Overdosing from despair: How the Church can fight the opioid epidemic

One thing that can help is for churches to get back to preaching, teaching, warning, about the dangers of drugs whether they be opioids or alcohol.

God said to be sober.

http://gulfcoastpastor.blogspot.com/2017/04/11-reasons-to-not-drink-alc…

David R. Brumbelow

After listening to an interview with the author of “Freedomland” on this issue I have resolved to try to avoid taking opioids unless absolutely necessary. I’m sure we all know several addicted people. If we know the threat then we should try to avoid it.

Jim, your link didn’t work. Could you fix it?

Thank you sir!

[David R. Brumbelow]

One thing that can help is for churches to get back to preaching, teaching, warning, about the dangers of drugs whether they be opioids or alcohol.

God said to be sober.

http://gulfcoastpastor.blogspot.com/2017/04/11-reasons-to-not-drink-alco…

David R. Brumbelow

I know it’s hard to resist bringing up alcohol in your posts but please try to focus on the problem at hand. I’ve worked as an addiction therapist for over seven years. Many of the addicts I’ve worked with became addicted because they were prescribed opioid medication and did not realize how dependence and addiction works. They were nurses, truck drivers, car accident victims who became addicted without knowing it. There has been a lack of education on the risks of pain medication and enormous profits from the sale of pain meds. Too few pastors are knowledgeable enough about addiction to deal with it. Warning only goes so far. People need the gospel and gospel community. Nothing addresses addiction better than that.

I do not argue against the proper use of drugs for strictly medicinal purposes.

I do, however, argue against the use of drugs for recreation, pleasure, to get high, to get a buzz, to get drunk.

We should be afraid of drugs and use them with great caution.

Unless you have a legitimate need for the medicinal use of a drug, stay away from it.

And, this should be taught to youth and adults in our churches. If so, it would reduce the numbers of those addicted.

David R. Brumbelow

Per David’s comments, Ecclesiastes 9:7 comes to mind, not to mention the intoxicant in my coffee cup right now.

Regarding opiates, I’m no expert, but with five children born by C section, and being without a gallbladder and having made a number of visits to the ER (including one last week), it’s a really complicated thing. Some drugs work well for some people, but not for others. My wife, after one of five c sections, said “I don’t want THAT ever again”—she felt as if she didn’t care about her new baby and didn’t want that feeling every again.

I’ve had it hinted by an MD that when life is awful, opiates make a huge difference in mood—while when life is OK, opiates simply kill the pain (my experience when my gallbladder was taken out). Mostly. My daughter was in the ER last Wednesday with a broken leg, and morphine didn’t touch it. Setting the bone was required to kill the pain. On this forum, one commenter found that oxycontin didn’t touch his pain—but marijuana did. I was surprised last year when a young believer in my church went into Teen Challenge for heroin addiction.

Which is a long way of saying that it’s a fairly complex thing where we’ve got issues of the cost of opiates (Jim’s comment way above), the difficulties of modern life, and the simple variability of human responses to various painkillers. Trying to boil it down to black and white categories is simply harmful because it prevents the kind of analysis that will help people eliminate some pain without becoming addicted.

….it is a good one that emphasizes, albeit in a Catholic way with its sacramentalism and such, pretty much what Steve notes above, and does a good turn in noting that sometimes we are called on to suffer a degree of pain for Christ. It also notes the social isolation that can often lead to addiction.

One other thing; opiod deaths, at about 50,000 annually (rising over the past few years, hopefully that stops!), exceed all gun deaths including not only intentional homicide, but also suicides and accidents. It’s also more than all motor vehicle deaths. Big, big deal.

I did want to comment briefly on the difference between addiction and dependence. People who use opioids for pain management are considered dependent but not addicted. They are not drug addicts since addiction by definition involves negative behaviors which accompany the physical/psychological effects of craving and withdrawal. In the therapeutic community there are distinctions made between drug use, drug abuse, drug dependence, and drug addiction.

As Bert mentioned this is a complex issue. I know people who took pain meds once and could not stand the feeling. Others found relief from pain and knew little or nothing about withdrawal that took place after a short time and the associated craving. They got help immediately and with support were able to stop. Still others take opioids and have never felt better and continue to take them in search of that blissful, carefree state of mind. Once addicted the opioids are needed simply to feel normal, to function. And once the prescription meds are no longer available at the pharmacy they are available elsewhere on the street. Once buying on the street, from there it is a short step to snorting heroin without ever thinking about mainlining. I would say that a large percentage of those I worked with followed this path.

There is a great deal of discussion today on whether addiction is a disease and actually has been declared such by many in the scientific and medical community. People will still argue until they are blue in the face whether addiction is a disease or a choice. I like to think of it as a disease of choice. That is, rarely is someone forced to take that first opioid (although I’ve known exceptions). Once addicted there is something that goes on in the addicted brain that damages the choice mechanism in favor of the pleasure pathway. The addict does not simply have the choice to stop using on his own. That rarely happens. Treatment is a choice. There is normally some sort of intervention – detox, medication assisted treatment (i.e., methadone, buprenorphine, suboxone, etc.). I’ve worked with people on these medications. Some work better than others for certain people. Some will be on substitute medication for life. I keep two doses of Narcan spray (naloxone) in my car in case I run into someone overdosed and have received training in its administration (although it’s not that complicated).

Again it’s complex. It’s an epidemic. I have seen people become drug-free after their conversion to Christ. Conversion happens in a moment. Recovery does not. Becoming a new creation in Christ gives someone the resident Holy Spirit but does immediate relieve all drug cravings and behaviors. Christians need the support of their ecclesial community in their struggle and a discipleship pathway. Churches need to be educated on this issue.