A Message of Hope – and a Plan of Action
July 12, 2009
Addiction forges its own chains of pain and problems that grow with each day and seem impossible to overcome. If you, or someone you know, are a captive of addictive behavior, the Word of God and New Heart Place have both a message of hope and a plan of action. Anyone can be set free from addictive behavior, can experience victory in Jesus, and become an overcomer in life! The key is to identify the root cause of your problem and instead of running away from it, run to God! Do this, and your mind and spirit will be renewed; and no matter what you struggle with, you will find freedom in Christ!
Testimony of God’s Overcoming Addiction Power
July 6, 2009
Hello my name is Richard, and this is my testimony of God’s overcoming addiction power:
My mother loved myself and my siblings, and as a single parent did the best she could to provide for all of our needs. Sometimes providing for us included moving; different neighborhoods, different towns, and even different states. I had changed schools at least eight times before I was thirteen. I always felt like an outsider and that I did not fit in. Having quality friendships was difficult. I had finished elementary school with exceptional grades. That changed as I entered middle school. I made friends with the wrong people, I skipped school, and ultimately began smoking marijuana and drinking. My mother moved me to my Grandparents home and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior for the first time. My life changed.
I missed my family and returned to Portland. I believed things would be different, but they were not. By the time I was sixteen I had experimented with hard drugs and dropped out of school. I began working full time, which afforded me to continue in the same lifestyle and at that age it was very appealing, my life was out of control. At nineteen I went through my first treatment program, passed the ASVAB test, and went into the Army. I was finally on the right track. I left all of my former life behind thinking a change of environment would solve the problem. However, I began to drink, and eventually was using cocaine again. I returned home to Oregon. In Portland the same people were still doing the same activities, nothing I wanted to be a part of, I requested a transfer to Washington to be near my family. I knew that if I just had the support of my family and church everything would turn out all right.
The problem was not the environment, or the circumstances, or the friends, it was me. Read more
The Addiction is the Symptom
July 1, 2009
Addiction simply isn’t the point. Most people have the “horsepower” to get “clean and sober.” Many have the ability to stay clean and sober for awhile. But then, it happens: life serves up that trigger; that one thing that gives me my reason – my entitlement – to return to my “drug of choice.” Or, worse yet, I have convinced myself over time that “I can handle it, now. I’m OK. All I need is a good job and a nice place to live and the rest of my life will be fine.”
But it never is fine. It never will be fine, because you are not fine at the “core level” of your life: where who you really are lives.
What do you mean by “core level?”
Heart…soul: It’s the space inside you that defines the your person-hood. It’s the place you love and hate, experience joy and disappointment. It’s the place we invite the Living God to live by His Spirit. To love at this level of our lives is to fulfill the two greatest commandments:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. this is the first and greatest commandment. And, the second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22).
For many our “core level” – our heart – is cluttered with shame and guilt, unforgiveness and bitterness. So significant are these “core issues” that they often determine what we believe about God, our self and others. We often have sabotaged our best relationships and convinced ourselves thar we are inadequate, deficient and unlovable…all because of our “core.”
Obviously, our “core” cannot be “fixed,” it must be healed. There are simply not enough “Steps” to work that will resolve our core. Only God can heal the core. He created it…he can heal it.
Why People Don’t Recover
June 29, 2009
Why People Don’t Recover
The reasons why people do not seek help for their problems are as many and varied as the people themselves. But here are some of the common obstacles to pursuing and maintaining recovery:
1. Problem behavior attracts longed-for attention.
2. The pain isn’t great enough—yet.
3. Fear of launching into the unknown.
4. Someone is enabling the addiction (message to the enabler: stop it!)
5. Fear of exposure. Guilt is private but shame is public. The only answer is openness and making amends for the past. This resolves the guilt and robs shame of its power.
6. Pride.
7. “Praying for a miracle” when God wants you to take some action.
8. Seeking a quick fix.
9. Despair.
10. Physiological or biochemical dependency.
11. Fear of failure.
12. Fear of rejection.
13. Fear of change.
14. Running from reality.
15. False sense of happiness. During an episode of addictive behavior, everything feels great.
16. False sense of power.
17. Fear of insanity if separated from your fix.
Addiction and the Road to Recovery
June 29, 2009
Road to Recovery
Road to Recovery
Addiction and the Road to Recovery
Steve Arterburn
New Life Ministries
Acceptance is the first principle of recovery. Recovery begins when an individual moves from denial to acceptance. It does not happen all at once, and it isn’t something that another person can do for the individual suffering from an addiction. Still, each time you confront a person with reality you help bring him closer to accepting his situation and seeing the need to change.
Most people have lived in denial for years before they come for help. Often they have been surrounded by “co-conspirators” who have enabled their dysfunctional behavior to continue and who have reinforced their denial system. Together they have constructed a delusional world where the full extent of the problem is never acknowledged, let alone dealt with. The first job of treatment, then—and the first step toward recovery—is to bring someone to the point of acceptance.
Sometimes people ask if a person can be helped who does not want help. Usually what they are really asking is whether they should wait until the person asks for help, or whether there is something they can do to help the process along.
Recovery program teaches grads to beat addiction
June 27, 2009
Clothed in dress pants, sundresses and fancy shirts, 106 people walked down the center aisle of the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries auditorium Friday to celebrate a new beginning.
Many said they were moving forward from battling drug addiction, homelessness and emotional issues.
They were among a class of 389 graduates to complete a recovery program at the faith-based organization that offers shelter, skills training and substance abuse treatment for homeless people and those recovering from drug addiction.
To graduate, participants had to be drug- and alcohol-free for at least 90 days.
“It has changed me immensely,” said graduate Mark Williams. “It’s changed my attitude, my awareness, my acceptance that I’m a recovering addict.”
Williams, 51, of Highland Park said the program allowed him to take computer hardware and software classes at Wayne County Community College after receiving treatment for his drug addiction.
The DRMM has spent about $16 million annually since the program started in 2007 to provide relief and educational opportunities for participants, said Chad Audi, the nonprofit organization’s president.
“Anybody who is in need, we are willing to help them,” Audi said. “We give them the tools to become productive citizens.”
Helen Brewer, 51, of Detroit said the program not only helped her fight a drug and alcohol addiction, but she learned customer service and culinary skills. Since joining the program last year, Brewer was hired as a cashier and preparation cook for a Popeyes restaurant.
“I learned my spirituality … and how to deal with the public,” Brewer said. “It brought me closer to my family.”
Contact NICQUEL TERRY: 313-222-8774 or nterry@freepress.com.
Bury the Dead!
June 27, 2009
Are you finished with living your life through addiction selfishly, satisfying every appetite, every desire…no matter who it hurts or what it costs? Are you done with living your life in conflict with God’s heart and purposes for you?
Good!
If that “old man” addiction is truly dead, than it must be buried: put away forever.
But, this burial is not like any you have known to date. This burial has the promise of a ressurection to a “new man:” a man who is “in Christ.”
“If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his ressurection” – Romans 6:5
Residential Aftercare – New Heart Place
June 26, 2009
New Heart Place gives men an opportunity to rebuild their lives with a new start in a safe environment while they learn how to re-engage into society. New Heart Place is an inpatient facility (Residential Aftercare) set out in a very quiet area in Snohomish outside of town. It offers a quiet and tranquil environment for these men to live.
The program lasts for one year and the focus is on living a Christ-Centered-life and learning to live without addictions. They attend regular groups and have to be able to make the commitment for the entire time. These men are given the opportunity to learn a trade and are placed in job opportunities as well once they are ready for this step.
There are so many treatment facilities out there, but none that have the opportunity’s that we offer. Many of the local Intensive Outpatient programs have low success rate. Most go back out and relapse quite soon after treatment. Our men are showing a good rate of success. They are not only staying clean from drugs and alcohol, but they are becoming strong men of God.
Restoration and Relapse
June 25, 2009
Spiritual Transformation
In aftercare treatment planning, one must include a clear plan of restoration. This plan must include a great deal of accountability and ongoing oversight. Relapse and recidivism rates for addicts still remain relatively high after completion of treatment. One must be on guard to discern the role of spiritual transformation in the life of the addict. Addicts will say—and genuinely believe, along with many others supporting the addict—that they have committed or recommitted their lives to Christ, that God has forgiven their sin, and they have been healed from their addictive desires.
The implication is that if the therapist continues to insist on strong accountability or a need for continued treatment, they are doubting the power of God to change lives. This is very difficult bind for Christian counselors. On one hand we must seriously believe in the power of God to heal and change lives, while also being aware that healing is almost always a gradual process. Furthermore, the Christian counselor knows as well as anyone the subtle power of sin and the ways of the world to tempt the addict to use again. Even in the midst of the healing process, offenders can and do experience relapse—some relapse numerous times—but eventually establish control over the problem.
We must balance the need to affirm healing in the offender with appropriate concern for the reality of relapse and renewed addiction. The church, as a community of grace and healing, looks to the hope of the gospel for the power to change the behavior of addicted persons, to heal the wounds of the their victims, and to provide reconciliation with the body of Christ.
Effective Drug Abuse Treatment
June 23, 2009
Nearly three decades of scientific research has yielded 13 fundamental principles that characterize effective drug abuse treatment. These principles are detailed in NIDA’s Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide, from the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
1. No single treatment is appropriate for all individuals. Matching treatment settings, interventions, and services to each patient’s problems and needs is critical.
2. Treatment needs to be readily available. Treatment applicants can be lost if treatment is not immediately available or readily accessible.
3. Effective treatment attends to multiple needs of the individual, not just his or her drug use. Treatment must address the individual’s drug use and associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems.
4. At different times during treatment, a patient may develop a need for medical services, family therapy, vocational rehabilitation, and social and legal services.
5. Remaining in treatment for an adequate period of time is critical for treatment effectiveness. The time depends on an individual’s needs. For most patients, the threshold of significant improvement is reached at about 3 months in treatment. Additional treatment can produce further progress. Programs should include strategies to prevent patients from leaving treatment prematurely.
6. Individual and/or group counseling and other behavioral therapies are critical components of effective treatment for addiction. In therapy, patients address motivation, build skills to resist drug use, replace drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding nondrug-using activities, and improve problem-solving abilities. Behavioral therapy also facilitates interpersonal relationships.
7. Medications are an important element of treatment for many patients, especially when combined with counseling and other behavioral therapies. Methadone and levo-alpha-acetylmethodol (LAAM) help persons addicted to opiates stabilize their lives and reduce their drug use. Naltrexone is effective for some opiate addicts and some patients with co-occurring alcohol dependence. Nicotine patches or gum, or an oral medication, such as buproprion, can help persons addicted to nicotine.
8. Addicted or drug-abusing individuals with coexisting mental disorders should have both disorders treated in an integrated way.
9. Medical detoxification is only the first stage of addiction treatment and by itself does little to change long-term drug use. Medical detoxification manages the acute physical symptoms of withdrawal. For some individuals it is a precursor to effective drug addiction treatment.
10. Treatment does not need to be voluntary to be effective. Sanctions or enticements in the family, employment setting, or criminal justice system can significantly increase treatment entry, retention, and success.
11. Possible drug use during treatment must be monitored continuously. Monitoring a patient’s drug and alcohol use during treatment, such as through urinalysis, can help the patient withstand urges to use drugs. Such monitoring also can provide early evidence of drug use so that treatment can be adjusted.
12. Treatment programs should provide assessment for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, and counseling to help patients modify or change behaviors that place them or others at risk of infection. Counseling can help patients avoid high-risk behavior and help people who are already infected manage their illness.
13. Recovery from drug addiction can be a long-term process and frequently requires multiple episodes of treatment. As with other chronic illnesses, relapses to drug use can occur during or after successful treatment episodes. Participation in self-help support programs during and following treatment often helps maintain abstinence.