Addiction - a spiritual disease

This is Chimchar, my favourite character on Pokemon. He lives in a little red and white ball, and emerges on command to 'fight' the Pokemon of other trainers. A couple of days ago he 'evolved' into Montferno. 'Explorers of darkness' is what comes up if you go the website linked to above. This game is addictive.

I'ld like to buy a glass or two for whoever it was that first uttered the phrase, 'the demon drink'. We've moved on from Sharia this week, but one of the little-discussed aspects of Islamic law in this whole debate was the ban on alcohol. There are few Muslims who belong to Alcoholics Anonymous in the West. So could it be that Sharia works?

I'm not advocating prohibition, and definitely do not think it in any way 'unavoidable'. But I have chuckled quietly at how, since our Archbishop moved off the front pages, the headlines have been dominated instead by stories of drunkenness among the young, and crackdowns on drug dealing.

Recently, I travelled on an Underground train shortly after a football match in west London.

The carriage was full of pot-belled men stinking of stale alcohol and urine, badly shaven, crew-cut, Union Jacks tattooed on arms and even the proudly-displayed backs, buttocks, although not on the putrid stomachs. The tummy decoration was left to the accompanying 'wags'. I expect you've all travelled on one of those trains so I won't elaborate further on any description of those women.

It was terrifying. Seated down, eyes down, was a Muslim family, women in headscarves and lovely silken colourful dresses, children in tidy little suits, babiesin pushchairs, men in barely-disguised anger. I was so ashamed and experienced a moment of pure rage.

My compatriots reminded me of the youngster who went to his father's funeral. The older man had died of liver failure at 50 after a lifetime of serious drinking. The boy's girlfriend said to him: 'Was your dad an alcoholic?' He looked appalled. 'God no, he wasn't that bad.'

I gave up alcohol some time ago, a decision that incidentally brings its own unique set of problems for an
Anglican, especially one from the Anglo-Catholic tradition. It's fine for Catholics to take the 'blood of Christ' at the altar, because as far as they are concerned it is no longer wine. It's also fine for most Methodists and other Free Church members. They just get fruit juice. But what is an Anglican to do? I just cross my arms over my chest and say a private 'no', and try to ignore the startled look on the face of the priest or server as they pass the chalice onto the next person. Saying  'no' on Sundays is good practice, though, for the rest of the week, although I do prefer Evensong or Morning Prayer simply because it means that problem is avoided. Working on Sundays is another solution, because it means not going to church at all.

Where prohibitionists get it wrong is in believing that by banning the substance, they can cure the addict. 
Time after time, history has shown the mistake in this approach. Many people have addictions of some kind. If it is not drink, it might be gambling, drugs, food, writing long sentences, or if you're lucky, something useful, like blogging.

I believe addicition is a spiritual problem, and that therefore a lasting solution can only be a spiritual one.
This has been on my mind in the last few days, and writing this is I hope a kind of exorcism. Because for
the last few days I've been totally laid low by a new addiction. Addicition is an illness of denial, and often you never know you've succumbed until it is almost too late. Particularly useful to some is the image of an angel on one shoulder, advising against, and a demon on the other, saying: 'Go for it, have some fun, God this feels good.' Demons in my inner conversations always use godly phrases in their temptations.

It came about because I've been trying to find ways to play properly with my son. My work addiction, doubly
difficult to deal with because it is so useful in terms of paying the mortgage, means he's often left to amuse himself at home while I'm on the computer. He also shows remarkable maturity in being able to resist the usual blandishments thrown at children. For example he is already, at six, bored by television, having been
babysat by Teletubbies from three months. He can spend hours amusing himself with Lego and the massive variety of Simpsons spin-offs that proliferate in our crowded converted garage in Kew.

So I bought him a Nintendo DS, a little black one. All well and good. He plays with it for 30 minutes a day
or so, and in car journeys, completely self-regulated. After vacuuming up Super Mario from the carpet, I bought him Pokemon Pearl. This game demanded a level of literacy he has not quite achieved so here was an opportunity to engage properly with him in play. I bought myself a pink DS, and plugged in Pokemon
Diamond.

And that was it. I was gone, lost in this world of creatures that talk, evolve, fight, chatter, laugh, little beings that feel happy and sad, this magical world of underground tunnels, gyms, ghosts, bats that bite, prancing fire ponies. Last weekend was a write-off. On Monday, I awoke with a headache, feeling bad-tempered and like I hadn't felt for nearly 23 years. It was the Pokemon equivalent of a hangover.

If you've not played the game, but are familiar with Philip Pullman's worlds, there are similarities in some
respects with his daemons.

There are internet chats and web pages devoted to discussing the demonic aspects of Pokemon.

Yahoo has a discussion on whether Pokemon can go to hell. And of course the addictive aspects of
gaming are well-documented. The Archbishop of Canterbury himself wrote this week, in The Guardian,
about the withdrawal of young people into  computer games. I wondered at the words of this writer, Brett Peterson: 'Some of the cards show creatures associated with Satan (dragons, ghosts,  wizards, etc) and are typical examples of the dark side of Pokemon. Haunter, an evolved spirit can hypnotize and has 'dream eater' power (powered by the purple Pokemon energy cards which is the psychic energy). This power lets him drain the energy from his opponents. Some eastern and New age philosophies teach this principal and call spirits that can do this 'energy vampires'. This is just the tip of the iceberg! The Pokemon game
contains many typologies manifest in the cards that reflect the philosophies of Shinto with mystic
Buddhism, in addition to many other beliefs.'

He was writing about the card game before it evolved into its present DS incarnation. That was where I
pulled up. Peterson wrote: 'In Pokemon, the monsters actually die to their old self and evolve into the new, more powerful Pokemon. This is the teaching of eastern mystery religions and is spelled out in the Egyptian book of the Dead and other occult religions.' He goes on to warn: 'Children are subtly being indoctrinated in the theory of evolution and mysticism in the Pokemon game. At this level, you will teach your children that God created the world, and the world will tell your children that we evolved from apes, and they will be so familiar with evolution that they will instinctively believe that un-provable theory .'

So Pokemon teaches Darwinianism to children? Play on, son. But of course, he has stopped playing it for the time being. I am the one in trouble, and not because of the 'demonic' aspects of the Pokemon. I don't want to end up like that South Korean man, who died of exhaustion after playing  a computer game for 50 hours with few breaks. Moderation in this as in all things is the answer.

But moderation is what addicts find so difficult. Hence the appeal of prohibition, to addicts themselves, as well as to a society's rulers. To all those trying to impose these prohibitions of whatever kind on our society is, they have to understand that it just won't work. The solution has to be a spiritual one. It is in God that we will be healed, not in law, of any kind.

This column first appeared in The Church of England Newspaper.

Comments

[Detoxer]

Ruth, you have made some good points but we must not ignore the biggest threat to increased addiction.

As the director of Novus Medical Detox, I daily see the ravages caused by prescription drug addiction created by doctors prescribing it to their patients and then the patients either continuing to obtain it or purchasing these drugs on the internet or the street. Probably the worst of these drugs is OxyContin--legal heroin.

Pain is real. I have had it much of my life first from polio and then from two surgeries. However, there are alternatives to painkillers and they must be tried first. Let's not treat the symptoms but the cause.

Prescription drug addiction is an epidemic and we must do everything we can to stop it before it overwhelms us. Education is a must.

Steve Hayes
http://novusdetox.com

[R.Turner]

The only way to cure addictions is to surrender to a Higher Power than your'self' ( a.k.a. ego). Throughout history, nothing worked until the 12 step programme came on the scene.
This format is now being equally successfully used for many types of addiction.
It is interesting to note that sex is not included as an addiction in R.G.'s blog.
What damage does the search for sex cause in today's societies?

[Alistair]

Alcoholism among priests has been a major problem for the Catholic church for the last 100 years. In Sex, Priests and Secret Codes by Fr Thomas Doyle and Richard Sipe (see www.richardsipe.com) it says a 20% lifetime incidence of alcohol problems among Catholic clergy was projected in the 1960s, and was seen as a problem, and specifically treated as such, from the early 1900s. There were specialist treatment centres to deal with the problem in Minnesota and Michigan in the 1950s, Toronto in 1966, and California, Missouri and Masachusetts in in the 1970s. A specialist centre opened in Birmingham, UK, in the 1970s to deal with this and wider psychological problems, including sexual ones. That fact alone makes a mockery of Cardinal O'Connor's waffling on BBC Newsnight in 2002 when he told Paxman that he and the Church had been "on a learning curve" with dealing with child abuse - a curve that started at the very latest in England some 30 years' earlier! Clearly some folk are slow learners.

Doyle and Sipe say about these 1970s treatment centres:

"With the opening of these facilities, referrals of priests with sexual additions increased" (Page 72)

In Ireland recently, the priesthood got wind of a proposed Irish government zero-tolerance policy on drink-driving and got nervy about getting caught going form church to church drinking consecrated wine at Masses. See this BBC report about "turning water into fine"!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7076134.stm

Not even the Father Ted script writers came up with that plot line!

[J Cline]

Having living in two Muslim countries, I can assure you that Muslims do drink. (And relish pork.) And of course, unless you can catch these folk in a very rare moment of candour, they'll never cop to it. But I've seen it myself, and been asked to buy booze and "haram" food and even drugs for Muslims I've known in Kuwait and Egypt.

If Shari'a is a cure, I'd rather keep the disease, thank you very much.

[emanuel appel]

a letter from America

Nationality and Alcoholism

The one who should Bathe often cannot help but bring in Israel into this, brings one example, if it did exist outside of his sordid imagination, but the fact is that most Jews are not alcoholics for either genetic or social reasons.

As a matter of fact, alcoholism of the northern variety does not exist in the Mediterranean basin. My culture is from there, I've observed it first hand.

"Northern" alcoholism is defined as getting blitzed for its own sake, because your surroundings are so cold and bleak that you have no alternative for amusements. Also, it's accompanied by this spiritual crisis and angst unseen in other areas akin to Martin Luther's self questioning.

In the Mediterranean, you have wine to go with your meals. Wine is food's best compliment. I cannot imagine a more sordid day than trying to get drunk on a bottle or two of burgundy wine. It is precisely the lack of wine in the north, the reliance on distilled spirits in group settings, that causes an over reliance to the point where you "must" have it.

"Withdrawal" is even worse because it leads to a lifetime of panic and guilt, the inability to take a thimbleful of wine at religious services because of the fear that one might "lapse".

The religion and tradition of Israel counsels the Golden Mean and the desire to "fix the world" today rather than a reward in some afterlife or 77 virgins. For whatever reason, our thinkers never spent too much time on "afterlife" or descriptions of it.

[joe]

Ruth - maybe there is something I am missing, but isn't there a typo in the title of this post? I might just be betraying my lack of pokemon knowledge.

(rg writes thank you have corrected it. Btw, I reached a new town the other day in the Pokemon Sinoh region and discovered it had a church! I'm waiting now to discover if there's a mosque or synagogue anywhere.)

[Robin Bather]

Contrary to another poster's opinions, I'd like to give mine.
My first boss in Mexico was an alcoholic and he was a Jew (he was also a thief, a tax evader, a liar and treacherously unfaithfull to his wife but that's bye the bye).
But the worst thing about him was that he drank tumblers of fine French Cognac with Coca Cola.

[Kate]

I am intrigued by Petra's extraordinary 'theory' of alcoholism as a Protestant(?) disease. Catholic Ireland is today, and always has been, plagued by alcoholism.

The latest statistics to hand (2004) on abuse of alcohol world wide show:

Luxembourg (87% Roman Catholic) 1st;
Czech Rep (59% agnostic, atheist} 2nd;
Ireland (86.8% Roman Catholic) 3rd;
Moldova (98% Eastern Orthodox) 4th;
France (51% Catholic, 31% agnostic) 5th;
Reunion [Africa] (86% Roman Catholic) 6th.

Followed by:
Croatia (87% Roman Catholic);
Austria (74% Roman Catholic);
Portugal (84% Roman Catholic);
Slovakia (68.9 % RC, 4.1% Greek Catholic)
Lithuania (79% Roman Catholic)
Spain (76% Roman Catholic)
Denmark (83.0% Lutheran i.e. Protestant)

Petra's idealised vision of France, Spain and Italy is, I fear, that of the tourist. More alcohol is consumed privately in these countries. In the UK and Ireland pub/club-culture provides public exposure. One can only compare 'like with like'.

Alcoholism (the addiction) is not interchangeable with 'loutish' behaviour. The majority of 'louts' - categorised as the 'under-class' and analysed perceptively by Tom Jackson above, are just that - anti-social individuals devoid of boundaries - with or without substance addiction.

One further 'small' correction:

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1934, in Akron, Ohio, USA by Bill Wilson, a New York stockbroker and Dr Bob Smith, a surgeon. Neither of these men were "Anglican". Both had long abandoned the religious denominations into which they were born.

Further, the 12 Step Programme of AA is not constrained by any specific religious dogma or denomination. Bill Wilson writes: "With ministers and the world's religions, I parted right there". "I resisted the thought of a Czar of the Heavens."

Elements of the philosophy of William James, the psychological theories of Carl Jung, the Oxford Groups, the Torah and the New Testament can all be identified in the programme but the most important revelation experienced by Bill Wilson was: "It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself."

Alcoholism is a mental and/or physical addiction, NOT an inherent propensity for evil or wrong-doing.
The majority of addicts are essentially alienated from society - they experience intense loneliness.

For that reason, the majority of members of AA first identify the 'group' as the "Power greater than myself". The group supports, listens, understands shared experience and offers hope. Many come later to a concept of 'God as I understand him'.

Addiction make no distinction in class or religion; I have worked with professional people who became addicted after a first drink as a mature adult. Equally, I have worked with Tom's 'abandoned' children who seek alcohol or other substances as a means of escape from the lonely reality of their lives.

FACTS are important in these debates; it is neither accurate nor helpful to differentiate and categorise a mental and/or physical illness as specific to one religious or sociological grouping.

[John]

The only way to stop the alcohol problem is to ban it Saudi-style, with extreme penalties for offenders.

Given the alternatives of alcohol abuse, or the Taliban, I think I can guess what most people would prefer.

[Petra]

Sure, addiction is a spiritual disease, but you can't overcome it by mere prohibition, as you yourself say. I'm a (Roman) Catholic myself and the Catholic culture has never been one for prohibition, but for moderation. It's all about enjoying God's gifts to us!

Maybe that's the reason why widespread binge drinking (interestingly combined with strictness of the state about the selling of alcohol!) is essentially a phenomenon of traditionally Protestant, now largely secularised regions like Scandinavia or Britain. (Russia is an exception.)

I'd say that it's a symptom of spiritual and cultural emptiness (as agnostic Theodore Dalrymple has also pointed out about the British underclass) combined with the traditional Puritan notion that drinking alcohol is somehow "bad" (so we have to do it quickly and drink as much as possible)... Compare that to the enjoyment people bring to good eating and drinking (wine) in traditionally Catholic countries like Spain, Italy or France!

Of course, I don't say that you don't have alcoholics in such countries (you have them everywhere), but that the attitude to alcohol is just different.

BTW, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by Anglicans who recognized that alcoholism was a spiritual disease, and it does use a certain reliance on the Transcendent (call it God if you will) as part of its method.

[Rick Beekman]

Ruth;
This thread reminds me of the story of the Chap who had a few too many. He was Driving down a One Way Street the wrong way. The Police Stop him and said "Sir Did'nt You See Those Arrows Back There"? Chap Slurs "Officer I Did'nt Even See The Indians"! (Hic).

[Tom Jackson]

I was at first amused and then distressed when listening to a representative from a teacher's union being questioned on the radio this week.

When the question of disruption in the classroom was raised - prompted by a report that teachers were subject to bullying by their pupils - she first insisted that only a "minority" of children were involved but later complained that over 50% of the teachers she represented has been "bullied"!

The truth is that in many of our schools, children are not receiving the education that they are entitled to and need, either because of their own actions or due to actions by other children.

Being a parent is a very difficult undertaking at the best of times. It is time consuming, energy sapping and, at times, downright unbearable! The same is true of being a teacher especially when the most important tool in handling a child - the application of some form of discipline - is taken away from you.

My wife and I decided very early on in our relationship that she would not work when bringing up our three children. I could earn enough to support the family provided we did not intend to compete with our contemporaries where our standard of living was concerned. We never regretted this decision and we feel events have proved we took the most suitable course of action possible.

Now, not everyone is in that position and society is increasingly paying the price for changes that in many cases mean children do not get the upbringing or education that develops them in the best way possible.

Women going to work and leaving children at home or with child-minders; taking away established and effective methods of discipline in the school; all this could have been coped with had the community been better prepared and provision made with adequate nurseries and smaller class numbers. Instead, a woman has to work even longer to pay the exorbitant fees for her child to be looked after and in the classroom, the pupils now have more power and say than the teacher.

So, the next time a group of yobbish youngsters, boys and girls, rampage through the streets, high on drink and drugs, look no further than this early failure to establish boundaries and guidelines in their immature, developing minds which establish an understanding of what is, and what is not, acceptable.

[George Parr]

Sorry Ruth. Having re-read my post it looked a bit harsh. I very often write as things occur to me and I just thought that the implied testimony was that your readers would be expected to define these yobbos automatically from a particular standpoint. I didn't mean to dilute your piece overly! I too am depressed by the culture of drunkenness and posturing which seems to prevail!

(don't worry about it, I don't mind being pulled up - it is sometimes hard when writing about sensitive subjects to strike exactly the right note, I find that and I am sure others do too. rg)

[Yakoub]

Interestingly, I'm aware of a few converts who were partly inspired to embrace Islam because it was one way onto the wagon. That includes me.

Re. the above comment, why the spite? Most Muslims are just ordinary human beings who want peace. I think the majority of Brits are grown up enough to realise that, even if you're not.

[George Parr]

Well what a surprise Ruth! I would never have thought that you would define people through the use of sterotypes! I agree that sometimes loutish behaviour can be frightening, but you sound as if you had absolutely no idea that some people are loud and display their own uniformity. 'Those women' sounds judgmental; I expect they were very different from you however! Were you threatened?

Do you disapprove of crewcuts and women with tattoos? Do you have a particular view on levels of shaving or do you make assumptions when you see partly-shaven men?
Were these people ALL bad, or committing offences? Was the Muslim family abused or threatened, or just a behavioural comparison? What evidence do you have that any of these people were addicts?

(No evidence at all, I'm not saying they were addicts, just that they seemed extremely drunk. I was relating that to the increase in youth drunkenness that has been so widely reported. I make no assumptions when I see partly-shaven men unless they have UJ tattooes as well, are dressed in dirty and torn clothes and are swearing and using threatening behaviour in public. If you are a woman and trapped in a crowded underground train with such people, I think it is understandable to feel threatened.)

[emanuel appel]

a letter from America

Dear Ruth,

Few Jews are drunks. Our tradition emphasizes the Golden Mean. The only drunks we see in Israel are Jews from Russia or Slavic countries where drunkeness is akin to being "social".

Using Sharia as a cure for alcohol addiction is akin to using Auschwitz as a cure for overpopulation.

[Peterk]

"It was terrifying. Seated down, eyes down, was a Muslim family, women in headscarves and lovely silken colourful dresses, children in tidy little suits, babiesin pushchairs, men in barely-disguised anger. I was so ashamed and experienced a moment of pure rage"

oh puhleeeze. why should you be ashamed? and which was the terrifying moment? the Muslim family or the soccer louts?

I find it offensive to see Muslim men walking around in native dress, as well as watching BMOs strolling about the high street.

Were the "soccer louts" acting in a boorish manner? were they threatening the Muslims? what made it terrifying?

(rg writes: yes they were acting and speaking in a boorish and threatening manner.)