Alcohol and Drug Addiction

This weekend we lost a dear friend and colleague to the “monster.” Why is it that we don’t recognize and accept that alcohol abuse and drug addiction will never go away—to revisit this disease thinking that we have control over it because we have been sober from alcohol and drugs for 7…10…20 years?

The devil is known to “go around seeking whom he can devour” he is here “to rob, steal and destroy” that is his mandate on this earth. He is most active when we are climbing to the heights of our lives and shows himself through the addictive grasps of alcohol and drug abuse. But still we fall prey to his devises. Why?

We can never afford to play in his playground thinking that we are stronger or wiser now. We can’t feel that we know the deceits and power of alcohol abuse and drug addiction; but feel that we have enough control over that power and feel compelled or able to reenter the destructive world. Rather, we must continue to work our steps in confidence but maintain awareness of what lies out there, remembering the pain and devastation that alcohol and drug addiction brought into our lives.

At the same time we don’t want our past experiences to paralyze us. When you constantly take moral inventory of your life, dealing with the issues that got you there in the first place, it empowers you to look the disease straight in the eyes and use the recovery tools to overcome the temptations to use. Remember that life is very delicate and we must stay on the strong edge of our thinking as an alcoholic and drug addict is in recovery for life, and learns to live with addiction as if it were a chronic disease, similar to diabetes or asthma—it’s always there, but it can be managed.

Our dear friend Greg, although stricken with sadness over his passing, is a testament to the devastating power of alcohol and drug addiction even throughout recovery. We saw him come through the darkest years of his life so strong and determined to conquer this horrible monster of drug addiction. How we hate what happened and we hate alcohol and drug addiction even more for robbing us of such a wonderful young man and thus will continue to provide individualized and client-centered Christian drug abuse treatment (amongst other addiction treatment programs) and outpatient aftercare to ensure we don’t lose another friend to the monster.

The Bucket List

A little over a week ago a trending topic on the web-o-sphere was a story about Alice Pyne, a 15 year old girl with terminal cancer, writing a blog about all the things she hoped to do “before the illness got the better of her.” The blog started as a project amongst close friends, but in little time hit the masses and was publicized by the British Parliament, Katy Perry and many other celebrities urging people to respond to her desire that everybody be a bone marrow donor.

Would you put your “bucket list” out there, and how would people respond to what you hoped for?

Here is a life not stained or entrapped by drug addiction or alcoholism, but one that has been deprived of doing simple things and will be cut far shorter than anyone could hope for. Although Alice’s condition is beyond her control, we can all relate to the battle of wanting something and not being able to get it, or standing taller than our misfortunes and starting anew.

While we live lives that are dominated by drug addiction, our thought patterns get totally distorted and self-absorbed. Every thought, every action is centered around and geared into catering for our drug addiction. Our bucket list is horrid at this stage. What would it look like? Maybe: “Yeah, but I want to,” “Yeah, but I love her,” “Yeah but, it’s exciting,” “Yeah, but I need it,” “Yeah, but it won’t hurt anyone,” “Yeah but, this is my life”—a life full of excuses and wanting the wrong things.

If our addiction goes on for years, we can become outcasts from society. We are cut off from relationships and are unable to find acceptance from people. Isolation and loneliness are terribly painful, and they are not what God intended for us. It is essential for us to restore our relationships and connections with people if we are to emerge from our addictions and make a successful recovery. Once we can face and accept that we have been insane in these ways, we are closer to recognizing how desperately we need God’s touch to restore us. By committing to this we can begin to be free from the isolation and tortured thoughts and feels that accompany addiction.

Alice Pyne shared her deepest hopes by putting them on paper…It starts there. Take a moral inventory of your life followed by a list of all the things that we would like to do and because we were hindered in doing anything—make the choice to put our lives back together through treatment and be able to complete the second list—the bucket list.

“With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

The Key to Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery

Our society seems to be saturated with dishonesty that we slipstreamed into accepting as the norm. Don’t get me wrong, not to say we are all dishonest people, but we overwhelmingly associate dishonesty with the political world, the entertainment world, the sporting world, educational world and seriously, who trusts a car salesman. Unfortunately, honesty is an unpopular value these days.

Dishonesty is the area in our lives that overpowers an acceptance of our alcohol and drug addiction and, at the same time, it can be as addictive as a drug—catch 22? Dishonesty not only makes solutions hard to find, but it often leaves a person ignorant and unwilling to deal the problems themselves; it also destroys trust towards us and to others.

Lying can become a way of life. We find it easy to lie to our self as a way to pretend we don’t have a problem with alcoholism or drug addiction, or not accept the reality of our destructive path. We learn to cover up our addictions, our flaws or our defects of character, by becoming excellent liars. If we choose to face reality, we will see the unhappiness caused by our lies, and how they have hurt us and our loved ones. Only when we stop being dishonest about where we really are, can God begin to bring blessing and change into our life.

Think about this verse: “Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. (Psalm 34: 12 – 13)

Someone once told me, “a lie may take care of the present, but it has no future,” and much like the Bible verse implies, to live a happy, healthy and prosperous life we must avoid the present “quick-fix” slips of the tongue, especially when what we are lying about has such a grave impact on us and everyone that surrounds us—alcohol and drug addiction.

There are great benefits to honesty. What other virtue is accompanied by such promises? First, being honest with you is vital to recovery. Part of any successful Christian drug abuse program (or any drug rehab program) involves guarding our lips and our thoughts from lies that will hurt us and others. Secondly, honesty tends to make our behavior more thoughtful, you know as the old saying goes “think before you act,” and when we are honest with ourselves it truly beckons taking the time to think about our actions. Honesty is a way of life that we have to cultivate all the time. Leaning upon God to strengthen us and make us aware of our dishonesty will empower us to move towards successful alcohol and drug addiction recovery.