Christian Family Services Ministry

1-6-2024 – On Addiction

Why I can speak with authority on addiction. I was a social worker supervisor on the Substance Abuse Unit of a state hospital here in Texas, for over 12 years. During this period, I was involved in the treatment, treatment plans, and psychological testing with over 5,000 clients. I wrote articles published in the State of Texas publications, taught a multitude of classes and seminars dealing with addiction and evaluated treatment programs around the state.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), serve as the humanistic standards by which addiction is diagnosed. Humanly speaking, these references serve as excellent descriptors of the behavioral and mental features of addiction. Therein also lies their weakness. The chief focus of treatment of any addiction, be it substance, or behavioral, is rooted and evaluated upon the basis of abstinence. That is, the degree of wellness is founded upon the degree of abstinence.

Thus, addiction is best determined by what happens when the behavior or substance is removed. Withdrawal is the decisive test for addiction. How does the person feel or behave when the center of his or her focus is removed? Universally, the withdrawal outcome is the same regardless of the substance being used. These withdrawal symptoms include psychological and physiological distress. Eventually, it concludes that addiction is an illness. Herein scripture and the bible part ways with human interpretation of cause and treatment.

Jesus sums up the spiritual view in His Sermon on the Mount found in Matther 5-8. Here we are being reminded to take seriously whom our Master is and to realize that we cannot serve God and riches, or alcohol, or drugs, or sex, or food. The keeping of this fundamental principle results in the return of order to the disordered life of the addictive person.

But if there is anything we are out to pile up for ourselves, it is the material, the perishable to gain by whatever name and by whatever means the temporal. Jesus says though, that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot go on pleasing ourselves and have a relationship with Him. So, we are warned against attaching our hearts to things of a material nature; simply we are warned against entangling our emotions with the temporary or searching for immediate pleasures, pleasures which are going to be very short lived.

Major research on addiction has been conducted, particularly in the areas of eating disorders, alcohol, and drug abuse. One of the significant findings is how such a simple task like abstinence turns loose powerful forces in our body and soul, which wreak havoc at all levels of our existence: the soul, the spirit, the mind, and the heart. We will look at some of these forces in future lessons. Suffice it to say at this point that our attempts to cope with self-indulgence by abstinence usually end up in failure. In fact, failure turns one away from God.

Let us turn now to the cure for addiction. It should be noted that man has been working desperately to find a cure. For some, the belief is that education is the answer. So, an example is drug abuse advertisements aimed at teens. The result though there has been a dramatic increase in the advertisements aimed at this segment of society, it has had no positive effect. Does education work? The reality is that there has been a tremendous increase in the use of both alcohol and drugs among young people.

Rehabilitation centers are popping up all over the country with magical cures (if you have money or insurance) the chief aim of which is to soothe the panic ridden family that has reached its “wits end.”

The ultimate failure of rehabilitation lies in its failure to recognize the basic biblical principle that abstinence is no cure for addiction. The concept is difficult to comprehend because it goes against our natural inclinations. Say one has a smoking problem, then just stop smoking, either by cutting down or laying the cigarettes aside. If that does not work, try aversive therapy, or psychotherapy. The therapies are endless, and the success rate is small. For instance, over 90% of cigarette smokers return to smoking in the first year. Even if abstinence works, nothing has been done about the underlying causes. A new object eventually replaces the present object of addiction.

Take Alcoholics Anonymous. This organization is up-front with addiction; one is always an addict, and one can never drink again. The support groups replace the alcohol, or the drugs, or the overeating.

In contrast to these humanistic philosophies, and all of the anonymous groups are founded on humanistic principles, God’s word offers hope. Hope that also not only can one be released from the symptoms—chemical, objects whatever– but that this whole nature can be washed away. But it is not achieved through abstinence.

The Apostle Paul introduces the subject of abstinence and its failures in Colossians 2:20-23. He states that severity to the body such as do not taste, do not touch, while seemingly wise, is actually of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh. So, this is not the solution. We will look at solution from a biblical view later.