheating" because they may be getting
help with harmful emotions seems a very subjective and personal matter
which is none of my business. If it helps people to navigate in this
world a little better for awhile, where's the harm? And why pass any
kind of judgment?
Is it cheating to take a tranquilizer to keep from getting an anxiety
attack? Drugs are drugs; some are intended to normalize abnormal
behavior. To not use them when they're available and intended to
correct a particular behavior pattern would be ignorant.
Jesus taught us that self-mastery is an ideal worth striving for. Those
of us who are lucky enough to have this revelation know that true
self-mastery is a spiritual achievement which can be had through
perseverance, determination, faith, trust, and prayer. But even so,
just because a person takes medication to help them through a rough
time in their life does not mean that they are failing at self-mastery.
Seeking help may, in itself, be evidence of self-mastery. And spiritual
work can surely be done even with medication.
How you get to self-mastery not be not the important thing - THAT you
get there seems more important.
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