Titus 2 students and Cathy Byrd had a lengthy discussion about depression, addiction, self care skills, and an oarticle about the “Rat Park” experiments that demonstrated that addiction recovery is more a matter of social support and attachment than anything else. At Titus 2 our staff has understood this for quite a while. Those who embrace building community, emotional intelligence training, accountability with a small supportive group, and conflict resolution skills do much better in long term outcomes. Today I received a message from a former student who was celebrating 4 years of being clean from pill addiction. Some of the factors in her recovery had been putting healthy boundaries in place with a toxic family member, asserting herself with another family member who had failed to carry a share of family responsibility, healing from the grief of the tragic death of a family member, forgiveness from her spouse and son, and overcoming her own sense of moral failure. All of these are relationship, bonding, attachment issues with God, oneself, and others. When they were satisfactorily resolved, the addictive behavior was no longer necessary as a coping mechanism to deal with the emotional pain. She is happily reintegrated in family life, work life, church community, and social life. She is different and her view of the world around her is different. That’s what Christ does. As we have heard, “It is simple, but not easy.” Love God, love others as yourself.
