Online message boards support communites for alcoholism, addiction and family membeersThe Sober Village
Additional Resources
Organizations
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD)
22 Cortlandt Street
Suite 801
New York, NY 10007-3128
Phone: 1-800-NCA-CALL (1-800-622-2255)
(212) 269-7797
Fax: (212) 269-7510
E-mail: national@ncadd.org
Web Address: http://www.ncadd.org
NCADD provides facts and scientific information about alcohol and drugs and related health issues, with specific resources for parents and youth. The organization also has a national intervention network and provides information about treatment programs and prevention.
Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters
1600 Corporate Landing Parkway
Virginia Beach, VA 23454-5617
Phone: 1-888-4AL-ANON (1-888-425-2666) for meeting information
(757) 563-1600
Fax: (757) 563-1655
E-mail: wso@al-anon.org
Web Address: http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/
Al-Anon is a support group and self-help program for family members and friends of people with alcohol and drug use problems. The program is based on the same principles as AA. Phone numbers for local offices are listed in area telephone books.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) World Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 459
New York, NY 10163
Phone: (212) 870-3400
Web Address: http://www.aa.org/
AA is a support group and self-help program for recovery from alcohol use problems as well as other substance abuse problems. Meetings are available in most communities at various times. Meetings can be "open" (for the person and his or her family) or "closed" (for the person only). Special groups for women, teens, and gay/lesbian people may be available in some areas. AA provides written information on the program of recovery. Phone numbers for local offices are listed in local area phone books.
National Association for Children of Alcoholics
11426 Rockville Pike
Suite 301
Rockville, MD 20852
Phone: 1-888-55-4COAS (1-888-554-2627)
(301) 468-0985
Fax: (301) 468-0987
E-mail: nacoa@nacoa.org
Web Address: http://www.nacoa.org/
This national nonprofit organization works on behalf of children of alcoholics. The mission of the organization is to raise public awareness, provide leadership in public policy, and inform and educate academic and other community systems. The organization provides videos, posters, comic books, and guides for teachers and other professionals who work with children.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Gene Found for Successful Smoking Cessation
DURHAM, N.C. – Physicians may some day have a new tool for tailoring smoking cessation treatments to a patient's individual genetic makeup.
Researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the National Institute on Drug Abuse scanned the entire genetic makeup, or genome, of smokers and found that variants in 221 genes distinguished smokers who were successful in quitting from those who were not.
"The long-term hope is that identifying these genetic variables in smokers will help us determine which type of treatment would be most effective," said Jed Rose, Ph.D., director of Duke's Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research. "Knowing a smoker's genetic makeup could indicate how intensely they need to be treated. People who are having trouble quitting because of their genes might need more treatment to overcome their addiction."
The results of the research were published online April 2, 2007, in the journal BMC Genetics. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and Philip Morris USA Inc.
"We now have further evidence that there is a biological basis not only for addiction, but for a smoker's ability to successfully beat the addiction," said George Uhl, Ph.D., a neurologist and neuroscientist in the Molecular Neurobiology Branch of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Uhl's laboratory performed the genetic screening. "It is becoming clear that there is both a biological and an environmental basis to addiction and the ability to quit. Those involved in getting smokers to quit must pay attention to both factors."
The researchers screened 520,000 individual genes taken from blood samples of smokers and nonsmokers. When they compared the genes of smokers with those who had successfully given up the habit, they found clusters of positive results in 221 gene variants present only in the successful quitters.
Uhl said that researchers know the function of 187 of the 221 genes they identified, while the functions of the remaining variants are still to be determined.
"We also found that at least 30 of the genes that we had previously identified as playing roles in dependence to other drugs also contribute to nicotine dependence," Uhl said. "These findings lend further support to the idea that nicotine dependence shares some common genetic vulnerabilities with addictions to other legal and illegal substances."
Some of the specific genes identified might provide insights into why some people appear to have a susceptibility to addiction and why others are more successful in their attempts to quit.
"For example, one of the genes identified controls the production of adhesion molecules, which are crucial in guiding connections between individual nerve cells," Rose said. "Smokers whose nerve cell connections aren't working properly may be more vulnerable to addiction and may face a tougher time quitting. These findings open up new possibilities in finding specific targets for treatment."
Other identified genes play a role in controlling how people respond to stress. Uhl pointed out that one of the genes controls the production of a protein that is important in guiding learning processes in the brain.
The researchers are planning additional studies to try to correlate this new genetic information with how smokers actually respond to the many forms of cessation treatments.
Other members of the team, all from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, were Qing-Roong Liu, Tomas Drgon, Catherine Johnson and Donna Walther.
Source: http://www.dukemednews.org
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Reclaiming Yourself
While many resources exist for recovering alcoholics and addicts, none, so far, address the primary feature of all addictions; the state addicts would call, "aloneness"; the state emergence therapists call, "being in shock."
What does "being in shock" have to do with addictions? For one thing, "being in shock" is what puts people at risk for addictions and compulsions. For another, "being in shock" is the source of the addict's 'denial'; a kind of lie the addict believes is true. More important still, when addicts (and therapists who help addicts) see how shock and addictions connect, they gain a clear and blameless path toward "recovery" regardless of which addiction they address.
Of course, recovering from addiction is never easy, be it alcoholism, drug addiction, addiction to gambling, to food, to relationships, or to sex. Even so, when people focus on "being in shock" as the primary feature of addictions, the recovery process happens far more effectively and with greater love and gentleness than is usually thought possible. Even after years of addiction. Even for those with marginal faith.
This part of the emergence site explores additions in general; be it addition to alcohol, to drugs, to relationships, or to gambling. It also explores related conditions such as compulsive eating and dieting, as well as how shock affects risk for and recovery from all these ills. More important still, through out our discussions of these topics, we remain blameless explorers. How? By keeping our focus on the two most important things to know about addition and recovery: on how "being in shock" affects risk for addiction and compulsion. And on how emergence therapy can help people to recover.
Source: http://theemergencesite.com/Addiction-Recovery-Index.htm
What does "being in shock" have to do with addictions? For one thing, "being in shock" is what puts people at risk for addictions and compulsions. For another, "being in shock" is the source of the addict's 'denial'; a kind of lie the addict believes is true. More important still, when addicts (and therapists who help addicts) see how shock and addictions connect, they gain a clear and blameless path toward "recovery" regardless of which addiction they address.
Of course, recovering from addiction is never easy, be it alcoholism, drug addiction, addiction to gambling, to food, to relationships, or to sex. Even so, when people focus on "being in shock" as the primary feature of addictions, the recovery process happens far more effectively and with greater love and gentleness than is usually thought possible. Even after years of addiction. Even for those with marginal faith.
This part of the emergence site explores additions in general; be it addition to alcohol, to drugs, to relationships, or to gambling. It also explores related conditions such as compulsive eating and dieting, as well as how shock affects risk for and recovery from all these ills. More important still, through out our discussions of these topics, we remain blameless explorers. How? By keeping our focus on the two most important things to know about addition and recovery: on how "being in shock" affects risk for addiction and compulsion. And on how emergence therapy can help people to recover.
Source: http://theemergencesite.com/Addiction-Recovery-Index.htm
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Solilquuy
Solilquuy
When evening comes, I meditate
on what the day has brought,
and do my best to understand
what lessons I have been taught.
For I believe the reason why
we have been given birth,
is we must meet the challenges
that we face her on earth.
Life isn't just a one-way street
where we can't lift our voices,
from birth until the day we die
we're given many choices.
I have to question, did I try
to really understand,
the needs that someone else may have
and lend a helping hand?
If I will just remember
to light one little spark,
that brightens someone else's life
that otherwise is dark.
Then I can find contentment
in doing what I can,
and knowing there's a reason
I've been chosen for His plan.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Jigsaw Puzzle of Addiction
ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2008) — Using an integrative meta-analysis approach, researchers from the Center for Bioinformatics at Peking University in Beijing have assembled the most comprehensive gene atlas underlying drug addiction and identified five molecular pathways common to four different addictive drugs.
Drug addiction is a serious worldwide problem with strong genetic and environmental influences. So far different technologies have revealed a variety of genes and biological processes underlying addiction. However, individual technology can be biased and render only an incomplete picture. Studying individual or a small number of genes is like looking at pieces of a jigsaw puzzle - only when you gather most of the pieces from different places and arrange them together in an orderly fashion do interesting patterns emerge.
The team, led by Liping Wei, surveyed scientific literature published in the past 30 years and collected 2,343 items of evidence linking genes and chromosome regions to addiction based on single-gene strategies, microarray, proteomics, or genetic studies.
They made this gene atlas freely available in the first online molecular database for addiction, named KARG (http://karg.cbi.pku.edu.cn), with extensive annotations and a user friendly interface.
Assembling the pieces of evidence together, the authors identified 18 molecular pathways that are statistically enriched in the addiction-related genes. They then identified five pathways that are common to addiction to four different substances. These common pathways may underlie shared rewarding and response mechanisms and may be targets for effective treatments for a wide range of addictive disorders.
Journal citation: Li CY, Mao X, Wei L (2008) Genes and (common) pathways underlying drug addiction. PLoS Comput Biol 4(1): e2. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0040002
Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science
Drug addiction is a serious worldwide problem with strong genetic and environmental influences. So far different technologies have revealed a variety of genes and biological processes underlying addiction. However, individual technology can be biased and render only an incomplete picture. Studying individual or a small number of genes is like looking at pieces of a jigsaw puzzle - only when you gather most of the pieces from different places and arrange them together in an orderly fashion do interesting patterns emerge.
The team, led by Liping Wei, surveyed scientific literature published in the past 30 years and collected 2,343 items of evidence linking genes and chromosome regions to addiction based on single-gene strategies, microarray, proteomics, or genetic studies.
They made this gene atlas freely available in the first online molecular database for addiction, named KARG (http://karg.cbi.pku.edu.cn), with extensive annotations and a user friendly interface.
Assembling the pieces of evidence together, the authors identified 18 molecular pathways that are statistically enriched in the addiction-related genes. They then identified five pathways that are common to addiction to four different substances. These common pathways may underlie shared rewarding and response mechanisms and may be targets for effective treatments for a wide range of addictive disorders.
Journal citation: Li CY, Mao X, Wei L (2008) Genes and (common) pathways underlying drug addiction. PLoS Comput Biol 4(1): e2. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0040002
Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science
Friday, January 25, 2008
Alcoholism and Hypoglycemia
Scientists at the leading Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now disclosed the mystery how alcohol may cause exaggerated insulin secretion resulting in severe hypoglycemia (too low blood sugar). This mechanism, which is described in the latest number of Endocrinology, explains how alcohol ingestion may harm the human brain by decreasing the blood glucose concentration to inappropriately low levels.
Hypoglycemia induced by alcohol ingestion is a well known clinical problem in diabetic patients. However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon have largely remained elusive. Since insulin secretion can be rapidly tuned by changes in pancreatic microcirculation, scientists at the Stockholm South Hospital Diabetes Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, evaluated the influence of alcohol administration on pancreatic islet blood flow and dynamic changes in insulin secretion and blood sugar levels.
"We have now found that alcohol exerts substantial influences on pancreatic microcirculation by evoking a massive redistribution of pancreatic blood flow from the exocrine into the endocrine (insulin-producing) part via mechanisms mediated by the messenger molecule nitric oxide and the vagus nerve, augmenting late phase insulin secretion, and thereby evoking hypoglycemia" says lead investigator Åke Sjöholm.
According to Professor Sjöholm the discovery is very important. This novel mechanism may in part underlie the well known hypoglycemic properties of alcohol in diabetic patients or in alcoholics with hepatic failure.
Investigators note that their study might also be relevant to "the derailed metabolic situation in diabetic subjects." Alcohol intake might provoke sustained hypoglycemia in type 2 diabetes patients being treated with hypoglycemic sulfonylureas, such as glibenclamide, because many of these drugs have a long biological half-life. Furthermore, many alcoholics are malnourished and/or have liver cirrhosis and might therefore be unable to mount a gluconeogenetic response to hypoglycemia, Professor Sjöholm says.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93141.php
Hypoglycemia induced by alcohol ingestion is a well known clinical problem in diabetic patients. However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon have largely remained elusive. Since insulin secretion can be rapidly tuned by changes in pancreatic microcirculation, scientists at the Stockholm South Hospital Diabetes Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, evaluated the influence of alcohol administration on pancreatic islet blood flow and dynamic changes in insulin secretion and blood sugar levels.
"We have now found that alcohol exerts substantial influences on pancreatic microcirculation by evoking a massive redistribution of pancreatic blood flow from the exocrine into the endocrine (insulin-producing) part via mechanisms mediated by the messenger molecule nitric oxide and the vagus nerve, augmenting late phase insulin secretion, and thereby evoking hypoglycemia" says lead investigator Åke Sjöholm.
According to Professor Sjöholm the discovery is very important. This novel mechanism may in part underlie the well known hypoglycemic properties of alcohol in diabetic patients or in alcoholics with hepatic failure.
Investigators note that their study might also be relevant to "the derailed metabolic situation in diabetic subjects." Alcohol intake might provoke sustained hypoglycemia in type 2 diabetes patients being treated with hypoglycemic sulfonylureas, such as glibenclamide, because many of these drugs have a long biological half-life. Furthermore, many alcoholics are malnourished and/or have liver cirrhosis and might therefore be unable to mount a gluconeogenetic response to hypoglycemia, Professor Sjöholm says.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93141.php
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Forgiveness
"Forgiveness: It Just Ain't Fair"
by Philip Yancey
Once my wife and I were having a rather animated discussion and she turned to me and said, "You know, I think it is pretty impressive that I forgave you for some of the dastardly things you have done."
I know what you probably want me to talk about. You probably want me to tell you about those dastardly things that I've done, but I am not going to do that tonight. We are not talking about sins; we are talking about forgiveness.
As I thought about my wife's comment, I realized that she had come up in the middle of a heated exchange with a rather profound theological insight. Sometimes when you say a word like forgiveness, we think it is nice and sweet. It is like spraying perfume, but forgiveness isn't like that. It's hard; it's tough. It is one of the hardest things we ever have to do. As I thought about it, I realized that even when you forgive someone it is easy to still hurt, to still feel the sting. In a real sense, forgiveness just ain't fair.
Sigmund Freud said, "One must forgive one's enemies but not before they have been hanged." That's natural. That's fair. That's how many of us feel. It is kind of a law of nature. It is what works on the National Football League playing field. It is what works in nature. You don't have cats turning around and saying to dogs who are chasing them up a tree, "I forgive you." You don't have dolphins saying to the shark, "We forgive you for eating our playmates." It is a dog-eat-dog world out there, not a dog-forgive-dog world.
If that is the world of nature and if that is kind of instinctive to us, why is it that our faith and our Bible and God ask us to make forgiveness at the core of what we believe? I've thought about this.
Many of us pray every day, as I did this morning in church, The Lord's Prayer, "forgive us as we forgive others." It's at the core of our religion and yet it is not fair. It hurts. It is not easy to do. Why would God want us to do something that is so unlike what our instinct is, that is so unfair. I came up with three reasons that I want to share with you today.
The first reason is that forgiveness is the only way to break the cycle. You are right. It is not fair. If you want a fair religion, I would suggest that you become a Hindu because the Hindus have a very clear way of taking care of everything. It is called incarnation. If you have done many things wrong, the Hindu scholars tell us, it may take as many 6,800,000 incarnations for those things to all work themselves out. You have to realize the punishment in this life is for something you did in a former life.
I have noticed that sometimes marriage is a little bit like Hinduism in that respect. A husband says to a wife, "Why didn't you remind me that it was my mother's birthday?"
The wife says, "Wait a minute. It is your mother. Why am I supposed to remind you?"
The husband says, "Yes, but you are in charge of the calendar."
They go back and forth, back and forth, tit for tat about 6,800,00 times until finally somebody says, "Stop. This can't go on. We have got to break the cycle. I am sorry. Forgive me. I know it's not fair; I know I may be wrong. Forgive me. I'm sorry."
If we don't do that, you get a situation like we are seeing right now on a national scale in Yugoslavia. If you read the words that are coming out of Yugoslavia, one group says, "We don't like the way you treated us in World War II."
That group says, "We don't like the way you treated us in the eighteenth century."
The other group says, "We don't like the way you treated us in the fourteenth century."
It goes on and on and on and on until somebody says, "Stop. I am going to break the cycle." Forgiveness is the way to break that cycle.
I saw a tremendous example of forgiveness in operation a little over a year ago when I went to Russia, which was at that time still the Soviet Union. I was privileged to be with a group of Christians and we went and visited the headquarters of the KGB. The interpreter for that group was a Christian evangelist. He is Russian by birth but his family had to leave when he was seven years old. They were chased out of the country. His uncle was killed. He had relatives who were put in a concentration camp.
Here was an older man who had his radio programs blocked for years, jammed by KGB jamming devices, who had his visas turned down for years. He couldn't visit Russia. Now he was translating for the number two man in the KGB, who was a ramrod straight army colonel.
The KGB colonel went ahead and said, "Before there can be perestroika in our country, there has to be a stage of repentance. We have done many things wrong and we must repent for them."
The interpreter, Alex Leonovich, who is a huge bear of a man, turned to him, broke his interpretation and said, "Colonel, Jesus told us how to respond when someone repents. In the name of Christ, in the name of my family, in the name of my uncle, I forgive you for what your organization did to me."
Then we saw the amazing scene of this big bear of a man, a Russian evangelist, reaching over to a ramrod straight KGB colonel and embracing him in a huge, Russian bear hug. We could see whispers going on. We didn't know what they said until later Alex told us. The KGB colonel said, "Alex, only two times in my life have I cried. Once was when my mother died and once was tonight."
That was the power of forgiveness, a way to break the chain that can go on and on and on. It's not fair, but it breaks that chain.
There is a second reason why I believe God asks us to forgive and that is it breaks the stranglehold in you and in me, not just the stranglehold on the relationship, but the stranglehold in us.
I have seen that acted out on stage, as many people have, in the most popular musical in recent times. It is a musical based on a novel by Victor Hugo, Les Miserable. In that musical, there is a wonderful story of a convict who was a hardened, mean man and had been in jail for ten years, doing hard labor in chains.
He was finally set free, but he had a convict card. He couldn't get a job; he couldn't even stay in a hotel room. He went to a bishop's house. The bishop let him stay over night. In the middle of the night when everyone went to sleep, the convict got up, stole a silver candle stick and crept out of the bishop's house and took off through the woods.
He was caught. He was caught by the French policemen. They came in the middle of the night, woke up the bishop and said, "We've got him, this lying, conniving thief. We've got him. This time we are going to put him away for life."
The bishop turned to this man cowering in chains and said, "That's no thief. That's my guest, Jean Valjean, but I gave him two candlesticks, not one. He forgot one." He reached in a drawer and gave him another silver candlestick. The police had to let him go. That experience of forgiveness for something he had done wrong, that unfair act of forgiveness seeped down inside of Jean Valjean. He kept those candlesticks for the rest of his life as mementoes of what the bishop had done.
I saw another scene of forgiveness acted out on the international stage when East Germany first started coming back together with West Germany. There was a period of time before they joined when they were not a Communist state, but they elected their parliament. Do you know what their first act as parliament was? I'll read it to you. The very first act that East Germany passed was this:
"We, the first freely elected parliamentarians of the German Democratic Republic, on behalf of the citizens of this land, admit responsibility for the humiliation, expulsion and murder of Jewish men, women and children. We feel sorrow and shame and acknowledge this burden of German history. We ask all the Jews of the world to forgive us."
That was their first act as a nation. For fifty years their leaders had been telling them, "You didn't do that. Those were your West German brothers. We weren't Nazis." We didn't do this evil, but down deep the guilt was still there. It was still a stranglehold on them. When they finally became a country freely elected, the first thing they wanted to do was to break that stranglehold, turn it back over.
There is a third reason that I think God asks us to forgive and that is because God first forgave us. It is one thing to get into a tit-for-tat war with a wife, husband, a nation. It is another thing to get into one with God because we are going to lose every time. No one of us deserves forgiveness from God.
When Jesus came to earth, He came and left a wonderful example of forgiveness. What I learned from that example was that forgiveness probably wasn't very easy for God. It was hard for Him. When Jesus was in the garden, he prayed "Lord, if there is any other way..." There was no other way but the hard way.
At the cross some of His last words were, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do." The Roman soldiers, the mobs yelling, people all down through the chain of history including you and me, "Forgive them for they don't know what they do." I think in some ways the cross is God's way of saying, "It is pretty impressive that I forgive you for some of the dastardly things that you have done."
I was reading the Book of Romans not long along ago and I will leave you with this verse from Romans 12:19. Paul is giving a number of commands and instructions on living and at the end he says, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's anger, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says God. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
In the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. It is the belief that God can take care of the fairness problems. It is not fair just to pretend that something doesn't happen. It did happen. It still hurts. It still stings. Forgiveness is not fair, but forgiveness is a way of taking that burden from us and giving it to God who is fair. "I will avenge," says the Lord. You forgive. It breaks the cycle of relationships. It breaks the stranglehold on you and on me and it is what God did for us in his Son Jesus on the cross.
by Philip Yancey
Once my wife and I were having a rather animated discussion and she turned to me and said, "You know, I think it is pretty impressive that I forgave you for some of the dastardly things you have done."
I know what you probably want me to talk about. You probably want me to tell you about those dastardly things that I've done, but I am not going to do that tonight. We are not talking about sins; we are talking about forgiveness.
As I thought about my wife's comment, I realized that she had come up in the middle of a heated exchange with a rather profound theological insight. Sometimes when you say a word like forgiveness, we think it is nice and sweet. It is like spraying perfume, but forgiveness isn't like that. It's hard; it's tough. It is one of the hardest things we ever have to do. As I thought about it, I realized that even when you forgive someone it is easy to still hurt, to still feel the sting. In a real sense, forgiveness just ain't fair.
Sigmund Freud said, "One must forgive one's enemies but not before they have been hanged." That's natural. That's fair. That's how many of us feel. It is kind of a law of nature. It is what works on the National Football League playing field. It is what works in nature. You don't have cats turning around and saying to dogs who are chasing them up a tree, "I forgive you." You don't have dolphins saying to the shark, "We forgive you for eating our playmates." It is a dog-eat-dog world out there, not a dog-forgive-dog world.
If that is the world of nature and if that is kind of instinctive to us, why is it that our faith and our Bible and God ask us to make forgiveness at the core of what we believe? I've thought about this.
Many of us pray every day, as I did this morning in church, The Lord's Prayer, "forgive us as we forgive others." It's at the core of our religion and yet it is not fair. It hurts. It is not easy to do. Why would God want us to do something that is so unlike what our instinct is, that is so unfair. I came up with three reasons that I want to share with you today.
The first reason is that forgiveness is the only way to break the cycle. You are right. It is not fair. If you want a fair religion, I would suggest that you become a Hindu because the Hindus have a very clear way of taking care of everything. It is called incarnation. If you have done many things wrong, the Hindu scholars tell us, it may take as many 6,800,000 incarnations for those things to all work themselves out. You have to realize the punishment in this life is for something you did in a former life.
I have noticed that sometimes marriage is a little bit like Hinduism in that respect. A husband says to a wife, "Why didn't you remind me that it was my mother's birthday?"
The wife says, "Wait a minute. It is your mother. Why am I supposed to remind you?"
The husband says, "Yes, but you are in charge of the calendar."
They go back and forth, back and forth, tit for tat about 6,800,00 times until finally somebody says, "Stop. This can't go on. We have got to break the cycle. I am sorry. Forgive me. I know it's not fair; I know I may be wrong. Forgive me. I'm sorry."
If we don't do that, you get a situation like we are seeing right now on a national scale in Yugoslavia. If you read the words that are coming out of Yugoslavia, one group says, "We don't like the way you treated us in World War II."
That group says, "We don't like the way you treated us in the eighteenth century."
The other group says, "We don't like the way you treated us in the fourteenth century."
It goes on and on and on and on until somebody says, "Stop. I am going to break the cycle." Forgiveness is the way to break that cycle.
I saw a tremendous example of forgiveness in operation a little over a year ago when I went to Russia, which was at that time still the Soviet Union. I was privileged to be with a group of Christians and we went and visited the headquarters of the KGB. The interpreter for that group was a Christian evangelist. He is Russian by birth but his family had to leave when he was seven years old. They were chased out of the country. His uncle was killed. He had relatives who were put in a concentration camp.
Here was an older man who had his radio programs blocked for years, jammed by KGB jamming devices, who had his visas turned down for years. He couldn't visit Russia. Now he was translating for the number two man in the KGB, who was a ramrod straight army colonel.
The KGB colonel went ahead and said, "Before there can be perestroika in our country, there has to be a stage of repentance. We have done many things wrong and we must repent for them."
The interpreter, Alex Leonovich, who is a huge bear of a man, turned to him, broke his interpretation and said, "Colonel, Jesus told us how to respond when someone repents. In the name of Christ, in the name of my family, in the name of my uncle, I forgive you for what your organization did to me."
Then we saw the amazing scene of this big bear of a man, a Russian evangelist, reaching over to a ramrod straight KGB colonel and embracing him in a huge, Russian bear hug. We could see whispers going on. We didn't know what they said until later Alex told us. The KGB colonel said, "Alex, only two times in my life have I cried. Once was when my mother died and once was tonight."
That was the power of forgiveness, a way to break the chain that can go on and on and on. It's not fair, but it breaks that chain.
There is a second reason why I believe God asks us to forgive and that is it breaks the stranglehold in you and in me, not just the stranglehold on the relationship, but the stranglehold in us.
I have seen that acted out on stage, as many people have, in the most popular musical in recent times. It is a musical based on a novel by Victor Hugo, Les Miserable. In that musical, there is a wonderful story of a convict who was a hardened, mean man and had been in jail for ten years, doing hard labor in chains.
He was finally set free, but he had a convict card. He couldn't get a job; he couldn't even stay in a hotel room. He went to a bishop's house. The bishop let him stay over night. In the middle of the night when everyone went to sleep, the convict got up, stole a silver candle stick and crept out of the bishop's house and took off through the woods.
He was caught. He was caught by the French policemen. They came in the middle of the night, woke up the bishop and said, "We've got him, this lying, conniving thief. We've got him. This time we are going to put him away for life."
The bishop turned to this man cowering in chains and said, "That's no thief. That's my guest, Jean Valjean, but I gave him two candlesticks, not one. He forgot one." He reached in a drawer and gave him another silver candlestick. The police had to let him go. That experience of forgiveness for something he had done wrong, that unfair act of forgiveness seeped down inside of Jean Valjean. He kept those candlesticks for the rest of his life as mementoes of what the bishop had done.
I saw another scene of forgiveness acted out on the international stage when East Germany first started coming back together with West Germany. There was a period of time before they joined when they were not a Communist state, but they elected their parliament. Do you know what their first act as parliament was? I'll read it to you. The very first act that East Germany passed was this:
"We, the first freely elected parliamentarians of the German Democratic Republic, on behalf of the citizens of this land, admit responsibility for the humiliation, expulsion and murder of Jewish men, women and children. We feel sorrow and shame and acknowledge this burden of German history. We ask all the Jews of the world to forgive us."
That was their first act as a nation. For fifty years their leaders had been telling them, "You didn't do that. Those were your West German brothers. We weren't Nazis." We didn't do this evil, but down deep the guilt was still there. It was still a stranglehold on them. When they finally became a country freely elected, the first thing they wanted to do was to break that stranglehold, turn it back over.
There is a third reason that I think God asks us to forgive and that is because God first forgave us. It is one thing to get into a tit-for-tat war with a wife, husband, a nation. It is another thing to get into one with God because we are going to lose every time. No one of us deserves forgiveness from God.
When Jesus came to earth, He came and left a wonderful example of forgiveness. What I learned from that example was that forgiveness probably wasn't very easy for God. It was hard for Him. When Jesus was in the garden, he prayed "Lord, if there is any other way..." There was no other way but the hard way.
At the cross some of His last words were, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do." The Roman soldiers, the mobs yelling, people all down through the chain of history including you and me, "Forgive them for they don't know what they do." I think in some ways the cross is God's way of saying, "It is pretty impressive that I forgive you for some of the dastardly things that you have done."
I was reading the Book of Romans not long along ago and I will leave you with this verse from Romans 12:19. Paul is giving a number of commands and instructions on living and at the end he says, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's anger, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says God. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
In the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. It is the belief that God can take care of the fairness problems. It is not fair just to pretend that something doesn't happen. It did happen. It still hurts. It still stings. Forgiveness is not fair, but forgiveness is a way of taking that burden from us and giving it to God who is fair. "I will avenge," says the Lord. You forgive. It breaks the cycle of relationships. It breaks the stranglehold on you and on me and it is what God did for us in his Son Jesus on the cross.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Alcoholism and Addiction Help
Monday, January 21, 2008
Local Programs Break Cultural Barrier
The problem with many of the federally funded studies that provide valuable information to treatment and rehabilitation centers across the country is that their main study samples are usually made up of white men. The majority of people in treatment in the United States are white men, so in the beginning, this approach to research studies made sense. However, now that the basic epidemiological studies have been done, it’s about time to focus on different cultures and ethnicities that may have characteristics that affect the outcome of drug addiction treatment.
To that end, I’m highlighting a few different programs that may be local in scope but could have worldwide effectiveness. To start with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is sponsoring a program that focuses on substance abuse prevention in American Indian communities. The Cherokee Nation is one of five tribal groups is one of five who will take part.
The Mental Health Association of Westchester County in New York was recently awarded a $50,000 grant by the van Ameringen Foundation to support the expansion of Nuestro Futuro. This organization serves Hispanics and the grant will help wipe out the waiting list of Hispanics in need of mental health and substance abuse treatment services. It will also focus on outreach and education in this community.
San Joaquin County in California has agreed to provide the nonprofit Human Services Project with $1.1 million in an effort to learn more about the substance abuse treatment needs in a number of specific cultural groups including its Asian, American Indian, black, Hispanic, Muslim, Middle Eastern and gay populations. The goal is to help people in these groups to keep their housing and avoid hospitalization through county services.
If you’re not finding treatment services in your community that speak specifically to your needs, you can take matters into your own hands. Those who are addicted to opiate painkillers may find that the treatment services nearest to them are not conducive to rehabilitation for them. Especially in small towns or rural areas, ethnic and cultural minorities may not feel especially welcome in drug rehab programs. The feeling of alienation due to drug addiction is bad enough without feeling like you’re even more singled out due to your religion, skin color or family’s cultural background. You can get a Suboxone prescription and treat your drug addiction in the privacy of your own home. Your family and friends don’t even have to know that you have a problem since you take your Suboxone pills just as you’ve taken other prescription painkillers before. It’s hard to hide your addiction to drugs when you enroll in an inpatient treatment or day treatment rehab center. Handle your addiction privately with a truly private Suboxone treatment.
Source: http://www.meditoxofpalmbeach.com/blog/detox/addiction/page/2/
To that end, I’m highlighting a few different programs that may be local in scope but could have worldwide effectiveness. To start with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is sponsoring a program that focuses on substance abuse prevention in American Indian communities. The Cherokee Nation is one of five tribal groups is one of five who will take part.
The Mental Health Association of Westchester County in New York was recently awarded a $50,000 grant by the van Ameringen Foundation to support the expansion of Nuestro Futuro. This organization serves Hispanics and the grant will help wipe out the waiting list of Hispanics in need of mental health and substance abuse treatment services. It will also focus on outreach and education in this community.
San Joaquin County in California has agreed to provide the nonprofit Human Services Project with $1.1 million in an effort to learn more about the substance abuse treatment needs in a number of specific cultural groups including its Asian, American Indian, black, Hispanic, Muslim, Middle Eastern and gay populations. The goal is to help people in these groups to keep their housing and avoid hospitalization through county services.
If you’re not finding treatment services in your community that speak specifically to your needs, you can take matters into your own hands. Those who are addicted to opiate painkillers may find that the treatment services nearest to them are not conducive to rehabilitation for them. Especially in small towns or rural areas, ethnic and cultural minorities may not feel especially welcome in drug rehab programs. The feeling of alienation due to drug addiction is bad enough without feeling like you’re even more singled out due to your religion, skin color or family’s cultural background. You can get a Suboxone prescription and treat your drug addiction in the privacy of your own home. Your family and friends don’t even have to know that you have a problem since you take your Suboxone pills just as you’ve taken other prescription painkillers before. It’s hard to hide your addiction to drugs when you enroll in an inpatient treatment or day treatment rehab center. Handle your addiction privately with a truly private Suboxone treatment.
Source: http://www.meditoxofpalmbeach.com/blog/detox/addiction/page/2/
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Fun Facts
Did you know that the human body produces its own supply of alcohol naturally on a continous basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week? 25 Did you know that the world's oldest known recipe is for beer? 2 For interesting alcohol-related facts and trivia, select a topic below.
Alcohol and Drinking Facts in States across the US
Enjoy these interesting facts about alcohol and drinking in different states.
Alchohol Trivia
The word "toast," meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine. 3.10
Would You Believe...
Vikings used the skulls of their enemies as drinking vessels. 1
It's The Law!
Anyone under the age of 21 who takes out household trash containing even a single empty alcohol beverage container can be charged with illegal possession of alcohol in Missouri. 8
Cavemen to Columbus
The early Church declared that alcohol was an inherently good gift of God to be used and enjoyed. While individuals might choose not to drink, to despise alcohol was heresy. 12
Puritans to Prohibition
While there wasn't any cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie to eat at the first Thanksgiving, there was beer, brandy, gin, and wine to drink. 1.1
Prohibition: The Noble Experiment
During Prohibition, temperance activists hired a scholar to rewrite the Bible by removing all references to alcohol beverage. 8.a
Beverages: Ales to Zombies
Bourbon takes its name from Bourbon County in Kentucky, where it was first produced in 1789 by a Baptist minister. 7
Health and Safety
The alcohol in drinks of either low alcohol content (below 15%) or high alcohol content (over 30%) tend to be absorbed into the body more slowly. 9
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