Withdrawal symptoms are the pains experienced on deprivation of the chosen object. Self-deception indicates the addict's inability to recognize addiction. Loss of willpower describes the difficulty of escaping from the addiction, and distortion of attention means there is no room left for attachment to God when one is attached to something in the creation. May holds that these characteristics, glaringly obvious in alcoholism, are actually present in all addictions and that we are all addicted in one way or another. Born with a deep longing for God, we have displaced that longing by attachment to something in the creation.
Addiction is thus equivalent to idolatry and the two terms describe the nature of human sin.
Only God can truly satisfy our longings and make us secure. But in our addiction we are convinced that we are free and independent. Yet we are utterly unable, on our own, to escape the grip of our idolatries. This situation has altered our consciousness and produced the difficulty we have in escaping from our addictions and coming so to a right relationship to ourselves on the being side of Christian mind. That escape is only possible through the grace and in the love of God.