The Church and the fight against addiction

It’s National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is taking notice:

“LDS Church featuring the stories of members who have overcome addictions”

“Church Video: Crystal Meth Addict Finds New Heart with God.”

If such addictions aren’t overcome, they can (and often do) have tragic implications.  Here’s one heartrending story of addiction and loss:

http://bycommonconsent.com/2015/09/02/requiem/

I’m guessing that virtually everybody could tell at least one somewhat similar story, too, whether from personal experience, from family or extended family, or from the travails of friends and neighbors.  Physiological and chemical addictions have taken a horrific toll on Americans and others.  So much talent lost, so many contributions unmade, so much promise blunted or altogether extinguished, so many lives ended far too early.

The author of this last item appeals to his/her readers who might comment following the article to “refrain from comparing non-physiologically addictive habits to alcohol and drugs,” saying that such comparisons “diminish” the uniquely “devastating reality” of chemical addiction. 

I get the point, and I agree.

Still, I do want to make one simple point:

I became acquainted with the Church’s twelve-step program for overcoming addictions while I was serving as a singles-ward bishop for an area adjacent to (though not always connected with) Utah Valley University.  I was urged to use it by my stake president, who was, as it happened, a licensed professional counselor.  I was quite impressed, and I did use it several times in counseling.

I didn’t, as it happened, deal with any cases of drug or alcohol addiction, but I used the materials to try to help some people cope with other recurrent kinds of what are sometimes called “self-defeating behaviors.”  (I also sent several people for professional psychological help at the Church’s expense, a resource for which I was deeply, deeply grateful.)

It occurred to me, as I read through the Church’s twelve-step manual, that most if not all of us are “addicted,” after a fashion, to one or more problematic things — including such simple matters as routinely staying up too late, even after we’ve resolved not to do so; sleeping in too long; overeating; acting inappropriately toward others; procrastinating; failing to exercise; and so forth.  And it occurred to me that overcoming such recurring misbehaviors, to bring our actions into line with our sound beliefs and best principles, is among the major missions of mortality — one might say that we’re here to try to become fully “sane” — and that working honestly and carefully, and perhaps more than once (with different areas of focus), through the Church’s simple little addiction-recovery book (which is easily available through LDS distribution centers and online) probably wouldn’t hurt me or anybody else.  There are other addictions beyond drugs and alcohol.

That said, of course, the chemical addictions are in a class by themselves in many ways.  I certainly don’t want to minimize that.  And those who are seeking to overcome such bondage, or to help others to overcome it, are in my prayers.