The Impact of Addiction Addiction is a serious problem in our society today and the treatment of addiction is both costly and ineffective. Almost everyone has been touched by addiction in a family member, in a friend, or in a co-worker and many of those touched have been damaged emotionally and financially by them. Approximately 90% of those in our jails and prisons have addiction problems that lead them repeatedly back to prison and jail in spite of their participation in treatment programs. 

The Problem with Treatment Programs Almost all treatment programs are based upon the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous which are good, biblically-based principles for living. In addition, most treatment programs teach clients about the damaging effects of drugs and alcohol in their lives and teach them "relapse prevention" principles to learn to recognize when they are about to slip so that they can take actions to avoid slipping. Although these principles can be useful they do not address the underlying emotional issues that lead people to abuse drugs or alcohol. These programs are primarily educational programs and these treatment programs do not help individuals resolve their feelings of grief, anger, and shame that are the reasons why they have urges to abuse drugs or alcohol in order to numb their feelings. 

The Basic Addiction Principle 

Many young people experiment with alcohol and drugs but most of them do not continue using them to the point that they become addicted because most people do not like to get drunk or high. Those who begin using drugs or alcohol regularly do so because of unpleasant emotional feelings such as anger, grief, sadness, and shame. When they use drugs or alcohol and find that it numbs their emotions they become addicted because it relieves their negative feelings. Once they become addicted it is extremely difficult to quit using permanently unless the negative emotions are resolved. 

An example of this principle was seen in a middle-age woman who came for some grief counseling after losing her son. She told me how her son began using drugs in high school and then developed a serious addiction after high school. He entered a treatment program in his early 20s and was converted to Christianity and began reading his Bible and attending church. His mother was thrilled to see this change in her only son and he remained clean and sober for five years. However, his depression returned and one day he called the local police and told them he was about to shoot himself and he gave his address where he could be found so that his mother would not have to find him. A policeman was next door and ran over to his house to try to talk him out of his suicide plans, but the young man shot himself in front of the officer and took his own life in spite of the officer's efforts. This young man remained clean and sober for five years but his underlying negative emotions were never resolved so he ultimately took his life due to the pain he was carrying inside. 

Set Free From Addiction

Treatment programs do not know how to set people from from grief, anger, or shame. I say this from personal experience (Dr. Gardner) because I tried for 25 years to help people with these emotions and was unable to do so. The research on grief, anger management, and PTSD confirm that therapists are very inadequate in helping those with these feelings, and if we are unable to help people with grief, anger, and shame we cannot help those with addictions. The three primary negative emotions that addicts have that lead them to abuse drugs and alcohol are grief, anger, and shame. In order to be set free from addiction individuals need to experience freedom from the negative emotions that lead them to seek relief through drugs. Once they receive healing from their grief, anger, and shame their urges to use drugs or to drink stop and they are able to remain clean and sober without going through a daily battle as those in AA or NA experience. 

In order to learn how to resolve feelings of grief, anger, sadness and shame read the preceding sections under this heading. Once you take these steps and allow Jesus to release you from these painful emotions you will discover that Jesus does, indeed, heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free. 

TESTIMONY 1

A Christian woman developed an addiction to pain pills a year ago after taking them for her pain from suffering a broken leg. She got off the pain medications but then felt so badly that she began drinking in a desperate attempt to feel better. Her family was very concerned for her and removed her children from her out of concern and threatened to have them taken from her legally if she did not get help. They strongly urged her to go into an inpatient treatment program but she and her husband decided to wait and see how our prayer sessions went before doing this. We met four times and each time we prayed about some past losses, anger, and feelings of shame. Each time she was able to resolve more traumas and losses from her past and she left feeling better, and each time her urges to use drugs or alcohol decreased. 

The last time I saw her she had gone two weeks without any urges and she said she felt "great!" Her husband agreed and said, "I feel extremely good about how she is doing." We reviewed all of the trauma areas and losses we had prayed about and she had prayed through on her own, and she reported feeling no lingering feelings of sadness, grief, or anger. She quit taking the psychiatric drugs that her Christian doctor had prescribed for her and said she has felt no depression for over two weeks. She said that she felt the medications actually increased her depression. Last week she was laughing at one of her children and her son said, "That's the first time I've seen you laugh in a long time." She didn't realize how depressed she had been but it was good to hear that her children were noticing the difference in her. She said that she is being a better mother and wife and the prayer sessions had improved her relationship with her husband "100%". Her husband agreed and said, "It's amazing!" 

We were all rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord and praising Him for being such and amazing God. What a joy it is to see this woman set free to love her children and husband the way she always wanted to. We will, of course, continue to follow-up with her to make sure she has truly resolved all of the underlying negative emotions that were driving her addiction but it is clear that she is doing much better and is likely to continue doing well. She and her husband are so excited about her changes that they want to share their story with others. She allowed us to videotape her sessions so that others can benefit and rejoice with her in her newfound freedom. These videos will be made available for purchase in the near future. 

TESTIMONY 2

As we go into the local jail each week we have the privilege of introducing men and women to Jesus and to see many of them come to salvation. However, many of these converts are released but then continue to struggle with alcohol and drug addictions and eventually return to the jail. So we began to teach them how to pray for emotional healing and we began praying with them individually so that they could resolve the underlying emotional issues that lead them to chronic substance abuse. 

One man had been involved in an addiction ministry with his wife and had been leading Christian recovery group meetings four or five nights per week but he still relapsed and went to jail. His wife was heartbroken and so disappointed that she would not visit him in jail. We met with him and explained that he needed Jesus to take away the negative emotions he had from his past that continued to lead him to abuse drugs. He was interested in praying with us to learn to pray for emotional healing. During our first meeting I gathered background information about this man and made a list of his prayer needs, including a list of individuals toward whom he was angry, a list of unresolved losses, and a list of unresolved shame issues. 

The following week we met with him and prayed with him about his anger toward his father and he was able to release his anger and felt peace and calm when talking about his childhood abuse. He was then released from jail but we continued to meet with him outside the jail to help him resolve the other issues on his prayer list. Over four more prayer sessions we prayed with him about other individuals whom he resented, about his unresolved grief issues, and about some feelings of shame he felt. Each of these emotions contributed to the negative feelings he carried around that led him to repeatedly seek comfort through drugs. 

As we prayed through his prayer needs he became progressively more peaceful in his heart, began getting along better with his wife, and became increasingly more able to talk with the Lord and experience closeness to Him. He learned quickly how to pray about his emotions and began praying on his own about the matters written on his prayer list so that he could speed the process up. After the fourth session he stated that he was no longer experiencing any urges for drugs or even thinking about them. He was able to stay clean and sober without a daily battle with his emotions and with powerful urges to use again.