Addictions and Addicts

As a chaplain I’ve seen many different life issues. Common to a variety of people and families is the issue of addiction.

Is it too simple to point out that addictions have a major life impact on more people than just the addict? Because of that, knowledge of addictive behaviors is one of my acquired skills as a chaplain.

Here is a sampling of points to ponder when looking at addiction in your life or in the life of a family member or in the life of a friend.

If alcohol abuse is the issue, a quality source of information is the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. They are on the internet at: www.niaaa.nih.gov/. The location of their publications on the spectrum of alcohol issues is: www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/.

After identifying the presence of an addiction, several questions closely follow. Does the addict want to change? If yes, your next question most likely will be – “Where do I go for help?” A great beginning place is at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. They are on the internet at www.samhsa.gov/. Two important services of this site are access to a 24/7 suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Their other important service is providing information on treatment facilities for substance abuse.

SAMHSA offers a wide variety of information and helps. If your family or friends face addiction issues, this site is a must resource to investigate. Because mental health issues often co-exist with substance abuse issues, it is important to have access to mental health helps as well. The National Institute of Mental Health at: www.nimh.nih.gov/health/index.shtml is most helpful.

As parents, it’s important to understand that teens are vulnerable to substance abuse. We’ve all heard the stories about peer pressure. Yet that’s not the whole story. Teens are vulnerable to addiction in part because of changes in the brain. The two most significant periods of brain development occur during infancy and adolescence. The brain of a 15-25 year old is not as developed as an adult later in life. That has to do not just with life experiences and thought processes. Brain chemistry differs for an adolescent from an adult. A major result of that is addictions (more than 90%) are formed in the ten year period of ages 15-25. Few substance addictions develop later in life.

During the initial stages of identification of an addiction, it may be tempting to learn answers to “WHY?” Yet, the more important issue to address involves breaking the physical addiction and addressing the psychological footings of the disease. A treatment program and plan to halt the progress of the disease is more immediately the problem. Twelve Step programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, are great at keeping people free of their addictions. While they work to help people in recovery, these programs must not be confused with treatment programs. A treatment program first breaks the physical addiction and works toward rebuilding and repairing the physical damage done by the substance which was abused.

Treatment facilities, to be most effective, must use evidence based methods. Scientific research has uncovered what “works” and what fails as a treatment approach. By that I mean that treatment facilities have been around long enough, and have built a large enough base of work, that we can look at their methods and evaluate the success of that method against methods utilized by other facilities.

Don’t do yourself the disservice of using a treatment facility which uses out-dated methods. A common statistic states that only 1 of ten addicts seeks treatment. If you or a loved one seek treatment, and are highly motivated to change, get the best treatment help you can find. Check resources on the internet; learn all you can about available treatment options. Understand that treating opiate based addictions is not the same as treating alcohol or marijuana addictions.

Forms of treatment include psychological work using cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational, pharmacological, and family therapy.

It’s important to know that the length of time (the duration) of the addiction greatly impacts treatment. An old wives tale said, “Until an addict hits rock bottom nothing can be done.” It’s important to know that is a false statement! The longer an addiction is in place, the more damage is done and the more difficult treatment becomes. Along with duration another issue is the daily dosage of the abused substance. Is this a sometimes habit; a weekly habit; a daily habit; a multiple times per day habit? While considering that, the type of drug is also at issue. Prescription drug abuse presents a major hurdle because the medications were specifically formulated to target specific locations (receptors) in the brain. That strengthens the addiction and makes treatment more difficult! These are just some of the considerations to reflect on when addressing the issue of addiction, treatment, and recovery.