9.25.2006

replacing one addiction for another?

i had an interesting experience this afternoon. i had just returned home when there was a knock on my door. opening it, i found a male close to my age, late 30's/early 40's. i noticed he had on a large, silver cross, hanging from a silver chain. it stood out against the black t-shirt he wore. he smiled and handed me a small piece of bright pink paper. he told me he was from a drug rehabilitation house where he himself had once been a client.
always intrigued to hear about people's life stories, their struggles, how they overcame them, i gave indication that i was interested in hearing more of what he had to say. he told me this treatment facility was a christian/bible-based facility, privately funded. clients stay, free of charge, for one year and receive room and board and treatment. at the present time they only treat males, but plans are underway for the creation of a facility for women. he told me everyone affiliated with the center are christians and that the graduates go on to become ministers, house managers, evangelicals. he said they have an 84% success rate, which given they treat primarily meth and heroin addicts, i would say those results are excellent.
in time, he began to quote scripture to me. this has always bothered me, especially when i haven't asked for a religious sermon or lesson. i respect people's right to practice whatever religious or spiritual practice they deem fit. religious freedom. however, i also wish to enjoy my own religious freedom (or freedom from religion as some may say). today though, i merely nodded my head and smiled. instead of focusing on my own discomfort, i felt the urge to focus more on this man. i noticed he was rattling off verses left and right in great speed. the look in his eyes was almost half-crazed. then it hit me: had this man simply traded one addiction for another?
it isn't that uncommon afterall. i've heard stories of people who, having spent years being addicted to binge eating, upon giving up this addiction, replace it with exercise. they become utterly fanatically obsessed about exercise.
after i went inside, i began asking myself some questions. are people required to listen to christian teachings in order to receive treatment at this facility? are people required to convert to christianity in order to receive treatment and graduate from the program? do you have to agree with their religious views in order to receive treatment?
when you are in the throes of addiction, you are vulnerable to the suggestions of others, especially to those who you are seeking assistance from. i know having been to my share of counselors for traditional psychotherapy, it is easy to look up to them as someone who holds the answer, the solution to your personal misery. it is therefore very easy to take what they say as "gold". without question. and this is all without the added element of drug addiction. add in a drug addiction and i would say the chances of making a convert out of someone is quite high (no pun intended).
does this treatment facility have as it's main goal rehabilitation or conversion? it is possible, in their eyes, to merely treat without converting? what about the client who enters and is hindu? muslim? jewish? agnostic? aethiest?
given this man's presense of near fanatical enthusiasm, i have to wonder. did he simply change one addiction for another? the end result may look better in the eyes of society, however addiction is addiction. and when you are caught in its cycles, you have lost your own power, your own voice. and the world needs people who are using their own voice, not the voices of others. that isn't empowerment, no matter how loudly you preach from your pulpit.

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