Addictions, The churches role in the healing Process

The following is an excerpt From the Plenary Message at the International ISAAC Conference on Addiction. Madrid, Spain

Addictions, The churches role in the healing Process
Michael Dye

It’s an exciting time to be in the Christian counseling and recovery ministry.

For the first time in history we have begun to understand what is broken with addictions. We can answer the question from Rom. 7: “why we do the very thing we don’t want to do?” We've all worked with people, like Paul, who had good intentions, will power, intelligence and faith, but despite all these gifts and motivation, they continue to relapse.

It is also the first time in history that all the helping systems can agree on something. Both medical and psychological scientific researchers and Christian workers agree that the origins of our problems have to do with fear. Fear can be called by many names, such as stress and anxiety, but the root is fear. Fear is a unique problem because it affects the whole person, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and even spiritually. The number one command in the bible is ”Do not fear”. In fact, it comes up 365 times. The medical profession says that over 80% of our physical problems relate to stress. Counseling and psychological professions agree that about 80% people that come in for treatment are suffering from some form of anxiety. I believe that fear is at the core of our self destructive, addictive behaviors. All addictions have one thing in common, whether it is drugs and alcohol, sex, food, work, or even religion; addictions do primarily one thing: they push unwanted thoughts, feelings, and memories temporarily out of our conscious awareness. So let’s briefly look at the origins of addiction.

In the first years of our life the part of our brain that is developing is a part that has to do with bonding, trust and attachment. It grows from our experiences with our caregivers and our environment. During this period it basically decides whether the world is safe or dangerous. As babies, we cannot survive on our own; we have to depend on others to get our needs met. If, when we cry out because of a need, those needs get met in a comforting way, we come to believe that having needs makes us vulnerable, and when we become vulnerable, we get rewarded, i.e. we are able to receive gratification from others. But if our needs don’t get met, we see the world as dangerous. Having needs makes us vulnerable and when crying out results in abuse or neglect, the brain learns that we have to take care of ourselves, resulting in what we call a survival, or hyper vigilant brain. If we can’t bond and trust others, we have to learn to gratify ourselves. These are the beginnings of what predisposes us to addictive behavior.

The part of the brain that controls our survival is called the limbic system. The limbic system has a separate memory from the conscious part of our brain. It records experiences that have to do with pleasure, reward, hurt and fear. These memories are very important to our ability to survive. The Limbic System sets up emotional responses to avoid fear and pain and to repeat things that have to do with pleasure and reward. If we grow up in a situation that researchers call “chronic, inescapable stress,” the limbic system becomes like radar, searching for ways to reduce the stress and make us feel normal again. Addictions are not necessarily about feeling good or getting high, they are about feeling free of stress or feeling normal because normal is associated with survival. Researchers have identified three areas that this part of the brain is responsible for: they are food, sex, and safety. Can you think of any addictions that are not in these areas? Because these three areas have to do with survival, the limbic system creates a unique emotion to focus on these areas called a craving. Cravings are always associated with areas of survival. Food and sex are obvious, but safety is the area where drugs, alcohol, work, relationships, religion have been associated with pushing painful, unwanted thoughts, feelings, and memories (that produce stress) temporarily into the background. Our Limbic System has associated these behaviors with survival.

Let’s look at how this information relates to recovery and relapse prevention. All addictions are a double bind. A double bind is when we are in a lose/lose situation. Or when the thing we need the most is also the thing we fear the most. Example, if I continue to drink alcohol, my body is going to become diseased; it will destroy my relationships with others and with God. But if I give up the alcohol, how I will cope with life? Staying stuck in the middle of a lose/lose situation produces feelings of anger, frustration, hopelessness, depression anxiety and fear. These are the very emotions that addictive behaviors anesthetize. I believe that the problem of intimacy is the double bind which is the core of our coping addictive behaviors. God created us for intimacy, to be bonded with Him and others. I define intimacy as ability to give and receive love without walls and barriers. There is a universal double bind that ties us together as human beings, that we are social, bonding beings who wound each other.

The emptiness and pain of surviving our woundedness keeps us from reaching out and trusting others; this puts us in a situation where the thing we need the most is also the thing we fear the most. So, how do we cope with being alone and empty? I believe that our addictive behaviors are ways to temporarily push back the awareness of the empty place.

In the Genesis process a key component to successful recovery is to bring the fear and the pain of these double binds into our conscious awareness and take practical steps to move towards resolving the issues. In doing so we have found that the cravings produced by the limbic system to cope with these lose/lose situations have been reduced or eliminated. Recovery is learning to trust again. Freedom from our self destructive behaviors comes as a result of reaching out to God and others and facing the underlying issues that our addictions were there for. If we don’t we end up just trading one addiction for another. The pain is still there, but we just have to find another way to cope.

About a year ago, I believe the Lord spoke to me saying “the hurting, addicted, people you work with are never going to be successful without the church”. This created an instant double bind. Most recovery ministries have not been able to partner with the church because the issues of recovery can be so theologically and emotionally charged. In most cases the church doesn’t have a problem with God healing people physically, but when it comes to the healing of addictions, or mental and emotional problems, there are very strong opinions about how God is supposed to do that. Many of the people we worked with have had painful negative experiences with the church and have gravitated towards secular 12-step recovery groups because they feel safe and accepted there. Restoring someone who has been caught in severe addictive behavior is a community project. Our recovery ministries can provide counseling, understanding, and healing. Community based support groups provide tools and support from others who have been successful in living free of their addictions. In working with addicts over the years, I have noticed that in the first part of the recovery process, their daily struggle is with withdrawing from their addiction. After a few months, I notice that their daily struggle was the same as mine: morals, values, and relationships. Morals are simply struggling to do the right thing. Values are investing our lives into what is important and valuable to us. If we don’t do this, life can become confusing, losing its purpose and meaning.

Of course relationships are not only the most important area of life, but the most difficult. Most relapses happen because of relationships. Recovery is being supported in growing in the area that we are struggling with. So where are the programs out there for long term recovery in the areas of morals, values and relationships? As far as I know, there is only one and that is the church. The truth is that programs don’t work. If programs worked for addictions, we would have figured out by now what works and we would all be doing it. What works in restoring a broken life is when one person invests himself into another person. Only the church has the program and the resources for this kind of investment.

It takes two things to make the church safe for hurting people: grace and competency. Grace makes it safe to share our secrets and our struggles because we won’t be judged, condemned, or preached to. In a practical sense, Grace is when people see our hearts rather than our behaviors. Competency makes it safe to reveal our problems because we can see that they have the experience, understanding, and plan to help us change and be successful. So whose problem is this? I believe that we in the recovery world have to be pro-active in creating safe churches for our people to be successful. Not just in staying abstinent, but to grow into healthy social and spiritual beings. Remember the limbic system was negatively programmed through painful experiences with people we trusted. Healing also comes experientially from learning to trust again.

The Genesis Process ministry used to be focused entirely on training workers in the addiction field. Now a large part of Genesis’ work is offering weekend, personal recovery workshops called Change Seminars in churches. If we can get the church in recovery (identifying their problems and secrets, courageously moving towards resolving them), that will make them safe for other struggling people. God is speaking to many pastors internationally about having healing churches. They have the biblical program and resources to help our people heal; we have the knowledge from years of experience to help hurting people. Between the two of us, I think we can see the success that we always knew was possible.

Michael Dye is a California, National Level II and International Certified Addiction Counselor. He has worked with hurting and addicted people for over 20 years. As a missionary with Youth With A Mission for 10 years, Michael has had hands-on experience with compulsive behaviors in many cultural settings while designing and directing residential recovery programs.

Michael has always had a passion for researching new ways to help both clients and counselors be more successful. Along with his private practice, he is currently working full-time to train counselors in the Genesis Process. He is also working to integrate relapse prevention principles into churches, residential and outpatient programs.


Michael Dye, CADC, NCAC II
25363 Rodeo Flat Rd.
Auburn Ca. 95602
Tel/fax (530) 269-1072
Email: mcdye@genesisprocess.org
Web: genesisprocess.org