Stigma, addiction and disease

[arapahoepark]

Perhaps this is a well trodden path (I looked for addiction and hardly saw anything) but, upon watching the local news last night, I saw a story about the stigma of addiction and how its a disease you can't overcome, blah, blah blah. I was wondering what should be a Biblical response to this ever increasing genetic victim mentality?
What of stigma and shame? It conveys a healthy guilt to a degree so how should Christians handle and be gentle with cases like this?

 

[ZackF]

I find genetics interesting. We live in a time, I think, where genetics is being used under social pressure informed by political narrative to do way with shame and guilt. We hear things like, “It’s genetic, don’t be ashamed or feel guilty. Tadah! Here’s pill to curb your anger and we’ve passed a law so that your employer can’t fire you because it’s not your fault though you may want to apologize for socking your boss anyway.”

The more I learn about genetics, gene expression is complicated. Genetic predisposition is not as cut and dry as was previously thought. It’s not merely about having gene for x, y or z. Even if that is the case disorders/diseases have multiple causes. Smoking can cause lung cancer but if someone has lung cancer that doesn’t mean he smoked or even if he smoked that it contributed to his cancer.

I suppose I’ll shamelessly page @Jo_Was and @Nate who could shed much more light on the subject.

 

[arapahoepark]

I find genetics interesting. We live in a time, I think, where genetics is being used under social pressure informed by political narrative to do way with shame and guilt. We hear things like, “It’s genetic, don’t be ashamed or feel guilty. Tadah! Here’s pill to curb your anger and we’ve passed a law so that your employer can’t fire you because it’s not your fault though you may want to apologize for socking your boss anyway.

The more I learn about genetics, gene expression is complicated. Genetic predisposition is as cut and dry as was previously thought. It’s not merely about having gene for x, y or z. Even if that is the case disorders/diseases have multi variant causality. Smoking can cause lung cancer but if someone has lung cancer that doesn’t mean he smoked or even if he smoked that it contributed to his cancer.

I suppose I’ll shamelessly page @Jo_Was and @Nate who could shed much more light on the subject.

Indeed. I read up on 'alcoholism' and all it is is a gene associated with a generating a bit more of a buzz that probably leads to addiction.

 

[JH]

Hating to state state the obvious (nevertheless, you asked what the response should be), the power of overcoming addiction is found in the gospel alone through the sovereign work of God's heart changing mercy.

Homosexual acts and dispositions being a foremost example in the 21st century. The Bible not only condemns the act but calls them vile passions (Romans 1). The usual retort is that you are "born this way", and that you should embrace it. (whether or not people are born that way, makes no difference theologically to the solution of the problem)

Paul speaks of a multitude of heinous and rebellious sins against God in 1 Corinthians 6, and finishing by saying such were some of you, follows up with the fact that they were washed, cleansed, and freed from both the acts and passions of said sin.

And in agreeance with you and brother Zack, people take upon themselves both genetic and victim mentality in attempt to free themselves from the guilt that their consciences bring upon them, (Romans 2:15) being made in the image of God.

The answer is and always be the gospel to free men from any addiction. His grace is sufficient

 

[Nate]

I find genetics interesting. We live in a time, I think, where genetics is being used under social pressure informed by political narrative to do way with shame and guilt. We hear things like, “It’s genetic, don’t be ashamed or feel guilty. Tadah! Here’s pill to curb your anger and we’ve passed a law so that your employer can’t fire you because it’s not your fault though you may want to apologize for socking your boss anyway.

The more I learn about genetics, gene expression is complicated. Genetic predisposition is as cut and dry as was previously thought. It’s not merely about having gene for x, y or z. Even if that is the case disorders/diseases have multiple causes. Smoking can cause lung cancer but if someone has lung cancer that doesn’t mean he smoked or even if he smoked that it contributed to his cancer.

I suppose I’ll shamelessly page @Jo_Was and @Nate who could shed much more light on the subject.

I don't think I have much to add to what has already been posted. As has been stated, Scripture sheds the glorious light of the gospel on the problem of addiction and directs our response to addiction.

At the same time, it is not outside the realm of a Scripture-based response to acknowledge that a physiological dimension often accompanies addiction. An understanding of how physiological stimuli and responses influence human behavior can help us be aware of the physical effort required to overcome addictions.

Regarding genetics, probably some "predispositions" exist which influence how individuals are affected by addictive behaviors or substances. Yet, as Zack said, the genetics of behavior is extremely complicated, and even the most well-documented genetic predispositions come with a mountain of caveats for interpreting the genetic data or counseling individuals based on the data.

 

[Jo_Was]

I find genetics interesting. We live in a time, I think, where genetics is being used under social pressure informed by political narrative to do way with shame and guilt. We hear things like, “It’s genetic, don’t be ashamed or feel guilty. Tadah! Here’s pill to curb your anger and we’ve passed a law so that your employer can’t fire you because it’s not your fault though you may want to apologize for socking your boss anyway.”

The more I learn about genetics, gene expression is complicated. Genetic predisposition is not as cut and dry as was previously thought. It’s not merely about having gene for x, y or z. Even if that is the case disorders/diseases have multiple causes. Smoking can cause lung cancer but if someone has lung cancer that doesn’t mean he smoked or even if he smoked that it contributed to his cancer.

I suppose I’ll shamelessly page @Jo_Was and @Nate who could shed much more light on the subject.

I don't think I have much to add to what has already been posted. As has been stated, Scripture sheds the glorious light of the gospel on the problem of addiction and directs our response to addiction.

At the same time, it is not outside the realm of a Scripture-based response to acknowledge that a physiological dimension often accompanies addiction. An understanding of how physiological stimuli and responses influence human behavior can help us be aware of the physical effort required to overcome addictions.

Regarding genetics, probably some "predispositions" exist which influence how individuals are affected by addictive behaviors or substances. Yet, as Zack said, the genetics of behavior is extremely complicated, and even the most well-documented genetic predispositions come with a mountain of caveats for interpreting the genetic data or counseling individuals based on the data.

I didn't think I had much more to add as was said here succinctly, but I thought on it and have a few tidbits to add to the nuance (or expand on some of what was already said).

This basically brings up that perennial "Nature vs. Nurture" debate, and while genetics is complicated, we understand also that nature and nurture go hand-in-hand. Just because one is born with a predisposition in one form or another, does not mean they always fall into that potential. One of my favorite examples is of how ethnic Dutch people living in the Netherlands went from being some of the shortest people in the world to the tallest people in the world simply through industrialization and growth as a nation which lent to the availability of better nutrition. Surely, they have the genetic potential, but that is not always reached based on a variety of "nurture" factors. We are seeing this in our own lifetime with examples like South Koreans who tower over their North Korean counterparts and many other second and third-world Asian countries.

Just like in approaching Scripture we interpret the "less clear" with the "more clear" so also do we in science do the same. What is "less clear" is how genetics interplays and manifests in certain ways, especially in regards to something like addiction. What is more clear is that there certainly IS a real physiological response in people who are addicted. There are measurable differences in the brain chemistry of an addicted individual than that of a non-addicted counterpart. This is why it is so vital for young people (teenagers particularly) to stay way from addictive substances, because that age of life still has a rapidly forming/changing brain and it can be "rewired" or, rather, chemically altered, to react in disproportional ways to external stimulus. If you've made it to your thirties without becoming addicted, especially to certain substances, you've already made it over a great statistical barrier and the odds are much less that you will develop certain kinds of addictions in your remaining time.

With that said, I think there are some dangers that even well-intentioned Christians can fall into when considering how to deal with sins that do closely intertwine with physiological processes--be that mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders. I think there are often two blind spots:

1) Christians (often without realizing or rather implicitly) can react to these situations with a works-based salvation that they would not otherwise for other sins. When someone has deep-seeded issues with, say, greed, we should expect that the trajectory is that they put away the old man and repent and believe, still struggle with impulses, but as they grow closer to Christ and their love for him, that the tendency for want is slowly replaced by the love for others, for generosity, for giving of oneself for the Body, etc. Yet, often, when approaching some sins with more obvious physiological dimension (even if it is just more obvious for one individual over another), we can fall into the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality of expectation; that they become sanctified cold-turkey and just "stop" doing the thing. Even an addict who has been sober for many, many decades will still feel the resistance of their flesh at times. That is just being realistic to the tainted world we live in. I think that should inform how people are shepherded pastorally, but also how we as laymen should respond and come alongside these individuals, both before and after repentance and conversion--especially after because that is one of the frailest times.

2) At the same time, we should be careful not to simply fall into the "Sin is sin" mantra of over-emphasizing cheap grace that does not recognize the real magnitude and consequence of sin. Just as some sin is more private or public and have varying degree of consequences, so too is the act of striving against some sins, frankly, more strenuous than others. Yes, there are sins that have an inherently more physiological aspect to them, and, yes, that means some may be more burdensome to fight. This doesn't just apply to "obvious" ones that deal with things like mental (addiction) or behavior (anxiety/depression) or emotional (like homosexuality) -- all of which have real, physical dimensions. This can also just apply to what private sins we all have, because we all have physical dimensions to the compulsions we experience to varying degrees. When we blanket all sin as equal, we can minimize sin in general, but also the sin specific by downplaying how some sins do have greater consequence in this life. Furthermore, some may strive with the same sin as another but with greater difficulty. The path to sanctification is difficult and arduous and involves our whole being--it is not as easy as some may make it seem. That, I think, is an important idea that we have lost in modern America: that fighting sin really is truly, even physically in some cases, difficult. It's unrealistic to think that all sins are handled the same, as if all consequences are equally as null.

So, thinking not to fall into either camp too fully, being moderated in our approach should help us to consider how to witness and come alongside these individuals and not just brush these issues under the rug as if they either are simply spiritual battles divorced from the real, harsh physical realities that accompany them or that they are easy to overcome and equitable in how they affect individuals or are arrested. We must be sure that these are real issues that have layers of affect on individuals and families and communities, and we should be cognizant of their nuances so as to witness to the full person--body *and* spirit.

 

[RobertPGH1981]

In the scientific community they have found parallels between addicts and those who have had parents that are addicts. In my case my father was an alcoholic and even though I had no connection with him in my childhood; I had the same drinking habits as him. So in one sense there could be truth to this but I in no way view this as a disease that somebody can't do anything about. The victim mentality is real and I sat in this view using it to justify my own bad habits.

It ultimately comes down to a choice which gets more difficult to avoid when they have created long term habits. I would agree that some folks tend to be more likely to become addicts than others. One thing that has been proven to help those in overcoming addiction is God. AA started off by referring to the scriptures but due to political correctness they changed this to "higher power". This term is still proven to be the most effective way to combat addiction rather than the power of the will. I wasn't able to overcome addiction until I gave my life to Christ and was separated from society for an entire year at a Christian rehab (Teen Challenge).

Some good verses:
Jas 1:13-15 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
- Romans showed me that I drink to suppress the guilt and truth of God in unrighteousness. Simply put... I Self Medicated and placed my truth more in the creation rather than the creator. True for all but very clear to me with the addiction.