Addiction Treatment Podcast Episode

Recovery works, treatment works, it happens, and people get better. And so that’s the hope we can offer, and we are not in any position to say that’s quick or easy. It’s neither one, but it’s worth it. Welcome friends to Breaking Bread, the podcast brought to you by Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services. 

Today in the studio, I have Roger Gasser with us. Thanks for coming in, Roger. Nice to be here, Matt. Roger is a clinician here at ACCFS, although his office is in Paulding, Ohio, and his niche is addictions. And so, Roger, I’d like to talk to you about this area of expertise, addictions, but in particular treatment for addiction. 

Okay, and there are of course numerous addictions. We see numerous cases of sexual addiction, and there are also, of course, substance use, alcohol, drugs, et cetera, and so they require different kinds of treatment, but the underlying causes might be similar. One way or another, addictions tend to be methods of alleviating pain. 

So, it’s a coping method. It’s a coping mechanism, sure. It is fruitless to just treat the symptom of addiction. When we work with somebody that’s addicted to alcohol, we just want them to get over drinking alcohol, and that is fine, but it’s more important to get to the underlying issues which might be relationships. It might be the way they think. It might actually be a physical problem, or it might be a spiritual problem. So, for us to say, well, I’m not addicted. How do we think through that? Am I addicted? Addictions tend to be repetitive. They tend to be destructive. And they tend to be unmanageable. And they can be degenerative.  

And what that means, degenerative, is it gets worse over time. Addictions are in progression. That’s correct. They move from one stage to another stage in terms of maybe dosage, or it could be frequency. Correct. Sometimes, a client might say, well, I’m satisfied, I’m not getting into too much trouble yet because of this. But if they find themselves needing more of the same, needing an increased frequency or an increased dosage, it is eventually going to catch up with them because addiction is present.  

Let’s just take that last example where you said a person saying, well, I don’t think this is a problem yet. Let’s needle in on that particular issue. We might call it denial. The idea of denial can be thought of as coming in various stages. This is how I think of it anyway. I think the first stage of denial is denying the existence of the other. I don’t have that problem. Other people have it, but I don’t. That’s denying the existence. Another stage is denying the extent of the problem. Well, yeah, I’ve got a problem, but it’s not as bad as you think. It’s not too bad. And it’s not as bad as so and so. Right. Let’s just take our neighbor Joe, for example. He’s got a worse problem than me. So why are you talking to me about him? 

So, then the third stage would be denying the solvability of a problem. Quit talking to me about it because it can’t be solved. There are loved ones surrounding an addicted person. What hope or information can you bring to loved ones who want to help their denying addicted loved one receive help? 

Very often, if someone has a thinking that is characterized by addictive thinking, they are not thinking correctly. One of the best ways to check our thinking is to be in community and just ask several people, what do you think about this? Do I have a problem or not? And one of the best ways for a family to intervene in the life of a loved one is to stage an intervention. We have a book called Love First. We recommend the book, which gives some directions on providing an intervention on behalf of a loved one or interventions can be contracted. You could hire someone to do an intervention.  

So, what does an intervention look like? If Joe has a problem that his parents see as a problem, his brothers and sisters see as a problem, his employer sees as a problem, a minister might see it as a problem. They all see it as a problem except Joe. The members of the intervening party, or a family, it’s usually a family unit, would plan together a method of treatment for Joe. And it might involve residential treatment, it might involve a doctor’s examination, it might involve numerous things, but they need to plan a strategy so that when Joe enters the house, and Joe normally doesn’t know that he’s going to be met with all these people, and so he might walk in a room and there’s a number of people there and it takes him by surprise. 

But the key element is that all of them have a plan. They have thought it through. If it involves travel for Joe, they have bought tickets. If it involves treatment at a certain facility, they have made provision for that. So that there would be no excuse? There would be no excuse. Or all of the barriers have been removed for Joe? Right. Because Joe would say, oh, well, I don’t have tickets and they could say, we’ve got them. Yeah. Oh, but they won’t take me at the last minute. We took care of that. Or how about my job? The boss has said you can leave for a while to get treatment.  

So, we’ve worked that out. And it’s all worked out. So, the purpose of the intervention is to really confront Joe with the reality of what everybody is seeing, but him. And if he can be convinced to enter treatment, that’s wonderful. And so, then that’s the first step. Now, a couple of things. One, if I caught it, there is an element of surprise and that’s important. That’s correct. So, what we’re doing at this moment is we’ve staged a moment with Joe for him to come face to face with his issues. I notice as you explain that, Roger, that it really addresses denial quite nicely. Does Joe have a problem? Well, these six people sure think you do. Is it extensive? Yeah, enough for us to talk to your boss and to buy some tickets. 

Is there a way forward? Is it solvable? Yeah, we believe so. Here’s the plan. You know, it does kind of meet all of those in that moment. But as you said, the decision still lies with Joe, doesn’t it? It does, yes. And some of the classic cases where addiction has been overcome have been in the cases where the person didn’t see the need of treatment or believe in the need of treatment. 

Treatment is effective whether the person wants it or not. We find that to be true and that’s a wonderful thing in our faith community that we can depend on that even though, Joe, you can’t solve this, and I can’t solve this, but the Lord can do this, and he uses people. So, if you would sketch out what treatment looks like for an addicted person. 

Okay. The degree of intensity is going to dictate the degree of treatment. It might be that a particular individual can be helped with outpatient therapy. What is the best way to help a patient solve their problem with outpatient therapy? It might just be by doing some counseling they can get over their issue. It might be more intense. 

And in fact, for some clients, I used to work in an intensive outpatient program. Intensive outpatient is a fairly serious intensity of treatment, and it involves nine hours or ten hours a week. And so, in my situation, it was like three nights a week, three hours a night, and there would be classes, they would have groups, there would be drug testing, there would be AA meetings. 

There would be more groups, there would be videos, there would be more classes, just over and over. And how long would those go? Whatever the court system would have provided. It would be a matter of some months, probably. So then if somebody could not obtain sobriety at the end of that, and if they were just continually getting in more trouble, then the court would say, okay, you need the next higher level of treatment, which is residential. 

The fundamental currency of the level difference is time. Correct. The time with an expert, maybe I need to put that qualifier on there, time with an expert, time with a counselor working through your issues. It may be an hour every week or every couple of weeks at the low end. Then you’ve talked about outpatient, which sounds like it’s quite a few hours a week, nine, and then residential where you really forfeit a great deal of your life to devote to this large time contact with the professional. That’s correct. Yeah, for a residential program, the person will temporarily quit their job because they need to be living on campus at this facility. And there is a variety of facilities, there is a variety of rehab programs out there. How do you begin to figure out which program? There can be 28 days or 30 days. There can be 60 days, there can be 90 days. The best results, which I have seen, are simply related to time. That’s one big factor. They need to be long enough for the interactions to change. For the person to go under the surface of the iceberg and explore those depths that have kept them bound. And of course, one of the big factors of variability here is price, because 90-day treatment programs are hugely expensive. 

Obviously, 30-day, 28-day would be less. And it’s quite all right if somebody can be brought into recovery with a 30-day program. That’s all well and good, but it might be that, depending on the nature of the addiction and the length of it, that person might need 90 days. So, it sounds to me you’ve made it clear that those 90-day residential treatments seem to be more effective, and I’m going to assert a reason on why that is, and then I want you to correct it, but I would guess that they are unwinding and rewinding a lot in our brains, in our hearts, in our affections. There’s been a lot of habits built. There’s been a lot of scripts that we’ve memorized as an addicted person, and those are not rewritten and unwound quickly. 

Am I right about that? That is exactly right. Sure. So that 90 days really is the intensive required in many cases to do that hard and heavy lifting. That is correct. A shorter program might allow the person to be detoxed in probably less than a week, but it’s necessary for the person to not only get detoxed, but also sent on their way. And one of the other big factors in picking out a spot would be if there is good counseling available to the person entering the treatment program.  

Well, let’s go right there then, Roger. What would be the criteria? What should loved ones look for in a residential treatment program? I can tell you what Ashes to Glory use as their criteria and I would be hard pressed to improve on that. Ashes to Glory is a foundation that is mentioned on our website, and they can provide some financial help for family members, but they would not give help, really, unless the facilities fall under four basic categories. And number one, they would want it to be 90 days. They want it to be long enough. Number two, they want to have faith-based counseling to the core. And that does not mean that you can get through lightly, the thought is that’s not near enough. We need faith all the way through. Yeah. To the core. Yes. And then another characteristic would be heavy involvement with the family. There are some facilities that have family weeks. And they can be very intense, and along with just a family week, though, there might be a weekly phone call to the parents of a young person, for example, and by that counselor. 

Yeah, so that family component is important. That’s really important. Yeah. So, length of time, Christ centered to the core, and then heavy involvement with families and highly trained counselors. And I think that says a lot for the foundation of Ashes to Glory saying we want to help fund treatment programs, but we want to fund the most successful ones. 

That is correct. And so that criteria really speak a lot to their experience on what success looks like or where it comes from. Yeah, absolutely. Because there are a lot of places, and by no means am I saying that everyone that has an addiction needs to go to a residential facility, that’s not true, but it’s a big issue if there is consistent denial. Because at some point, the denial has to be faced and overcome. And it’s very unlikely that an individual who is addicted is going to be brought to sobriety against their will. So, they have to know that they have a problem, and they have to want really badly to fix the problem. And it helps to have family members that can realize the seriousness of this person’s path. Because we never know exactly where our path will lead.  

We don’t know, exactly. If we’re on the right track, it helps to be in community. Well, that sentiment has come across very strongly, I think, Roger, in this conversation, which I’ve really appreciated, is the power and the importance of community, the power and importance of family and of fellowship. 

And that’s where the best care is provided for people, but also that is where the best encouragement and motivation to be cared for comes from. I think that’s really insightful that we best understand the reality of our own situation through our community than just us looking at ourselves. 

Yes, that’s correct. Some facilities have co-ed treatment. Treatment of men and women are on the same campus. We are not in favor of that, and I would not recommend that. There are enough issues in dealing with addiction, that we don’t need to have gender differences clouding the recovery. So, there are facilities that deal strictly with young men, or young women, or older men. 

Roger, should somebody want to know where some of these residential treatments or other treatments are or where they might go to get some of that information? Places tend to come and go. There are some tried and true places, and I would recommend you talk to us or someone who has experience at one of these places to give you the current feeling about it because they have changed a little bit over the years.  

Roger, I want to check my understanding here, so correct me if I’m wrong. But really, when it comes to treatments, we’ve got a wide variety. And that variety really needs to meet the level of the addiction. Am I right on that? That is correct. 

Okay. So, I’m not sure small and large are good terms to use, but small addiction might be cared for with a few hours periodically with a counselor. Correct. And so that, to me, sounds like we’re trying to preserve life for this person and yet meet their needs. That is right. There are probably some nuances that we haven’t covered yet with this particular one. 

What would those be? Well, with intensive outpatient, if you are looking for an intensive outpatient program, numerous hospitals and treatment centers will provide that. And I don’t believe it’s critical at this point, this is my opinion, that they need to be faith-based in order to be good. There are characteristics of addiction that the secular community knows very well, just as the believing community, the faith-based community. 

But one of the things that you are going to find with addiction treatment is there’s a strong emphasis for groups and a support group is highly recommended. Even AA, which started in the 1930s, and there’s an interesting history about the individuals who were alcoholics and just could not seem to overcome their alcoholism. And they ended up coming up with 12 steps, which is amazingly similar to the conversion program that the Apostolic Christian Church upholds. And there are just great benefits for addicted people being supported by a group. And once again, if in a group setting, here we have community again, it’s basically people who have banded together for the purpose of overcoming an addiction, and they know that they need each other, and the 12 steps work, there’s hardly a judge in the country that would deny the effectiveness of the 12 steps, even though that happens to be a fairly faith-based creation. 

When would you advise an intensive outpatient program? Very seldom would somebody just go from no treatment at all to a residential facility. If a simpler treatment will work, that’s fine, but if it does not work, then we need to up the ante and go to a more intense program. So, intensive outpatient is also like a step down from residential. 

I mean, if you just spent three months in a residential rehab program, it would be very unlikely that they would send you home and say, okay, you’re free now. Just go back to doing what you did before, because there needs to be a step-down approach, just as there’s a step-up approach. We have to find answers outside of us, right? 

Which bears now the need for community, the need for church, and ultimately the need for Jesus, because at the very core of it all, none of us find an answer that’s within us. We all find the answer without us, and that is Jesus who comes to us. Does that make sense? That makes a lot of sense. 

Right. We need someone who can take care of us when we cannot, and it clearly says, we’re taught in the Word that we love him because he first loved us. And so, he came to us in our moment of need, which was way before we thought we needed any help. Yeah, in final comments here Roger, what would you say for those family members, those loved ones who have addictions they’re aware of. They want help for their loved one. What hope and advice would you give?  

I would say, Matt, that hope is real. It’s present and it’s found in the person, Jesus Christ. Any addiction is going to take time to recover. It’s not going to be quick and easy. There are no quick and easy answers with addiction. 

And so, it’s necessary that whoever is doing the overcoming, or the people, family members, loved ones who are looking on, realize this is a long process and that it’s a wonderful thing, actually. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the Lord drove them from the garden, lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever in that state. 

But he allowed redemptive time to happen in order that sanctification could occur, and they could be put in a right relationship with their Creator once again. And that’s the hope we have as we treat addiction, as we look on people who want to get better, that hope is there if they work at it and if they wait for it, and especially a combination of the two. 

Thank you, and thanks for sharing out of your experience and your expertise on this particular topic to our listeners. We trust that the content here today has been informative. It’s been equipping and it’s also been motivating as we all have loved ones whom we care for and love very deeply. We pray for deliverance. May this provide a little bit of direction for that as we seek treatment for our loved ones. Thank you all for being along. Bye.