CULLMAN – With addiction numbers soaring throughout the country and locally, it is estimated that over one in ten Americans are addicted to alcohol and drugs. Mind you, those numbers do not include those who are addicted to gambling, food or sex.
The Zero Addiction Initiative (www.zeroaddiction.org) was launched in June of last year by the Alabama Office of Prosecution Services and Alabama Department of Public Health in hopes of providing help to those addicted and preventing addiction in the future. They estimated that, in 2014, narcotic prescriptions written in the state of Alabama totaled 5,551,260, with over 4 billion written each year in the nation.
Here is more information from Zero Addiction:
Narcotic, or opiate, addiction “is the Nation’s fastest growing drug problem and has been classified as an epidemic. According to the CDC, approximately 100 Americans died every day due to overdoses of prescription opioids. 43% (or 16,600) of the 38,300 unintentional drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, were attributed to prescription opioids. According to the CDC, one person dies from prescription drug abuse every 19 minutes. Opioid pain relievers were involved in more overdose deaths than cocaine and heroin combined. America has 4% of the world’s population, but uses 40% of the pharmaceuticals produced.”
Last week’s article highlighted one abstinence program, the 12-step programs, which offers a community of peers and method of working through many of the obstacles in one’s path to maintain a clean and sober lifestyle. This week we will look at other abstinence options including Christian faith-based treatment centers and meetings available in the area.
The Foundry Farm, located in Holly Pond, offers men a year-long recovery program set in a 60+ acre scenic, peaceful background. Their mission is “to restore hope and rebuild the lives of the addict, the ex-inmate and the destitute through Christ-centered Rescue, Recovery and Re-entry.”
The 87-bed facility incorporates one-on-one weekly counseling, daily group classes, employment training, case management/social services and their own curriculum based on principles within their standard text, the Bible. The residents are offered GED classes, WorkKeys testing and workforce development skills classes taught by Wallace State Community College instructors who come to the farm.
Foundry Farm Director Eddie Wilson cites Romans 12:2 as one of his inspirations for the men he works with each day. It reads, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
For a Christian who is also an addict, that renewal can be difficult to find living in the same environment where he was an active addict. Sometimes, a long-term program is an ideal option if the addict is willing.
“For nine months, which is the length of the residential part of our program, all they have to do is just concentrate on just renewing their minds, and we’re big believers that you have to have a transformation of the mind and think differently when you leave here than when you got here. That’s what we try to help these men do, to think differently.”
For Russell, who has been at the farm for about seven months, the transformation didn’t happen when he went to treatment centers or 12-step meetings; it happened at The Foundry.
Raised in a church family, Russell was saved before the age of 10 and would occasionally share the pulpit with his uncle, a pastor. He attended a Christian school and then a public school where he feels he “became a follower to peer pressure and just started drifting away.”
He went on, “Things started happening in my life, negative things, little slaps in the face. All my life I was told I could do anything in life and that scared me. I was afraid I would choose the wrong thing. I put things off and started partying in the 1990s. I dabbled in pain medication and then 9/11 happened. The night before 9/11 I was at a crack house. But the day it happened I made a commitment to do something and two weeks later I swore in.
“So I straightened up, went to boot camp and volunteered to go overseas. I spent two years in the Middle East, came back and got injured. I was put on a pain medication and it introduced it back to me. Then, working for the military wasn’t strong enough to keep me from sliding back into it so I got out and continued on the medication, not taking it right. That downward spiral just kept going down and down and down. It put me in places that I’d never be in. I finally got to the point where I (was) just isolated for years staying in the same room. It wasn’t a jail cell, but it really was.
“One day I got up, flew off the handle, started using ungodly amounts and ended up on the streets. I stayed there for a while and I found my bottom. When you’re eating out of the trash because you don’t want to spend your money on food, you’d rather spend it on dope, it’s a waking moment. Suicide was my option, but I didn’t do it.”
Later, while staying in a dirty basement sleeping on a filthy mattress, Russell began talking to God. “I didn’t bargain with him. What he told me was that he never left. All of those life-threatening moments I had been in, something always happened. That was God. He never left. God then ordered me to come here.”
Since that time, Russell has been putting God’s will first in his life and has found himself in leadership roles at Foundry Farms and hasn’t found it necessary to use due to the transformation in his life.
For more information on Foundry Farms, please visit their website at www.foundryministries.com or call 256-796-1440. If you are suffering from the disease of addiction, we urge you to reach out to someone who can help you today.
Several local churches, including Daystar and Desperation, have small groups specific to recovery.
Daystar Church’s Real Recovery small group is a Christ-centered recovery program to help those with their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. This 12-step program is similar to other programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. However, we emphasize a Biblical life-changing principle with each of the steps, always stressing the One true higher power of Jesus Christ as our source. When: Tuesdays, 7 p.m.; Where: Daystar Church, Good Hope Campus Youth Wing; Leader: Richard Taylor, 205-837- 2135, ratlotus@yahoo.com
Desperation Church’s Recovery small group for men: “JESUS is our higher power. Fighting to stay free from addiction? Join us each Friday for some next steps, accountability and a time in the presence of God.” When: Fridays, 6:30 p.m.; Where: Desperation Church, Cullman Campus; Leaders: Jeff Graves and Richard Madaris
Part 1: http://cullmansense.com/articles/2016/05/22/addiction-family-affair-part-1
Part 2: http://cullmansense.com/articles/2016/05/29/addiction-game-changer-part-2
Part 3: http://cullmansense.com/articles/2016/06/05/addiction-luckiest-guy-i-know-part-3
