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
Overcoming Addiction With God’s Help
June 27, 2009
Overcoming Addiction With God’s Help
By Angie Lewis
God is our refuge; our safe haven; our rock; He is our everything! God helps us to climb mountains to our potential that is in Him. Any potential without God is one that has not yet reached a potential! As a matter of fact no other entity in this world can help us to be all that we can be, except for our Creator. He knows every intricate detail about our body, our mind, and our soul. He knows what you are thinking every second of the day.
God is our doctor; our father; our brother, our rescuer, and our friend. How can God be so many things to us? Because He is our Everything! Have you let God take hold of your hand and guide you into His wonderful kingdom? Let God rescue you from the grips of addiction.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Psalms 46:1-3
If you are battling with an addiction ask for God’s help in overcoming it and He will provide. God knows exactly what you are going through and He knows what you need! There has never been a time in your life that God didn’t know what you need. Therefore, reach out to God and allow Him to have power over the addiction that is ravaging your body, mind, and soul. If you continue to hold on tight to the addiction God will not take it away from you – you have to want to give it to Him!
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 18:2
When we pray and ask for God’s help in overcoming addiction, sometimes nothing changes in our lives because somewhere in our heart we just aren’t ready to give up the addiction yet – we are afraid to lose our best friend. Is it because we have more faith in the addiction than in God? Addiction deceives us and tells us lies about our self that we believe. We believe that we are in control of the addiction – we believe we feel better and look better while intoxicated. Addiction eases the pain inside of us and gives us a temporary “feel good” condition.
God wants you to trust in Him more than the addiction. He wants you to trust Him with your life. Can you do that? God will deliver you from addiction but you have to be willing to say good-bye to it, and hand it over to God, and allow Him to go to work in your life. God will do what He says! He will help us to overcome our troubles, deal with them straight on, and live productive happy lives. There is no fear when we have made God number one in our lives. Absolutely no fear!
For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13
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.
Spiritual Renewal (Part 5)
June 22, 2009
Addicts are spiritually immature by nature. They often search for black-and-white answers to their problems. If addicts have developmental issues it is easy to see that they will also have childish and adolescent beliefs about God (see May, 1988; Miller, 1987). They may have become angry with God for not “delivering” them of their cravings, longings, and lust.
There are several spiritual challenges for addicts when working with Christian counselors, pastors, and lay helpers:
1. Addicts must address their own need to control.
Many of them may have committed to Christ intellectually, but not emotionally. They may be angry with God for not healing or delivering them. They have a hard time letting go of the high and the mood alteration of their addictive activities. Addicts have become accustomed to their ways. Being enslaved to addiction is what they know.
In the 13th and 14th chapters of the book of Numbers we find the story of how God is trying to prepare the people of Israel to go to the Promised Land. God has already done a mighty work in delivering them out of the land of Egypt. They are being led by one of greatest religious leaders of all time, Moses. Ten of twelve spies who have been sent to survey the new land give a negative report of how difficult it will be to go there because of “giants” in the land. In the opening of the 14th chapter, the people cry out for a new leader and declare that it would be better to go back to Egypt and die as slaves than to go to a place they don’t know.
This is how addicts often react. They don’t know a new place or a better way. They will want to hang on to the familiar. They are unable to trust God to see them through unknown and frightening future events. It is an issue of trust and total surrender. They will need to be guided to totally turn their lives over to God and face their own fears and need to control. In John 5, Jesus (our master psychologist) asks the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, “Do you want to get well?” It seems like a silly question for a man who has been lying by this healing water for 38 years. The man, however, doesn’t answer affirmatively but instead gives excuses for why he hasn’t been able to get into the pool.
Christian counselors will also have to ask this hard question, “Do you want to get well and are you willing to take the risks, make the surrender, and do the hard work that will be necessary.” In Numbers 14, it is Joshua who says to the stubborn people, “We can do this with God’s help.”
Relationship Repair (Part 4)
June 20, 2009
People who live with addicts know how painfully difficult it can be. Sometimes the spouses of addicts are referred to as “co-addicts” or “co-dependents” (Beattie, 1987). The assumption of terms like these is that they somehow ignore, tolerate and even enable addiction. Competent counseling will need to assess the emotional and spiritual health of people living with addicts. It is safe to continue to live with them if they don’t get help? Do co-addicts also suffer from their own wounds or addictions? It would not be uncommon for a spouse who lives with an alcoholic to also have drinking problems. My research has shown that about one third of spouses who live with sex addicts are also sex addicts.
Counselors should assess factors that brought spouses together. New theories are being developed which suggest that people find each other and seek to play out patterns of family of origin trauma with each other. Sex abuse survivors may, even unconsciously, find another sex abuse survivor to be in relationship with. The theory is that addicts may be trying to replay old patterns, going back into their families, in order to find a different result. Another form of this is that addicts will replay old family patterns, trying to be the one who controls the situation rather than the one who is victimized. The attempt to find healing from a relationship to a spouse for early life wounds is generally referred to as “trauma bonding.” (Carnes, 1997).
Counselors who deal with addicts and their spouses know that sometimes even the slightest of triggers can provoke rage, anxiety, or sadness. Deep healing work with both addict and spouse, together or individually, is vital to the restoration of marriage. Simple communication strategies or intimacy building exercises will not work in these situations. Work on the deep wounds with both partners is essential to helping these partners relate on the most basic of levels.
1. Suffer the little children.
The children of addicts will inherently be wounded by addiction. Counselors will be progressive if they are able to address these issues and be of support for the entire family. It is not easy to engage family members, even spouses, if there is the addict to blame for all problems. Gentle forms of education and support can be helpful. Helping family members to be in support groups for others with similar problems can help them see their own responsibilities for the dysfunctions of entire family systems. Support groups of many kinds exist for those who live in relationship with addicts.
The healing of relationships is an essential part of treatment for addicts. Couples’ and family counseling is important. Addicts and those around them should be encouraged to be in networks of support. One of the best antidotes for addiction and co-addiction is fellowship with others. Addicts have a profound longing for nurture. Christian counselors must be able to help them find it in true and lasting relationships (see Carnes, Laaser, & Laaser, 2000).
The potential for developing intimacy and total self-honesty is crucial to addiction recovery. Addicts, in their shame, may feel that no one loves them and that if they talk about their most intimate feelings or reveal their worst acting out experiences, others will run from them. They will need to “practice” telling the truth to those, such as in a support group, who are less emotionally threatening than lifetime loved ones (e.g. spouses). They will then be able to take greater risks by being honest with loved ones.
2. Victim empathy.
One useful strategies in treating addicts is to encourage them to develop empathy for loved ones hurt by their addiction. The addict is asked to try to understand, and even experience the pain they cause their victims. By maximizing empathy for others, it becomes more likely that the addict will treat others as persons, rather than as objects to be used for their own gratification. As addicts develop victim empathy and consider the consequences of their actions, they may present with suicidal ideation, shame, and guilt. Jesus incarnated victim empathy, and a counselors’ Christian background can aid in connecting the incongruence between client behavior and their spiritual worldview.
The road to recovery in relationship is long and labor intensive, but the possibility of profound intimacy with others is well worth the task.