THE Problem

Everything you have been told about addiction is wrong! Why we abuse drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, caffeine, candy, and become slaves to our phones, pornography, gambling, gaming, shopping, the news, exercise, work, etc. is not what you think. We have been duped and sold a pack of lies that has made us the most addicted generation ever.

We have overcomplicated addiction and in turn, have gotten lost in a labyrinth of erroneous ideas, practices, and treatments . . . taking us even farther away from the truth. To our shame and demise, we have over medicalized, over psychologized, over neurologized, over environmentalized, over criminalized, over politicalized, and over spiritualized the problem. 

Most of us can agree that substance and process addictions are misguided solutions to the difficulties and pains of life. We can also agree that alcohol, drugs, and other dependencies are not themselves the problem but merely the symptoms of something much deeper. Where the great divide occurs is whether our use of the word “problem” should be in the singular or plural tense.

I am arguing that all addictions can be traced ultimately to a singular cause. Addiction is rooted in one fundamental problem—the Problem, not problem(s). 

Yes, there are generally a myriad of factors that lead to and perpetuate addiction. Problems with personal insecurities and feelings of inadequacy. Problems with guilt, shame, and regret. Problems with anxiety and depression. Problems finding meaning, purpose, and worthwhile cause. Of course, addictions can be born and fueled by bitterness and unresolved conflict, boredom, trauma, genetics, environmental factors, curiosity, the demonic, and a host of other reasons. And it certainly does not help that we live in a society where opportunities to become addicted in a plethora of ways abound—easy accessibility, affordability, and anonymity. 

We have many problems but only one real Problem.

I do not deny the awful reality of mental-emotional disorders or chemical imbalances at work in many who suffer from addictions. I do not dismiss the incredible power of family and community systems to shape individuals for good and bad. As a person of Christian faith and a professional “semi-theologian,” I firmly believe that both our inherited sinful nature (beautifully made in God’s image yet terribly broken) and devilish forces (small “d” and big “D”) lure us into the vices to which we become bound. Lots of problems in play, to be sure!

But these terrible maladies and conditions are NOT primary. They are secondary.

As simply as I can state it: Addiction is the result of disconnection.

The first time God in the creation narrative said, “This is not good!” was when Adam was alone. Life and personhood are grounded in relationality and, by contrast, death and dysfunction (i.e., addiction) are the consequence of alienation. Author and speaker Dick Foth puts it like this: “The central problem of life is separateness: the original punishment, the ultimate vulnerability, the enemy of meaning. Distance from God and others moves men and women toward darkness, impotence, and death.” The renowned psychologist, Erich Fromm, argued in one of his seminal works, The Art of Loving, “The deepest need of man, then, is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness. The absolute failure to achieve this aim means insanity.” 

We know this intuitively. How do prison wardens break unruly inmates? By putting them in the hole. How do enemy nations extract information from POWs? Separate them. Nothing like isolation to kill the spirit. We are communal creatures at core. We were created by Community for C/community. We are as human as we are rightly related to God, ourselves, others, and the rest of creation.

To that end, recovery is about connection, community, relationship. Whatever the addiction or soul fracture, togetherness is the cure. We cannot heal alone. Professor and psychologist Chuck DeGroat writes, “Just as the ‘disease’ is relational, so is the ultimate cure.” The happiest and healthiest people are not the richest, smartest, best-looking, or most popular, powerful, and gifted. Quantity and quality of life correlate to how well a person is related. All factors being equal, those who live the longest and most satisfying lives are those who have strong relational chords.

Chronic loneliness not only results in physical and mental disorders but also increases the odds of an earlier physical death. In fact, people who have bad health habits but good social connections live significantly longer than those with good health habits but are isolated. That is why author John Ortberg quips, “It is better to eat Twinkies with good friends than to eat broccoli alone.”

Sadly, however, while we may be more networked and “linked in” than ever before, we have become increasingly more disconnected. An article put out by the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership entitled, The Friendship Recession: The Lost Art of Connecting, states that the percentage of U.S. adults who report having no close friends has quadrupled to 12% since 1990, while the percentage of those with ten or more close friends has fallen by nearly threefold. More, according to the CDC, the life spans of Americans are decreasing for the first time in history since 2018 due, in large part, to increasing social isolation.

Life Challenge is a program providing “relationship rehabilitation.” Our mission statement reads: “Restoring communities by bringing faith-based recovery to the addicted.” “Restoring communities” (both vertically and horizontally) is both the end and means of recovery from addiction. True, lasting recovery results in vital bonds with God and others and at the same time is grounded and propelled by these necessary social connections.

Community was the grand purpose for which Jesus Christ shed his blood. The Apostle Paul explains that through the cross, Christ put to death the hostility between God and sinners and sinners with sinners and thereby made peace, creating one new man out of two (Ephesians 2:11-18). On the eve of his betrayal, the central focus of Jesus’ prayer was for unity, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21).  

Healing has less to do with taking cures and following formulas than simply being received in the welcoming, loving company of others. Presence, companionship, “with-ness,” bring life. Recovery is born and grown in the context of grace-giving community. Richard Rohr writes, “Religion’s main job is to reconnect us (re-ligio) to the Whole, to ourselves, and to one another—and thus heal us. . . Until we have found our own ground and connection to the Whole, we are all unsettled and grouchy.” 

What changes people and brings recovery is not some set of principles, beliefs, or meetings, per se. Life-transformation happens through relationships as we meet Christ in the skin of others. Recovery is about “finding a place in the nourishing soil of the human family” (Ray Anderson). The late Eugene Peterson describes Christ’s gift of redemption beautifully, “Salvation is the act of God in which we are rescued from the consequences of our sin (bondage, fragmentation) and put in a position to live in free, open, loving relationships with God and our neighbors.” 

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity” (Psalm 133:1).