Column – Blog

I read in my local newspaper a story about a young man who became a crack-head after joining a twelve-step group to beat his addiction to alcohol. He had gone through a 21-day rehab. And he was encouraged upon release to get into several 12 Step Groups to ensure long-term control over his addiction. And in the meeting he was offered crack to help face the depression that was challenging him. And he gave in after a few invitations after the meeting.

I have heard this story a few times. Often it’s about what they call a thirteen stepper who attends meetings to find sexual encounters. It is one of the reasons many women find it difficult to attend twelve-step groups. There seems to be a mutual increase of the disease rather than the help one hopes for.

I have also heard of stories from rehab experiences where patients have encountered other patients with better drug connections. I have been thinking about this for quite awhile. It happens often enough it should be looked at. Maybe a strong warning to not connect with one another after treatment would hold as helpful.

I have always understood what they mean when they encourage addicts to call themselves recovering addicys. But I wonder if this is a good position to take for the long long haul. I think I know people who are no longer recovering addicts, or any kind of addicts, that have beaten drugs. Should they be saddled with the label forever or is the description self-fulfilling in some sense.

I have been musing about whether there is a way to beat further contamination. There are so many areas of need in our human experience that this thought could be applied to. Do we need to be tossed in with fellow strugglers or do we need models of health to hang out with.

What if a church ran support groups that included ten clean or never-dirty people? And what if these groups could only have three “recovering addicts” in them? I wonder if the results wouldn’t be better. Something in me says they would be.

Being a model is vastly different from being better than. And being secure in facing life’s challenges enough to help another is different from being self-righteous. Health begets health. Illness begets illnesses. These are obvious axioms. But what do we do with them.

I suppose this is why the home-schooling movement has been so successful. Healthy parents as the predominant influence in a student’s life has begotten more health. And youth groups do have a way of spreading health to the extent that the leader possesses emotional health. You either get diseased or you get healthy.

The mentoring movement has brought a lot of health into the lives of business people. Positive models are worth a thousand sermons or more. If I can share with you how I survived some bad moves in my life and the joys of a couple right decisions I have made you are far ahead. My health will add to your health. Mentors are the vital missing ingredient in the development of new Christians. I have noted that follow up programs really don’t work that well. But if a friend has brought a friend into the world of faith and begins to help them with their first few steps there is great progress made in the new follower’s life.

It is a fact that 85% of any church were brought by a friend already in the church. This is primarily what we are as Christians, influencers. Christians are light and salt. We are positive influencers in a world that is breaking down under its addictions and ill health.

I think churches are to be outposts of health (at least more health than outside the church). We are a home for addicts to learn a new way of living. We are an antidote of health that breaks down the influence of past addictions in our lives.

But the key to this is we need to be honest healers. The greatest healers are those who have survived their own disease and found health. Wounded healers is a phrase often used to describe this group.

And I guess this is why I have encouraged my formerly-addicted friends to be part of a church and find a clean mentor. And to be on guard while in a twelve-step environment. Both approaches have problems but my concerns shouldn’t go unwarranted. I think we need a new movement of dealing with the recovery of American people diseased with addiction. We are having some success but we also could improve our process.