"Antecedent" - synonyms are precursor, forerunner, predecessor, and forebear. So to understand what "antecedent" means is to accept the fact that something has to exist before something else can happen!
Alcohol/Drugs/Pornography/Gambling "use" is the antecedent of addiction.
"Addiction" is the antecedent of crime.
One consistent variable within the onset of criminality is the existing antecedent of alcohol/drug/pornography/gambling use, abuse, and addiction. Society at large can only build so many prisons and jails to house a symptom of the real problem. Crime is a symptom. Alcohol/drug/pornography/gambling "use" is the antecedent of addiction and "addiction" is the atecedent of crime.
It is important to make a clear distinction between use (to make available) and abuse (misuse). The term addict should only be used if the individual is abusing and dependent on alcohol or drugs or pornography or gambling. Scientifically it should be noted that it is impossible to become an addict unless one is first a user. Therefore, use is the first step toward addiction. Addiction is a separate and even more self-defeating force that abuses a person's freedom and makes them do things they really do not want to do.
Addictions are never single problems. Each of our major addictions consists of multiple others that have been affected by it. Breaking an addiction requires changes in many areas of our lives. The struggle of trying to stop smoking will be greater, for example, after eating, or at other times that have become associated with cigarettes. An alcoholic is likely to slip if he or she frequents their old drinking well. A narcotic addict will relapse if he or she continues to associate with the same old friends. A gambler will relapse if he or she insists on eating in a casino just because the food is good. An overeater will not get better obsessing over food commercials on the television.
Regardless of how an addiction begins, the longer it stays out of control the more powerful it becomes. Stress and chaos build another addiction around our major addictions to protect the death grip it has, like a spreading disease steadily invading (entering by force) an emcompassing one's surroundings, including our familes.
It is here that I want to give you an invitation to transformation.
