Once developed, addiction is an irreversible condition of the brain and is considered a disease by most of the counseling field. A non-addicted person can stop his use basically at any given point, but the person with an addiction cannot stop once he starts. Having an addiction has nothing to do with character, spirituality, intelligence, love of family, or self-discipline, thus the concept of disease. The person with an addiction has lost the ability to control his use and continues to use in spite of the negative consequences he is experiencing.

There is a genetic component that affects the development of an addiction at two levels. First, the tolerance pace of the individual which refers to how fast he needs to increase his intake of a substance in order to get the same mood change or feeling as he previously did with a lesser amount. Second, as this tolerance pace is continuing its course; there is no way to determine at what point addiction will develop. It seems that a faster tolerance pace often correlates with an addiction developing sooner and a slower tolerance pace correlates with a later development. But when will an addiction kick in with any given individual? There’s just no way to predict it, so there is an aspect of its timing that is genetic. One person abuses drugs for months before addiction kicks in and another person takes years of use. Just like our skin responds differently to the sun’s rays where some people burn faster than others, the concept of genetic predisposition is accurate as far as the development of an addiction. Anybody can develop an addiction and genetic factors, along with several environmental factors, contribute to the speed at which it can happen. The most important thing to remember is that no matter when it is developed, once you’ve got an addiction, you’ve got it for life. The goal then becomes learning how to live a life that is drug/alcohol free, healthy, fruitful, and fulfilling.

The resident with an addiction must learn to manage it in a way that he can live a successful life just like a person with a chronic disease can. Most Capstone residents have already developed an addiction. The ones who haven’t are usually the younger ones but they will soon enough if they continue their present course of using alcohol/drugs. The 12-Steps and 12-Step resources like Celebrate Recovery are vital especially in the first two to three years of recovery. As a Christ-centered program Capstone uses the Christian Twelve Steps of Celebrate Recovery along with their 8 Guiding Principles from the Sermon on the Mount. The 12-Steps, both during Capstone and after graduation, are crucial components in Capstone’s program. The 12-Steps are basically a Biblical way of looking at yourself in the mirror, seeing what needs to be different, and then working on those changes with the support of a group of people who are in the same process. The foundation of Capstone’s Core Model of therapy is, “The truth will set you free” which is also a foundational component in the 12-Steps. It’s like having a support group of mirrors that reflect the truth about each other. Throughout the course of Celebrate Recovery meetings and Step studies, another pillar of Capstone’s program is continued, “As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another” Proverbs 27:17. These two Biblical principles are vital to learning how to live well with an addiction.

The biggest obstacle for a Capstone resident to overcome, once the facts are established, is admitting that he has an addiction. The second biggest obstacle is to learn to live his life in acceptance of that knowledge. In the same way that a person with diabetes wakes up every morning to live his life with full knowledge that he has diabetes, the person with an addiction must also live within the framework of his condition. Because of having diabetes, decisions about activities, nutrition, blood sugar checks, and insulin shots must be made based on the acceptance of the fact of the disease. Because of having an addiction, decisions about activities, relationships, environments, triggers, emotions, and relapse prevention must be made based on the acceptance of the fact of addiction. Denial is the situation when an individual refuses to accept that he has this condition and cannot live life today as a “normal” person, meaning a person without the disease. Refusal to accept the disease in either case would be catastrophic. One of the strongest reasons to be involved in a Christian 12-Step group after treatment is the consistent reminder that the addiction does exist and that life’s decisions must be made in a way that keeps the addicted person from overload situations that would lead to relapse (Capstone calls this the “Trigger Threshold”).

One of the biggest challenges in understanding addiction is the negative perception about being a person who has something that makes them “not normal”. It’s especially a big challenge to accept this about your son. Having an irreversible brain condition, a disease, or a situation that will dictate limits in behavior is difficult to accept in any situation. The cold hard facts of this are when it’s true, it’s true. Not accepting it and coming to terms with it will make the losses more severe.

In writing about Celebrate Recovery, Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of the Saddleback Church, shares some thoughts that are helpful in understanding the needs for this type of aftercare. Warren says,

“You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression that ‘time heals all wounds.’ Unfortunately, it isn’t true. As a pastor I frequently talk with people who are still carrying hurts from 30 or 40 years ago. The truth is – time often makes things worse. Wounds that are left untended fester and spread infection throughout your entire body. Time only extends the pain if the problem isn’t dealt with.

What we need is a biblical and balanced program to help people overcome their hurts, habits and hang-ups. Celebrate Recovery is that program. Based on the actual words of Jesus rather than psychological theory, our recovery program is unique, and more effective in helping people change than anything else I’ve seen or heard of. Over the years I’ve witnessed how the Holy Spirit has used this program to transform literally thousands of lives at Saddleback Church and help people grow toward full Christlike maturity.”

Warren goes on to say that his own personal study of recovery in the scriptures showed him that the principles of recovery and their logical order were given by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount in the beatitudes.

As a part of our Aftercare Program, Capstone encourages graduates to participate in Celebrate Recovery or another 12-Step program. While at Capstone, residents learn about the Steps, have groups on the Celebrate Recovery workbooks, and go to a Celebrate Recovery meeting that is facilitated by Capstone therapists.

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