***This is part one in a series***
***I have been doing a lot of research lately in regards to the topic of addiction. This is something that, I think, especially as Christians, we need to take some time to think about and discuss. The topic is real and hits home with probably the majority of the people who make up our congregations. May God guide us in dealing with this very real and very challenging issue.***
One of the reasons that it is so hard to help the addict is because it is so hard to break free from the old paradigms of addiction. For a long time, and even still today, addiction is understood as sort of a demon to be exorcised or a mountain to be overcome or a challenge to be met. But, as long as addiction is viewed from this frame of reference, it can never be addressed for what it is.
According to a growing body of evidence, addiction is actually nothing like a demon needing to be cast out. Rather, it is more of a natural response to pleasureful things that has been perverted. Drugs such as heroin and cocaine actually have the potential to change the physical make-up of the pleasure receptors in the brain. This is what causes the individual to need more and more of the drug to reach the euphoria found in the original high. The changed make-up in the brain causes the individual to become psychologically addicted to the drug and creates a desire within the individual to feel that feeling again. No other pleasure can suffice. They need that drug to satisfy their lust.
Compounding the problem of addiction, though, is the fact that, especially in the cases of heroin and cocaine, the drugs tend to alter the message being sent by the cell’s mRNA. The body is suddenly being told that it is actually MORE sensitive to the chemical introduced. This is what is thought to cause cravings. Psychologically, the addict thinks that they need this drug and that they will die without it. They begin to live their lives around their drug of choice and do everything that they can to get what they perceive that they need. Simultaneously, their body is reacting to the chemicals left over in the body from the drug as the body is suddenly more sensitive to them. But, because there is not enough of the chemical in the body to meet the perceived need of the addicted individual, they think that they need even more. In short, the person is more sensitive to the very drug of which they think they need more.
This is part of why something like heroin, especially, can be deadly at any moment. Because the body is more sensitive to the drug, the person could take a hit and already have more than enough of the chemical in the body thereby leading to an immediate overdose even if they did not take any more of the drug or any stronger of a dose than they have ever taken before. That, and with heroin, you never know how potent your hit may be and you may overdose even on the first hit.
This is why we need to break free from our old notions of addiction. As long as we look at addiction as, for example, a demon to be cast out, we will never really address the problem. Yes, there are cases of the miraculous. And we must never doubt that God can do whatever He purposes. But we must also keep a level head and not put all of our hope in the hands of the faith healer.
The problem with addiction is not addiction, per se, but rather what an individual is addicted to. In the same studies that have sought to put a new face on addiction, the conclusion has been reached that addiction is actually a necessary part of our psyche. It has to do with the memory and survival. In explaining this, the example commonly used is sex. If sex were not, in some manner, pleasurable, as beings of higher intelligence, we would not keep doing it and therefore the species would eventually become extinct. Something must be triggered within the human psyche that would remember that there is something pleasurable about the propagation of the species. So how do we remember this?
In much the same way illicit drugs alter the chemical make-up of the pleasure centers of the brain, so too do other pleasurable things. It is the body’s natural way of remembering that something feels good so that we will continue doing it. This sort of thing must be necessary from an evolutionary standpoint as we still have it. If it were not useful, it would have evolved out.
Drug addiction causes a disruption in this system. The pleasure centers become bent wholly toward the drug of choice. And these changes are permanent. Once someone has become addicted to a particular substance, they will always be addicted to that substance at some level. Even those who are successfully treated and cease to consume their chosen drug will always be somewhat trapped with that disruption in their psyche. Barring the miraculous, and we must never rule that out, addiction is something that will always be a struggle for the recovering. And this mentality must begin to impact our methods of addiction treatment if we ever hope to be successful.
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