An Innocent Addiction
An Innocent Addiction
I have worked with addicts since 1977, and I operated a group of pain treatment programs in the 1980s. I have witnessed the tragic suffering of those with chronic pain who sought help but received a path toward addiction to prescription pain medication. Ill-informed critics and self-appointed judges often associate those who are living with chronic pain or any ongoing, unhealed malady with a lack of faith or the presence of an unconfessed or ongoing sin. They also frequently correlate addiction with inferior people who start out with low character, don’t change because they are weak-willed, or are reaping what they sowed and experiencing the results of their own horrible choices. More often than not, people are quick to condemn those who endure ongoing suffering and those trapped by addiction while being slow to show understanding or compassion. But in coming alongside fellow strugglers, I have come to understand that addiction can happen to anyone from the brightest theologians to the toughest athletes, and even includes the most faithful and dedicated Christians.
Anyone who takes the time to look beneath the surface of the labels and stereotypes will often find a very different picture of the heart and soul of the person who is in this heart-breaking situation. In my own experience, rather than discovering a person full of sin and degradation and enthralled in the addiction they chose, I have often found a person who simply followed the orders from a physician and wound up with an “innocent addiction.”
Reacting to Pain
Most people think they know how they would react if they were faced with pain or suffering. But when suffering becomes a reality, they often react differently than they expected, which is hard for them to understand. Internal pain thresholds vary greatly, as do the degree of support from a healthy community and the nurturing connections a person has. What severely impairs one person may hardly phase another. And while some can precisely identify the source of their pain and suffering, others find it hard to identify the source, which makes treating the problem very difficult.
While the experience of suffering varies from person to person, the common element for everyone is the desire to experience relief from suffering. Sadly, temporary relief can be found in defective, deficient, and destructive sources. Those who suffer might self-medicate with things that can turn into unhealthy addictions, such as excessive amounts of alcohol, street drugs, sex, or anything that offers a short-term distraction or reduction in pain. They don’t realize that the quick fix not only doesn’t fix anything but also adds complications that make a long-term solution more difficult to find.
More commonly, those who suffer with chronic pain will seek professional help from a qualified physician to find relief. They trust in the letters MD or OD behind physician’s name and believe in the reputation that goes along with those letters. While seeking out a trained professional for relief from chronic pain and recurrent suffering is a better and healthier choice, it has sometimes created the worst outcome in the form of an innocent addiction. Up until recently, physicians were often unaware of the addictive power of the pain medications they would prescribe to control a patient’s chronic pain. Instead of resolving the issue of chronic pain, a new addiction would be created, which would cause further damage.
The Reality of Pain Killers
More recently, pharmaceutical companies have searched for and promised medication that would kill pain and not lead to addiction. While they have developed synthetic narcotics that are exponentially more powerful than morphine, they have not successfully created a drug that has no addictive qualities. With false information and a sincere desire to ease pain, doctors began prescribing addictive medications in record numbers, producing record numbers of both deaths from overdoses and prescription drug addicts seeking treatment. Treatment centers that once treated only thirty percent of patients for prescription drug addiction suddenly found that number jumping to seventy percent or higher. Finally in 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a plea to physicians to stop writing so many prescriptions for these highly-addictive painkillers.
In a very bold and shocking decision, the CDC released guidelines in March 2016 that recommended against prescribing narcotic and synthetic painkillers for the treatment of chronic pain. They presented evidence that shows that narcotics do not provide a long-term solution to manage chronic pain. What works in the initial stages becomes less and less effective over time due to the body’s increasing level of tolerance to the drug, requiring more and more of the drug but receiving less and less relief. This, along with the tendency toward dependence on and addiction to the chemical, caused the CDC to advise against using narcotics to treat chronic pain.
Recognizing the Signs
Those who suffer and struggle with addiction awaken to a life that is not their own. They still have the constant agony, but now it is exacerbated by all of the components of addiction. Desperate to hang on to what they perceive they must have to survive may prevent a realistic examination of what is happening. With proper support and a willingness to be honest, self-evaluation can reveal the signs and symptoms of addiction. Asking for help from a close family member, friend, or an addiction specialist can be even more valuable. Below is a list of signs and symptoms that progress and intensify when those who suffer use an addictive chemical, which can lead to innocent addiction.
1. Increased Frequency of Use: It does not happen overnight, but gradually they find themselves using medication more than necessary. The prescribed six-hour routine between doses turns into five hours, and then fewer. There is still relief, but the relief does not last as long.
2. Increased Dose: Finally, they give in and start to increase the dose without the physician’s knowledge. It might mean an occasional doubling up at first, but eventually they are taking three or four times the amount prescribed just to produce some level of relief.
3. Multiple Sources of Supply: An ethical physician will not allow for consumption beyond the prescribed guidelines, so getting enough of the painkiller requires using two or more physicians, and then maybe street suppliers to keep you medicated. If it gets bad enough, they might order online, steal from medicine cabinets, or if really desperate, find a way to need to be taken to the emergency room.
4. Obsessive Thoughts: Getting the medication, taking the medication, and keeping the medication safe and close by consumes a lot of their time. Thinking about where it will come from next and worrying about running out of it fills their minds with fear and panic at the thought that one day they may not be able to find a source for the drug.
5. Irritability and Discomfort: As the effects start to wear off, they become anxious and feel the need to move. They are set off by the least disturbance or inconvenience. They are constantly on edge as their tolerance for frustration plummets.
6. Sleep Disturbances: It is difficult for them to sleep, or they sleep at odd hours, and they function poorly when they are awake in the presence of others. There are also times when they are taking so much of the drug that they are asleep most of the time.
7. Craving: There is no peace. They are driven by an urge to use. They cannot concentrate or focus properly because they crave the drug that they believe will provide relief. Nothing that was meaningful or satisfying is important anymore because they are singularly focused on finding, obtaining, and consuming the drug.
8. Defensiveness: If anyone wants to talk about the drug or suggests a change in habits, hygiene, or appearance, they are immediately defensive. They react out of a desperate need to protect the supply that they believe they must have. They are also defensive because they have a picture in their head of what an addict looks like, and they know that they are not at all like that.
9. Neglectfulness: They had been known to be a responsible person, but they no longer consistently go to work or attend to the normal responsibilities of adulthood, like paying bills or picking up kids. What came easily for them at one time seems almost impossible to accomplish now.
10. Opposites Day: Every day seems like opposites day. They are determined to be more loving but end up being angry or frustrated with everyone. They want to cut back but end up taking more. They want to stop but start up over and over again. They want people to care for them, but when people do try to help, those who suffer are cruel to their helpers and further alienate them. Those who suffer have faith and want to be strong, but their life looks more like they only believe in themselves and they are controlled only by their demands and needs.
The Road to Recovery
If the symptoms listed in the previous section are cropping up in your life or dominating your life, the bad news is that your life is no longer your own; you are held in the grip of a powerful chemical addiction. However, there is good news: this can change. With the help of God and support from others, you can be freed from the addiction.
It all starts with one word: surrender. Surrender is easy to say but difficult to do. In order to surrender, you must realize that the problem has not gotten better under current management: you. You must recognize that all your efforts have only allowed the problem to escalate into a seemingly impossible way of life. You come to believe that the problem is out of your control and your attempts to fix it will only mess up your life more. You must also come to see that God can handle all of this. You surrender by deciding to give control of your life over to God and allow him to help you.
Surrender generally comes in two forms: One form is an emotional response where you completely come to the end of yourself and give up everything to God; the other form is a physical response where you make the decision to comply with the process of change. You may not be ready to give everything over to God, but you are willing to comply with what has worked for others. In the physical form of surrender, you give up being the resident expert on everything and start listening and responding to the wisdom of others who have been where you are and have recovered from their addiction.
Once you give up your old methods, you need to stop hiding and open up with someone about what you have been going through. That could mean telling someone everything, or it could mean simply admitting to someone that you need help. This step is very important, but opening up should not be an end in itself; it should lead to getting help. Getting help isn’t about becoming hyper-spiritual and trying to act good enough or be strong enough to get well. Getting help means finding someone who has helped others with the same problem. If you don’t know where to find help, start by asking your physician or therapist for a recommendation or to connect you with a treatment center or a program such as a Life Recovery group where you can obtain support, encouragement, and accountability. It really is that simple. Since doing it on your own has not worked, you can choose a different path that includes allowing others to come alongside you and help you deal with all you have been through.
Biblical Clarity
The irony is that the innocent addiction often begins by someone seeking help for chronic pain and suffering. Unfortunately, reversing the addiction requires additional pain, which is one reason why it can take so long for someone to make the decision to do whatever it takes to make the transformation out of addiction and into complete freedom. The pain that most of us take great measures to avoid is the same pain that is required to take our lives back and move into the care of God. The apostle Peter offers a valuable insight on pain:
So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. ()
Rather than promising us a life free from pain, Peter explains that the willingness to experience pain is a sign of progress, an indication we are no longer going to settle for a life ruled by sin and selfishness. Each time we are triggered by emotional or physical pain, we must reach for God rather than for temporary relief that keeps us trapped in our addiction. Our unattainable goal of being free of all pain must transform into the attainable goal of having manageable pain and lessening its effect as much as possible.
Rather than taking a drug, we can try these things that have worked for others who suffer daily.
1. Live in Connected Community: Healthy connection with others provides opportunities to get out of ourselves and invest in others. We can shift our focus away from our sources of pain and find out about someone else’s struggles in an effort to understand their situation and possibly offer help rather than continue to obsess over our own situation. This community can provide healing touches, compassionate expressions, and moments of laughter. This connected community can be there in times when all that is needed is someone who will cry with us and share in our suffering.
2. Dissection: This technique involves mentally cutting off or cutting out the pain source from the body and seeing it as separate and distinct and distant from the rest of you.
3. Focused Breathing: Being aware of your breathing and intentionally slowing it down can help relax the entire body and reduce the anxiety that heightens pain. Focused breathing moves the focus from the pain, which you cannot control, and puts it on the rhythm of your breathing and the soothing sounds of your own inhaling and exhaling, which you can control.
4. Scripture Meditation: Repeating simple phrases such as “The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need” () can move us from stressing about the present to contemplating the eternal, which fills our minds with God’s truth and moves our focus onto God and off of our pain.
5. Technology: Electrical stimulation, biofeedback, and other advances in medical technology may be beneficial for your pain management. Keeping an open mind to different techniques that are available for your situation might lead to a more manageable level of pain.
6. Counseling: Anyone who suffers from chronic physical pain has more than enough to handle without having additional sources of pain. Resolving emotional sources of pain and trauma is a necessary step in being able to move on in your life so that the pain you cannot eliminate is not further compounded by the pain that can be addressed by working with a competent counselor or therapist.
Who Sinned?
When struggling with chronic pain and suffering, the hurt is often compounded by shame, some of which is self-inflicted. But even more shame can come from sources that should provide comfort and understanding. Shame not only increases our suffering, it also augments addiction. Those who suffer may experience shame from blaming themselves for an irresponsible act or believing they are being punished for something they did. Rather than opening the flood gates of emotional and spiritual healing, shame clogs up the channels for healthy recovery.
When faced with shame, you have two options: You can live in the cesspool of your shame, or you can examine how Christ treated those who made mistakes. Instead of condemning the woman at the well, Jesus offered her water that would quench her deepest thirst (). Rather than pointing out the shame of the woman caught in adultery, Jesus pointed out how shameful it was for imperfect men to hold her to a standard of perfection that none of them had achieved (). Instead of reprimanding Zacchaeus for being a liar and a cheat, Jesus told him he would share a meal with him (). If Christ could provide love and grace to these sinners, certainly he would do that for anyone—including you.
Some people are shamed by church leaders who incorrectly believe and teach that if God does not heal someone, that person must have a moral problem. These leaders forget that Job was a man who suffered even though he was recognized as a good man by God himself (). When the disciples met a blind man, they asked Jesus if the man was blind because of his own sin or the sins of his parents. Jesus’ response exposes the lie of shame.
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” ()
This passage makes it clear that sin is not always the origin of incurable conditions. No one should have to live with the shame that an unhealed condition is the result of unconfessed sin, weak faith, or anything else. Whatever the problem, God can use it to show his goodness and power. Anyone suffering from shame in addition to the agony of chronic pain can be freed by discovering the grace of Jesus Christ that is available to everyone.
No matter what your condition may be, honor God with it. You can experience fellowship with Christ in the midst of suffering because he also suffered. St. Augustine said that in his deepest wound he saw God’s glory, and it dazzled him. Seek out God’s glory, and be dazzled by what you find. Allow the Holy Spirit to comfort you with the grace and love of the Father. Cling to other believers and fellow strugglers who can offer truth, support, love, and the gift of being near you when you need it most.
It doesn’t matter if you have fallen into an innocent addiction or if you have plunged in knowing exactly what the potential for addiction was. You can be free of your past right now. Surrender everything to God, and with his strength, reach out to someone who can help you overcome the addiction and take back your life.