Thinking About the War on Drugs

The world is often looked at in terms of good or evil. When it comes to actions we don't like or approve of, it always ends up being a sin or a crime. And, of course, these behaviors need need to be prevented (read: "punished") in order to reduce or prevent their occurrence.

However, when we think of  something as a disease, then we don't want those infected to be punished, we want the disease prevented or cured. (Throughout the ages, however, there has been a link between disease and sin. Remember the blind man Jesus healed? The authorities of his day wanted to know if the blind man, or someone in his family, had sinned.)

Our nation's history is not much different when it comes to alcohol and other drugs. What is considered sin soon became an institutionalized crime. And, therefore, becomes the need to punish those who transgress. Only recently have we started to consider alcoholism as a disease rather than a sin. So, why not other addictions? When we take a measured look at the problem of addiction, we might be surprised that heredity is more in action here than a person's choice.

In his new book, Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy, David Scheff delves into the problem of addiction. He comes out of the pain of being a parent with an addicted child that has died.

In Mick Sussman's review of Scheff's book in the New York Times (April 19, 2013), he writes: “Clean is intended as an objective, if still impassioned, examination of the research on prevention and treatment — a guide for those affected by addiction but also a manifesto aimed at clinical professionals and policy makers.

"Sheff’s premise is that 'addiction isn’t a criminal problem, but a health problem,' and that the rigor of medicine is the antidote to the irrational responses, familial and social, that addiction tends to set off... The war on drugs, he says bluntly, 'has failed.' After 40 years and an 'unconscionable' expense that he estimates at a trillion dollars, there are 20 million addicts in America (including alcoholics), and 'more drugs, more kinds of drugs, and more toxic drugs used at younger ages.'"

One must ask, why is this health and behavioral problem not the number one focus of our research and collective knowledge? Drug addiction is defined as that which causes alterations to the brain that result in cognitive deficits and other symptoms. (See American Society of Addiction Medicine.) Is it a choice, or not? We have other health problems that do not undergo such moral scrutiny. We have other health problems that involve some level of choice: obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, for example. Why not the addiction to alcohol and other drugs?

Sheff goes on to tell us that addiction has a substantial genetic component, and when mental illness and poverty come into the mix, the probability of addiction increases and becomes more behavioral in nature. Eighty percent of adolescents in our society try drugs but only about 10 percent of them become addicted. Neuroscience corroborates our intuition that impulsivity in adolescents develops faster than their inhibitions develop. This means that adolescent drug users may actually stunt their emotional growth and make them even more prone to lifelong addictions. And let's not forget about alcohol -- one of our society's "legal" drugs of choice and all the havoc that raises in our society. 

Addiction medicine, moreover, is a relatively new if not exact science. So far, most all treatment programs have very low rates of success -- even in the most expensive clinics. Even a claim of 30 percent effectiveness may actually be greatly inflated. Scheff reminds us, "The persistent possibility of relapse is the 'hallmark of addiction' resulting in addiction being a chronic disease requiring life-long vigilance."

As a smart people, shouldn't we be further along in how we go about treating addictions and have far better treatment outcomes? For reviewer Sussman, Scheff's "forbearance and clearheadedness could serve as an example for America as it confronts its drug problem... a subject for which sensible advice is in short supply."

I hope these findings will help us do more than "hate the sin, but love the sinner" approaches when it comes to addiction. Instead, we should direct the power of our faith tradition toward right thinking, research, healing and prevention.

As a father who has, like Scheef, experienced addiction in his family and suicide, I welcome a saner approach to addiction and an end to our "war on drugs." We deserve better.

Loving an Addict

John O'Donohue (1956-2008)

Who among us doesn't have a loved one, close friend or family member that is an addict?

Being in relationship with a loved one who is an addict is not an easy path. In fact, it is a long and often disappointing journey involving disappointment, failure, guilt, shame, anger, and frequently enabling behavior on our part. Addiction free time is often short and not long lasting. We quickly learn that the recovery journey is like watching a series of shipwrecks from the shore. We become tired of being the rescue boat and simply want relief. That is why after a number of years, family and loved ones simply have to disengage from this tragic dance. Being one of  those who has had the experience of loving an addict, I can attest to all those experiences and feelings.

During Lent, my church community read John O'Donohue's book, Anam Cara (which means "soul friend). I was greatly impressed by O'Donohue's writing and this led me to one of his other books, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings. In this treasure trough, I found a blessing for an addict that touched my heart and spoke strongly to me.

For in dealing with an addict we often feel totally hopeless, even impotent. This leads us sometimes to throw our hands into the air and say, "All I can do now is to pray!" as if prayer and blessing were the last step rather than the first and most important step we can take when dealing with a loved one who is an addict. Let this prayer-blessing enfold the addict in your life.

FOR AN ADDICT

On its way through the innocent night,
The moth is ambushed by the light,
Becomes glued to a window 
Where a candle burns; its whole self, 

Its dreams of flight and all desire 
Trapped in one glazed gaze;

Now nothing else can satisfy
But the deadly beauty of the flame.

When you lose the feel 
For all other belonging
And what is truly near 
Becomes distant and ghostly,
And you are visited

And claimed by a simplicity
Sinister in its singularity,

No longer yourself, your mind

And will owned and steered

From elsewhere now,

You would sacrifice anything

To dance once more to the haunted

Music with your fatal beloved

Who owns the eyes to your heart.

These words of blessings cannot

Reach, even as echos,

To the shore of where you are.
Yet, may they work without you
To soften some slight line through

To the white cave where

Your soul is captive.

May some glimmer

Of outside light reach your eyes
To help you recognize how

You have fallen for a vampire.

May you crash hard and soon
Onto real ground again
Where this fundamentalist

Shell might start to crack
for you to hear

Again your own echo.

That your lost lonesome heart 
Might learn to cry out
For the true intimacy

Of love that waits

To take you home

To where you are known

And seen and where

Your life is treasured
Beyond every frontier
Of despair you have crossed.

May this blessing help you in your journey as it has in mine.

Talking About Pornography

The subject today is pornography. When Sabine and I taught The Marriage Course a few years ago we said that a man’s problem in marriage was pornography and a woman’s problem was with fantasy. I told the men that pornography causes us to objectify women and that when we are into pornography our wives often feel betrayed and disregarded.


But at the time, it didn’t seem to me at the time that is was such a big problem. I mean, just don't do it. But I was wrong. A great number (most?) men struggle today with pornography. Why? Because of its easy availability on the internet. If it wasn’t for the internet, most men would not want to be seen walking into an X-rated book store – their self-respect and the possibility of being seen by others used to make pornography difficult to obtain. Not so anymore. And why I know I was wrong about the danger of pornography came about after reading Dr. Norman Doidge’s book last week, The Brain That Changes Itself (Penguin Books, 2007).

The chief danger of pornography isn’t obvious to most users at first. After all, what can it hurt? The hurt is that your brain is changed due to the intense stimulation of its reward circuitry -- a portion of the ancient “mammalian brain” which lies under your so-called rational brain. This part of our brain governs our emotions, things like mating and eating. It runs on a neurochemical called dopamine. And we like it when it is released. This also covers addictions to things like drugs, slot machines and many video games. All this is so enticing to this primitive part of our brain, that compulsion can become a risk. After all, our brains evolved to light up when we experience these stimulations.

And internet porn can light up those lights with its offer of new partners begging for new and exciting experiences at each mouse click. And as the seeking evolves, our brains become re-wired for more and more of it. This is the same brain that evolved to drive us toward good things for our survival: seeking food and populating our species. So we seem to be especially vulnerable to both super-stimulating sexual arousal and junk food. (By the way, junk food has helped make over 60 percent of us overweight (and half of those to obesity) – again, it hits our pleasure spot.

How pervasive is porn? Last year a professor in Canada had to revise his study about the effects of porn because he couldn’t find any males on a large university campus that had not already experienced it – there were, literally, no “porn-virgins.”

Calling porn addictive like any other drug is not exaggerating the situation. Porn users can be actually lured and seduced into pornographic sessions that meet all the stimulating conditions in which their brains can be changed to want not only more of the present experience but more heightened experiences. Their brains are literally re-wired to want more and more of this experience.

Just look how much porn has changed. In my day, “soft porn” was naked women and “hard porn” was sexual intercourse. Soon soft porn became that which could be seen daily on television and the movies. There is a bit of hard porn today in seeing naked people engage in sex – though explicit actions are still reserved for hard porn. But in all this the question must be asked, “what’s next?” And what seems to be next is bondage, rape, sodomy, and bestiality – more and more in order to get the same stimulation (sound familiar?).

What happens negatively is that users substitute porn for their intimate relationships. Their reward circuitry no longer perceives an actual human relationship as worth the effort because the part of the brain that is affected can’t reason through it. The mammalian brain simply decides which option releases the most dopamine (pleasure) and it goes for it.

And as I mentioned, after a while, just like other addicts, the porn addict needs more and more and ends up finding pleasure only in the most bizarre and abnormal sexual practices. Eventually, over-stimulated men grow numb to life’s subtler pleasures, such as the charm of a real partners and the process of building a loving relationship. It simply takes too much time for pleasure when porn gives immediate results. What is going on is that brain changes have temporarily dimmed their capacity for enjoyment. And there begins the problem. Men caught in this cycle feel anxious, socially ill-at-ease, moody, despairing, and apathetic. And, until they re-boot their brains, life seems meaningless, but for the single-minded pursuit of hotter and hotter stimuli. As one man put it:

“With the magazines, porn use was a few times a week and I could basically regulate it. ‘Cause it wasn’t really that ‘special’. But when I entered the murky world of Internet porn, my brain had found something it just wanted more and more of…. I was out of control in less than 6 months. Years of mags: no problems. A few months of online porn: hooked!”

Often users don’t realize what they’re passing up until they give their brains a chance to return to equilibrium. For some, the lengthy withdrawal required to achieve this can be so agonizing (shakes, insomnia, despair, cravings, splitting headaches) that they feel trapped.

A world in which computer literate men run a considerable risk of compulsive porn use simply won’t be as happy as it could be nor is it what and who we were created to be. Those into porn generally have little time, sensitivity, or resolve for creativity, good causes, relationships, or nature’s pleasures. Let’s just face the fact it’s addictive behavior of a high order.

However, the following are some comments by men who have weaned themselves off their porn addiction:

“I feel again. I feel emotions again. My interest in women is heightened, my confidence is up and gives me motivation again. I’m 28 now and until the last couple of years I felt I had the maturity of a 15 year old. But as I heal and recover from this compulsion, I’ve felt emotions I’ve never had to deal with before. It has helped me grow up.”

“After a few days I noticed increased energy, increased attention, and higher self-esteem. After a month -- although it took several tries to get there -- those improvements were all through the roof. A couple of months later, I was having real sex. It is nice to get aroused by little things, like a revealing blouse or just a woman’s flowing, shiny hair and fragrance.”

“I have so much more energy, I’m less moody, I have more enthusiasm and motivation for work, I don’t feel drained all the time, and I feel a deeper sense of connection with everything around me. But the biggest change it has made is in my relationship. My girlfriend and I feel much closer to each other already.”

When it comes to sexually explicit materials, our society tends to get lost in debates about free speech, degree of obscenity, sexual repression, and harm to third parties. Maybe we should take a closer look at porn’s power to hijack our brains.

What to do if you are hooked? Get online and find help and/or see a therapist. Try googling “porn addiction” to start.

I can tell you that it if you are hooked on porn (just like any other addiction) it will not have a happy ending if you ignore it. Good luck and God bless you!

[Thanks to Marnia Robinson at http://www.alternet.org/sex/148399/how_porn_can_hijack_your_brain
for a good share of this material].

Keep a Holy Lent

I have been thinking a lot lately about spiritual growth (especially now that this is Lent). In the Anglican liturgy parishioners are encouraged to grow spiritually during these forty daysl with these words:

“I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance…”

So it's about SELF-EXAMINATION, REPENTENCE, and ACTS (prayer, fasting, self-denial, reading the Bible, and meditating on it). 

But HOW do we do that in the world of worry, fear, stress, and over-whelming commitments? How do we keep a Holy Lent or Holy Anything?

Let me be bold and make a prescription for you (like a physician does).  For when we have a physical ailment, we seek a prescription.   And here is a prescription for our spiritual illnesses -- a way in which you can begin to live a calmer, more centered, and healthier life.

1. MEDITATION. Each morning spend no less than 10 minutes quietly sitting in a comfortable chair before you begin your day. (Do NOT listen to the daily news before you do this!)  During this time, center yourself. Receive God’s blessing. Be a Light to others this day. Think positively. Be thankful.  Ask God to help you get rid of things like discouragement and irritation in your life and replace them with graciousness and patience.

2. WORSHIP. Devote time each week to more extensively give God thanks and praise for your life.  For some of you it will be church.  For others it may be centering yourself and being open to God's Spirit for 20 or more minutes.  Examine yourself, your calendar and your checkbook (where you have spent your time and money this past week). Ask God's help to remove envy, blame, judgment from your life; the things that rob you of life and joy.

3. STUDY. Commit yourself to a time of deep spiritual reading each week.  Turn off the television -- quietly read and meditate on what you have read.  List the three things that are most important to and then arrange your time and finances accordingly.

4. SELF-DENIAL. Identify your addictions.  We ALL have one or more addictions to something. For example, alcohol, drugs, spending, gambling, eating, smoking, pornography, work, and so forth.  Identify and get a handle on your addictions.  Use prayer, self-help, and/or organized group to help you.  It is diffcult, if not impossible, to get rid of an deep addiction all by yourself.  Get help! (Remember: it takes 5-6 weeks to begin to get rid of a bad habit and an equal time to imprint a new and more positive one).

In the name of God, I invite you to a full and abundant life and to be the person God created YOU to be (and not someone else -- but that's a topic for another posting!).

Blessings!