Sunday Leftovers: Hostage Series #5 -- Addiction

In his book High Society, Joseph Califano, the chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, talks about the relationship between addicts and the church:

Chemistry is chasing Christianity as the nation's largest religion. Indeed, millions of Americans who in times of personal crisis and emotional and mental anguish once turned to priests, ministers, and rabbis for keys to the heavenly kingdom now go to physicians and psychiatrists, who hold the keys to the kingdom of pharmaceutical relief, or to drug dealers and liquor stores, as chemicals and alcohol replace the confessional as a source of solace and forgiveness.

A popular belief among doctors and social scientists has been that many teens begin drug use and sexual activity to deal with depression. However, a study published in the October 2005 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reverses those beliefs.

Health policy researcher Denise Dion-Hallfors comments: "Findings from the study show depression came after substance and sexual activity, not the other way around."

The data was gathered from a national survey of 13,491 adolescents. A large group of these teens, about 25 percent, were called "abstainers." They had never had sex, smoked, drank alcohol, or taken drugs. Only 4 percent of these teens experienced depression.

The study also reported that girls among the 75 percent who had taken drugs and experimented with sex were 2–3 times more likely to experience depression than abstaining girls. Boys who engaged in binge drinking were 4.5 times more likely to experience depression than boys in the abstaining group. Boys smoking marijuana were more than 3 times more likely to be depressed than those who abstained.

Dr. Hallfors warns: "Parents, educators, and health practitioners now have even more reason to be concerned about teen risk behaviors, and to take action about alcohol, drugs, and sex."

In the article "Johnny Cash Approaches Judgment Day with Faith," Cash tells Steve Beard of Relevant magazine about his drug use:

I used drugs to escape, and they worked pretty well when I was younger. But they devastated me physically and emotionally and spiritually. That last one hurt so much: to put myself in such a low state that I couldn't communicate with God. There's no lonelier place to be. I was separated from God, and I wasn't even trying to call on him. I knew that there was no line of communication. But he came back. And I came back.