+JMJ+
Recently, Archbishop Michael Miller of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, in British Columbia, responded to what has become a public health crisis in his Archdiocese: lethal drug overdoses. The crisis recently prompted their provincial government to declare a public health emergency in respect to drug addiction and overdose. The Archbishop highlighted three factors that are contributing to the phenomenon: overprescription and availability of opioid painkillers, social isolation, and mental illness.
In the previous article on addiction, I offered some practical steps a person might take in a Catholic faith-based response to addiction, focusing on the moral and spiritual dimension. In this article, I want to talk a bit more about relapse prevention through the lens of Christian faith. The Archbishop mentioned 3 contributing factors to deaths by overdose but those also well illustrate factors that lead to relapse (indeed overdoses are often relapses). They could be restated as: 1) Availability 2) Isolation 3) Sickness of the Soul.
First of all, we know that availability is a factor in relapse. When we put ourselves into situations where we will be directly tempted by the availability of what we are addicted to we aren’t being a good steward of our body and respecting the sacred dignity of our personhood. We are also lacking humility, relying too much on our own strength. It is important, especially in early recovery, to do what the Church refers to as avoiding the near occasion of sin. As the saying goes, if you sit around in a barber shop enough you will eventually get a haircut. So, for preventing a relapse the first question it is important to reflect upon and get assistance with from a mentor is this: what near occasions are presently exacerbating my addiction? Here we list them and eliminate the ones that are both possible and reasonable to avoid.
As essential as being wise about avoiding the near occasion of sin is, it fails as a sole strategy. Avoidance alone only works for so long. One of the leading reasons that a person relapses is that they have relied solely on avoidance as a strategy. Without addressing isolation and the sickness of the soul, avoidance simply can’t be maintained over the long run. And like they say in the context of alcoholism, even if you were to try to escape to a remote region of the North and live in an igloo, someone is bound to stop by with a bottle if wine or liquor. What then? Or, in another context, you can have every possible filter and accountability software on your computer, what about the time where you will need to use a computer with open and unaccountable access? It is going to happen. Part of relapse prevention is recognizing that avoidance will fail if it is the only strategy.
The second point then is to address isolation. Isolation can be seen in two ways: 1) Isolation from the love of God 2) Lacking intimacy and community with others, i.e. contexts to love and be loved. As people of faith, we recognize isolation or alienation from God (who is love) as the primary conflict of the human person. We also recognize that even when a person is initiated into the saving mysteries of the faith and striving to live life in Christ there is still a tendency to backslide. We have a tendency toward what St. John called the threefold concupiscence: 1) Lust of the eyes 2) Lust of the flesh 3) Pride of life. In short, these mean that we tend toward a use of our senses that is disordered and leads to sin, we tend to seek sin in our flesh (i.e. to be experienced bodily), and we tend to lack humility in respect for our need for God and others. This tendency will always be operating in this life. So, we have a tendency within us that moves in the direction of isolation from the love of God and love in community with others, even as we know that we are made for communion with God.
We have an immeasurable gift: salvation. Salvation is the reality that is communicated through faith, in the Sacred Liturgy, Sacraments, Life in Christ (Commandments, Virtues, Beatitudes), and Christian Prayer. Salvation is liberation from evil and the gravest evil is alienation from the love of God. Many may think that having received the Sacraments of Initiation and going to Church on Sunday is enough to abide in faith in the love of God. But it isn’t. In fact, we can be going through all the motions, observing the precepts of the Church, even volunteering in ministries, etc., but something is missing.
Have you ever met people who are involved in the life of the Church yet seem miserable, bitter, and judgmental? The fact of the matter is that our conception of faith can work against us. A true conception of faith is one that works for our salvation and liberation from evil. That means it is effective for reconciling us to the love of God as communicated by Christ and entrusted to His Body, the Church. It is effective for increasing our Christian faith, hope, and love, in everyday life. A faith that is effective for our salvation causes us to live in a way that is more deeply connected to people, more able to empathize with them, to love them, and view them through the lens of mercy (understanding how deeply we ourselves depend upon it!). It also means we have a deep resource for healing, for love, for strength, for peace, for wisdom, that isn’t us: God the Holy Trinity.
If our present experience of faith and participation in Church life is not leading us deeper into sobriety then something is amiss. We need a faith that works for our spiritual and moral good, not against it. If our faith is leading us out of isolation, to greater intimacy with God and others, sobriety and moral stability will be a fruit of that. Self-righteousness is not a fruit of faith. Hypocrisy is not a fruit of Christian faith. Obsessing on the faults of others is not a fruit of Christian faith. These things only increase our isolation and leave us vulnerable to relapse. Our question to address the second factor that contributes to relapse could be something like this: What about my faith, or lack thereof, is keeping me from the love of God?
The third factor that contributes to relapse is related to the second and it has to do with what I call the Sickness of the Soul. Here I am using ‘soul’ in a broad way to represent the interior of the human person, that which isn’t directly observable or measurable but is nonetheless his center. We could say it encompasses the heart and the mind (but is still broader and deeper). Becoming well in heart and mind is integral to relapse prevention. We could say there are two primary means of doing this: 1) Natural 2) Supernatural.
The natural means begin with the most essential factors: good nutrition and proper, regular, sleep. It is amazing how far this goes. It also means getting physical exercise and having healthy ways of working with stress. Caring in a proper way for the body is often neglected in addressing an addiction, but it shouldn’t be. It may also mean seeing a clinician who can assist with cognitive distortions and other behavioral deficits, and help us grow in these areas. Or, working through grief, and trauma, with a counselor. It is important to bring up what is going on with our doctor, they can be very helpful resources and are trained to see things from a different perspective than we are. Dealing with the natural, or human elements, of our mental health, interior life and experience, is foundational to healing the Sickness of the Soul. But, as integral as it is, it also isn’t enough on its own.
We know by faith and reason that the human person is made for communion with God. Apart from that communion and the degree to which we lack communion with God we are not well within ourselves, in the deepest most hidden part of ourselves. So, we must ask ourselves, am I really living in communion with God? What am I doing to nurture and deepen that communion? We know by faith that every human being has a certain sickness of soul because of the inheritance and proliferation of sin. This sickness of soul is perhaps the most fundamental disease that every human person experiences and that Jesus came to heal. It manifests in a myriad of different ways, yet, it is the easiest to neglect. Why?
Perhaps it is part of our disease that we aren’t able to see it well in ourselves, and often we don’t have a reference point for a different way of being. But Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, all the saints, and the living models of holiness in our midst do provide that reference point. They demonstrate the Christian path of humility and receptivity to divine grace that is essential for healing that is oriented toward the eternal and blessed end of every human person. So perhaps the most important question for the last factor is, do I recognize that part of my human condition is that I am need of healing of soul that is communicated through both natural and supernatural means? and even further, Do I realize that I will seek to satiate a thirst that is at the center of my being with things that will never satiate it?
The water of the world, even the most essential kind, doesn’t reach our thirst for our Creator…
As our Lord tells us, “..everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn: 4:14).
AMDG
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