AACC Weekly Biblical Insight – July 12 – 18, 2010

June 21 – June 27
Addiction and Substance
Abuse in the Family

Action Steps

The following Action Steps are directed to the counselor.

1. Arrange for a Contract and Accountability
• Help the addict commit to some form of accountability and help, at the most serious level to which he or she will agree. If the client will sign a contract with you, agreeing to stop use and get immediate help for the addiction, he or she is serious about change. If not this, seek an agreement for a time-limited period, at least until your next meeting with the client. Help the person make a commitment to some type of Christian recovery program or to attend a local AA meeting and get a sponsor.
2. Prevent the User from Driving While Intoxicated
• To protect family members, the user, and innocent bystanders, you need to convince this person to stop driving or doing anything while under the influence.
• The Club and other antitheft devices prohibit driving; sophisticated electronic devices can prevent driving unless a Breathalyzer test is first passed.
• Point out that this is for the good of the client and others, and that continued use of the substance will cause repercussions in the rest of his or her life—not being able to drive to work or to go other places.
• Develop a plan with the counselee restricting driving privileges the first time he or she drives under the influence (this means the counselor or a responsible adult in the counselee’s life will take the keys to the vehicle of the counselee). It would be a good idea for the plan to be signed by both the counselor and the client to enhance accountability and participation. This sets a clear boundary regarding substance abuse and imitates what will happen if a DUI citation is imposed.
3. Assure a Thorough Medical Checkup
• A medical exam will rule out any medical problems caused by use of the substance.
• An addiction such as alcoholism in its late stages progresses to a diseased state, so treatment from a doctor is certainly recommended.
• A physician can also prescribe any medicine that may be helpful to sobriety, especially when a dual disorder is involved.
4. Get Professional Help
• Encourage the user to allow a professional in chemical dependency to assess whether the substance use is an addiction. Such assessments are available at community mental health agencies, some hospitals, and community substance abuse centers (common in urban and suburban areas and through county governments in many rural areas). A professional counselor can also be very helpful in assessing and treating an addiction, or a dual disorder, if one is present.
5. Encourage Family Members to Seek Support
• Your community may have various 12-step support groups, such as Al-Anon, Families Anonymous, or a Christ-centered recovery program. You may need to do some research and direct the family to a good program. These programs are based on the “Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous,” the most successful program in the world to date for treating addiction.

Biblical Insights

• Many alcoholics are so dependent on alcohol that they begin early in the morning and continue drinking until late at night.
• The tragedy of addiction is that it influences and dominates the desires and choices of the addicted.
• The even greater tragedy is that addicted people reject the Lord’s work in their lives. God alone can provide the lasting comfort, joy, and relief that people mistakenly seek in alcohol.

• Addictions are powerful enemies to our relationship with God. Whether the addiction is to alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, web-surfing, shopping, or whatever, addicted people can attest to their apparent inability to control their desires.
• Addictions usually begin very subtly—an experience, substance, or individual that brings pleasure begins to become an obsession. Eventually, the obsession takes control. Rarely can a person escape the addiction without some form of intervention.
• Addicts must determine to change, replace the addictive substance with something more wholesome, and then finally find a different way to meet their need.
• Addictions destroy individuals, families, friendships, reputations, and careers. Addictions make people victims of their own desires and compulsions.
• Despite all this, God offers hope to the addict. God wants to free His people from anything that takes His rightful place in their lives. He wants to show them that He can meet all their needs. With God’s help and the compassionate accountability of other believers, addicts can be set free—bought back. Jesus has already paid the price.

• God gave people “richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17), but Satan works tirelessly to take God’s blessings and twist them into evil.
• Believers may enjoy many things, as long as Scripture does not forbid them, but they must never allow themselves to be controlled or “brought under the power of any.”

• These verses describe some of those sinful desires that believers should “put to death.” Sexual sins, evil desires, and covetousness (a form of idolatry) should have no place in a believer’s heart.
• It takes a conscious daily decision to say no to these sinful temptations and rely on the Holy Spirit’s power to overcome them.
• Read with the client: Ephesians 1:15–21; Colossians 1:9–18; 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20; and Titus 1:2.