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.