Thoughts on "Harm Reduction" as one strategy in recovery for the addicted:
In Camus' "Myth of Sisyphus", the gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of the mountain, whence the stone would fall back on its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. Sisyphus became the futile laborer of the underworld. The absurd hero. More so is the recovering person who adopts a strategy of "Harm Reduction", (HR), in the often uphill road to recovery.He is doomed much like Sisyphus to repeat the hopeles process into relapse.Indulging fancifully in a strategy of HR is playing a too-often deadly game of acquiscence, of compliance, giving in to the belief that the recovering person is less than at his best... a core problem in an addicts already addled mind.
Overcoming addictions, whether drug, alcohol, gambling, or overeating always requires accepting and living in a greater truthfulness. At the heart of every addiction is an anesthetized old hurt, seeking to be released. Some chemical or self-destructive behavior reinforced the lie and made it more difficult to correct. Accepting the painful truth, rather than running from it, is the begining of sobriety. Nothing less succeeds.
The truth has the power to heal, to protect, and to guide. Living in the truth is living free and at one' s best. The simple fact is that using even "just a little" dope like smoking a joint (for the recovering alcoholic or heroin addict), playing slots insteand of a full-fledged poker game that is so popular today (for the problem gambler), creates neurological short-circuits that devolve into mental, physical, and spiritual distortions. It is in direct opposition to the clear-eyed reality check that recovery requires.
Recovery's enemy is tension. Using "just a little", or substituting a seemingly less harmful chemical or behavior, blocks clarity and increases tension. Familiar goals are snatched away, distorted or lost. Undesirable physical sensation begin to stir. Mentally, a biochemical change is taking place awakening hard-to-resist cravings, pangs, and longings. Spiritually, call it the treacherous soul, a disconnect is taking place. A calamity is being born. A loss of meaning occurs creating again a condition of tension that the addict (sex, alcohol, food, drug, etc.) sought to relieve from the onset.
To any person with long-term recovery, to any effective therapist or 12-step sponsor, such thoughts evoke a feeling of dread for good reason. This "disease of addiction" (aptly considered by the American Medical Association in 1976), a condition to be treated, often results in death. I am one such unfortunate witness many times over. My favorite tennis partner who was a brilliant law student and pianist, a successful businessman, and most recently two distant family members (last month), are among the non-living now, as examples. I dare say anyone close to these issues have known addictions dire consequences. It is serious enough not to be meddled with by half-stepping the recovery process. HR is just that.
The whole process of recovery is beyond the scope of this essay but I would be remiss if I didn't include some discussion of the three components to be addressed for the recovering person. A "whole" human being, perhaps call it the "self-actualized" or "self-realized" person is the goal of recovery. Comprising this troika of the complete human being is the physical self (body), the mental self (mind), and the spiritual self (soul). HR interferes with the integration of these three components. Those of us in recovery or treating addictions have come to understand at the deepest level, that the obvious focus on healing initially involves the well-being of the body and the mind. However, a less measurable, a harder-to-grasp principle is one of the roles of spiritual healing in recovery. Its vagaries are less scientific, less definable and measurable, therefore, less advocated by scientific types. Make no mistake; addiction is a spiritual malady yet a spiritual opportunuty to heal. HR is contraindicated as, using even a little, or participating in old destructive behaviors in small doses, interferes with the natural healing mechanism. Spiritual healing, this healing aspect of our selves, takes the most time, requires the most work, and is the most frustating to grasp. It also, as a reward, results in the greatest relief the long-suffering addict can know.
Within the oft-baffling realm of spirituality there are secrets of energy, creativity, the rhythm of existence and their compelling interconnection that awakens an inner voice bringing a magic to traditional wellness approaches. It requires sobriety for these connections to take root for the long term.
Harm reduction may appear as a short-term, harmless relief to the stress of life, but it is a dangerous precedent never to be offered as an option in recovery. My experience tells me as I sit in a prison cell that it would be safer to snatch a salmon from the jaws of a grizzly bear. Give the matter a kiss goodnight.
Write to me:
Michael Geffner K91323
310-1-71L
PO BOX 9 AVENAL,
CA 93204 USA
