Q&A with Jack Alan Levine
et al. Addiction and Recovery Handbook
What was your motivation to compile this handbook on addiction?
One out of every eight people is an addict. In my decades of helping addicts and coaching them, I came to see how many of their lives, hopes, futures, and families were destroyed by the terrible scourge of addiction. It affects everyone—teenagers, housewives, business people, and senior citizens. It cuts across every psychographic, demographic, and geographic profile in the country. I wanted to put together a single resource for recovery that would guide those struggling and their family members with what to do, how to do it and when to do it. I recruited some of the top experts from different treatment modes in the addiction and recovery community and I was amazed at some of the common themes that came out of the book.
Why did you feel it was important to show the various types of therapies and recovery tactics available to addicts?
Many people looking for help usually wind up with one single resource. I liken it to having back pain. If you go to a chiropractor, he will treat you with an adjustment. A surgeon will operate, a reflexologist will massage your toes, an acupuncturist will stick needles in you, a physical therapist will give you exercises to do. Each believe they can cure the ailment, but they are only able to cure you one specific way—the way they do it. With addiction, there are different paths to recovery, but some of them are more efficient and more effective depending on your individual situation. The key is to match the solution with the person. So rather than the addict and their family just responding to the first voice they hear in their time of crisis, this book offers them facts and insights about multiple recovery techniques so they can determine what would be in their best interest to get the treatment and help they need.
How did you go about choosing people to contribute to the book?
I have a circle of friends and acquaintances in the addiction treatment community —many I've known for decades such as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, Sober Home owners, people from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotic Anonymous (NA), therapists, Long Term Treatment Operators and a variety of other experts in various treatment disciplines. The first person I reached out to was Dr Adam Bianchini. He is a medical doctor and I had heard Adam give a presentation about 10 years ago explaining the medical effects of addiction on the brain and how the brain chemistry gets rewired because of continued abuse. It was an amazing presentation—clear, undeniable, and easy to understand. As busy as he was, he was willing to write a chapter, but he tragically died of Covid-19 before the book was published. His contribution will live on as a legacy to his life devoted to helping addicts overcome addiction. I wrote a chapter of the sharing my insights as a former addict and someone who has counseled addicts for many years. Other contributors to the book include: Baseball legend Darryl Strawberry, who is a true MVP in the addiction recovery community; my good friend Dr. Jared Pingleton, who has worked for the American Association of Christian Counselors and Focus on the Family; Joe Bryan who runs the Beachcomber Rehab facility, one of the oldest private rehab centers in the country; Lui Delgado, the Founder of the Now Matters More Foundation, among others. The book covers other topics such as dual diagnosis, co-dependency, and adolescent addiction. Aside from wanting to cover specific topics, I let each author write on the topic of addiction from their individual perspectives thus covering many specific sectors of the addiction treatment community.
One out of every eight people is an addict. In my decades of helping addicts and coaching them, I came to see how many of their lives, hopes, futures, and families were destroyed by the terrible scourge of addiction. It affects everyone—teenagers, housewives, business people, and senior citizens. It cuts across every psychographic, demographic, and geographic profile in the country. I wanted to put together a single resource for recovery that would guide those struggling and their family members with what to do, how to do it and when to do it. I recruited some of the top experts from different treatment modes in the addiction and recovery community and I was amazed at some of the common themes that came out of the book.
Why did you feel it was important to show the various types of therapies and recovery tactics available to addicts?
Many people looking for help usually wind up with one single resource. I liken it to having back pain. If you go to a chiropractor, he will treat you with an adjustment. A surgeon will operate, a reflexologist will massage your toes, an acupuncturist will stick needles in you, a physical therapist will give you exercises to do. Each believe they can cure the ailment, but they are only able to cure you one specific way—the way they do it. With addiction, there are different paths to recovery, but some of them are more efficient and more effective depending on your individual situation. The key is to match the solution with the person. So rather than the addict and their family just responding to the first voice they hear in their time of crisis, this book offers them facts and insights about multiple recovery techniques so they can determine what would be in their best interest to get the treatment and help they need.
How did you go about choosing people to contribute to the book?
I have a circle of friends and acquaintances in the addiction treatment community —many I've known for decades such as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, Sober Home owners, people from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotic Anonymous (NA), therapists, Long Term Treatment Operators and a variety of other experts in various treatment disciplines. The first person I reached out to was Dr Adam Bianchini. He is a medical doctor and I had heard Adam give a presentation about 10 years ago explaining the medical effects of addiction on the brain and how the brain chemistry gets rewired because of continued abuse. It was an amazing presentation—clear, undeniable, and easy to understand. As busy as he was, he was willing to write a chapter, but he tragically died of Covid-19 before the book was published. His contribution will live on as a legacy to his life devoted to helping addicts overcome addiction. I wrote a chapter of the sharing my insights as a former addict and someone who has counseled addicts for many years. Other contributors to the book include: Baseball legend Darryl Strawberry, who is a true MVP in the addiction recovery community; my good friend Dr. Jared Pingleton, who has worked for the American Association of Christian Counselors and Focus on the Family; Joe Bryan who runs the Beachcomber Rehab facility, one of the oldest private rehab centers in the country; Lui Delgado, the Founder of the Now Matters More Foundation, among others. The book covers other topics such as dual diagnosis, co-dependency, and adolescent addiction. Aside from wanting to cover specific topics, I let each author write on the topic of addiction from their individual perspectives thus covering many specific sectors of the addiction treatment community.
As a recovering addict yourself, what therapies helped you personally?
For me, a 30-day recovery program helped tremendously as I learned through counseling and therapy why I was an addict. I always told myself I did drugs for relaxation or to unwind or because I thought they were fun. The old saying “there's comfort in familiar pain” rang true in my life as it does with most addicts. I learned that I was really using drugs to isolate myself from the things in my life that I perceived consciously and subconsciously were causing me pain. I also benefited tremendously from Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Hearing from others who were struggling was eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and inspiring all at the same time. Most addicts believe they are alone in their battle, but they are not. I believe most addicts are trying to fill the void in our hearts with alcohol and drugs instead of with a relationship with God so I also benefited greatly from the Celebrate Recovery program. Addicts can get free from the bondage of addiction in many different ways. First, they can pray and ask God to take it from them and experience deliverance from their addiction. God does not heal everyone spiritually or physically in an instant, but He does heal some people that way. There are 30-day rehab facilities and longer-term programs such as Teen Challenge and Faith Farm. Often, it is a combination of programs that ensure ongoing success.
Statistics show that addiction has been on the rise since the pandemic began. Why do you believe that is happening?
Change and uncertainty —two things caused by the Covid 19 pandemic—exacerbate addicts who typically prefer routine and certainty. Many people who may have been holding their addiction in check because of work commitments or other obligations, may have started drinking or taking drugs due to being unable to do other things. Fortunately, the recovery community adapted quickly and went to online recovery groups and therapy sessions. But those are not as effective as being face-to-face. Though these factors contributed to an increase in addiction, we can’t blame it all on the pandemic. Addicts do a good job all by themselves of ruining their lives. We didn't need a pandemic to tell us that. We just need to look at the number of deaths that happen each year as a direct result of alcohol and drug abuse. That’s why we need to find better treatment solutions and, ultimately, a cure.
What are the most important things family members need to know when they deal with an addict?
They need to know that their loved one, who has been overcome by the disease of addiction, is still in there somewhere down deep inside, in spite of the lying, the cheating, and increasing negative effects of their addiction and behavior. I experienced it myself when I realized one day that I crossed the line and could no longer choose to stop doing drugs. Just remember, there is always hope. Families should make it clear to the addict that there is a way out if he/she wants one. God says in 1st Corinthians 10:13 “no temptation has seized you except what is common to man and when you are tempted God will provide a way out.” God is not a liar. There are many ways out of addiction, and this book covers many of them. But family members need to make the choice to not enable the addict to continue this behavior. That is a brutal reality for many family members who love their addicted spouse or children. But they are not helping them by enabling them; they're just continuing to allow the addiction to run rampant and grow stronger. It is painful to cut a loved one off, either financially or by not letting them live in the home, but the family member needs to set boundaries in order to protect their own spiritual and emotional health, and sometimes even their physical survival. The addict not only ruins and destroys his own life but can take down the whole family as well. That is why family members must get knowledge, and it is my hope the Addiction and Recovery Handbook becomes a lifeline for them. The Al-Anon program for family members is helpful to understand why addicts think and behave like they do. Family members need to know that they should continue to treat the addict with firm boundaries, but with love. This is very hard for some people to do, but you can't be the addict’s cop or prison guard 24/7. You can't —and shouldn’t— live your life waiting for them to get sober. I have heard many people say, “I can't be happy until my spouse or child is sober and free from their addiction.” If your happiness is contingent upon someone else's behavior or what they do, then you are foolishly wasting your own joy and life. The reality is that the addict in your life may never get sober—although of course we hope and pray they do. Your happiness needs to be contingent upon your relationship with God and what He has done for you and the gift of life He has given you. Of course, it is sad and tragic to see your loved ones spiraling down from the disease of addiction and throwing away their lives, yet all we can do, just like offering the gospel of salvation to someone, is tell them the truth. At the end of the day the reality that every family member must come to is that we cannot change an addict. They must want to change themselves. All we can do is put the truth in front of them and give them opportunities to change by offering solid pathways to recovery.
For me, a 30-day recovery program helped tremendously as I learned through counseling and therapy why I was an addict. I always told myself I did drugs for relaxation or to unwind or because I thought they were fun. The old saying “there's comfort in familiar pain” rang true in my life as it does with most addicts. I learned that I was really using drugs to isolate myself from the things in my life that I perceived consciously and subconsciously were causing me pain. I also benefited tremendously from Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Hearing from others who were struggling was eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and inspiring all at the same time. Most addicts believe they are alone in their battle, but they are not. I believe most addicts are trying to fill the void in our hearts with alcohol and drugs instead of with a relationship with God so I also benefited greatly from the Celebrate Recovery program. Addicts can get free from the bondage of addiction in many different ways. First, they can pray and ask God to take it from them and experience deliverance from their addiction. God does not heal everyone spiritually or physically in an instant, but He does heal some people that way. There are 30-day rehab facilities and longer-term programs such as Teen Challenge and Faith Farm. Often, it is a combination of programs that ensure ongoing success.
Statistics show that addiction has been on the rise since the pandemic began. Why do you believe that is happening?
Change and uncertainty —two things caused by the Covid 19 pandemic—exacerbate addicts who typically prefer routine and certainty. Many people who may have been holding their addiction in check because of work commitments or other obligations, may have started drinking or taking drugs due to being unable to do other things. Fortunately, the recovery community adapted quickly and went to online recovery groups and therapy sessions. But those are not as effective as being face-to-face. Though these factors contributed to an increase in addiction, we can’t blame it all on the pandemic. Addicts do a good job all by themselves of ruining their lives. We didn't need a pandemic to tell us that. We just need to look at the number of deaths that happen each year as a direct result of alcohol and drug abuse. That’s why we need to find better treatment solutions and, ultimately, a cure.
What are the most important things family members need to know when they deal with an addict?
They need to know that their loved one, who has been overcome by the disease of addiction, is still in there somewhere down deep inside, in spite of the lying, the cheating, and increasing negative effects of their addiction and behavior. I experienced it myself when I realized one day that I crossed the line and could no longer choose to stop doing drugs. Just remember, there is always hope. Families should make it clear to the addict that there is a way out if he/she wants one. God says in 1st Corinthians 10:13 “no temptation has seized you except what is common to man and when you are tempted God will provide a way out.” God is not a liar. There are many ways out of addiction, and this book covers many of them. But family members need to make the choice to not enable the addict to continue this behavior. That is a brutal reality for many family members who love their addicted spouse or children. But they are not helping them by enabling them; they're just continuing to allow the addiction to run rampant and grow stronger. It is painful to cut a loved one off, either financially or by not letting them live in the home, but the family member needs to set boundaries in order to protect their own spiritual and emotional health, and sometimes even their physical survival. The addict not only ruins and destroys his own life but can take down the whole family as well. That is why family members must get knowledge, and it is my hope the Addiction and Recovery Handbook becomes a lifeline for them. The Al-Anon program for family members is helpful to understand why addicts think and behave like they do. Family members need to know that they should continue to treat the addict with firm boundaries, but with love. This is very hard for some people to do, but you can't be the addict’s cop or prison guard 24/7. You can't —and shouldn’t— live your life waiting for them to get sober. I have heard many people say, “I can't be happy until my spouse or child is sober and free from their addiction.” If your happiness is contingent upon someone else's behavior or what they do, then you are foolishly wasting your own joy and life. The reality is that the addict in your life may never get sober—although of course we hope and pray they do. Your happiness needs to be contingent upon your relationship with God and what He has done for you and the gift of life He has given you. Of course, it is sad and tragic to see your loved ones spiraling down from the disease of addiction and throwing away their lives, yet all we can do, just like offering the gospel of salvation to someone, is tell them the truth. At the end of the day the reality that every family member must come to is that we cannot change an addict. They must want to change themselves. All we can do is put the truth in front of them and give them opportunities to change by offering solid pathways to recovery.
About Jack Alan Levine:
Jack Alan Levine has written ten books and is Executive Pastor at Purpose Church in Orlando, Florida. He has served on the Board of Directors at Oasis Compassion Agency, Changed Lives Church, and is the founder of Voice of God Ministry. In addition to other books and resources for addicts, he created the eight-hour online recovery course entitled “Free for Life.” He has shared his insights about addiction and recovery at numerous conferences and organizations such as Teen Challenge, Faith Farm, Iron Sharpens Iron, and Igniting Men, among others. For more information visit www.JackAlanLevine.com.
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