Walking With a Loved One Through AddictionSample

ENSLAVING SOLUTION

Egypt wasn’t always a problem for the Israelites. In truth, after years of severe famine, Egypt was an answer to prayer! In the lands Pharoah gave them, God’s people found a source of peace, satisfaction, and security.

But it didn’t last. A new king came to power, who turned on the Israelites, and a place of refuge became a brutal prison. What was once a solution itself became a problem. Freedom turned to slavery.

Those who struggle with addiction tell a similar story. When drugs came into his life, my friend Huseyin says they delivered something far more valuable to him than a ‘buzz’ or a ‘high.’

“I’ve been traumatized,” he explains. "I’ve gone through parents divorcing, Dad going to prison, violence in the home, a whole incongruence between the culture at home and the culture of my community, as a Turkish kid growing up in North London. When I found drugs, it really helped me. When I first took heroin, I remember thinking, Why isn’t everyone doing this? Drug use was an answer to the way I was feeling. It was a solution, my first attempt at healing. I discovered something that worked, and it was fast-acting, so I grabbed it with both hands.”

Long before it’s a problem, addiction is a solution.

As such, recovery from addiction involves finding healthy solutions to those underlying problems and addressing the relationship with the substance or activity itself. This demanding process often requires assistance from professionals, recovery mentors, and mutual-help groups. At first, recovery may not be possible without withdrawing to a safe environment, such as a residential rehab or the home of a supportive family member. It may require the daily attendance of a support group, like Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, or Celebrate Recovery. It may involve significant decisions about where we work, friendships and intimate relationships, financial commitments, and social activities. It may also require a period of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT).

In drugs, Huseyin found a way to satisfy genuine and legitimate needs. In recovery, he learned to meet those needs in life-giving ways, using many of the means listed above. However, he found the heartbeat of his recovery – and the primary solution to his underlying problems – in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

“If I’m using drugs and drugs work,” he says, “I’ve got to find something better, something that works. When I found recovery in the form of a relationship with Jesus and mentoring relationships with people who gave me something of themselves, it was a better solution. It stands the test of time. It’s the strongest; it holds the most water; it’s the kindest to me. I’ve found something that works.”

As you walk with a loved one through addiction, one day at a time, may you both find the help you need – human and divine – to experience ever-increasing freedom from addiction and new life in Christ.