The Chemical Recovery Group in the Greater St. Louis Church was first started here by Bud and Sylvia Price.
An article by Bud Price:
During the years I have spent fighting my own addiction and helping others fight theirs, I have seen a common thread among recovering addicts.
It seems a great percentage of us that had medicated our thinking for so many years had an underlying issue. This is termed in the recovery circuits as Dual Diagnosis.
Under this heading would be addict/depression, addict/ schizophrenia, addict/bipolar disorder just to name a few. The most common being a tie between depression and bipolar disorder.
Personally, I now take a prescription anti-anxiety anti-depression medication to help with my own recovery. This form of treatment is not uncommon and most often helpful with dual diagnosis.
I say most often because in this form of treatment there are also pitfalls. Most people I have been involved with helping along the recovery road, once being on medication for a while, would seem to think they were cured. They would think they didn’t need to take the medication anymore.
Because the medication was working, they thought they could do with out it. This is yet another example of the crazy upside down thinking of an addict.
This definitely is a pitfall and a common tool of our enemy, Satan. He likes to make us think we are self-sufficient and wants to lure us back into his lair by this deceptive view of our ability to fight the issue.
Genesis 3:2-6 (New International Version)
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
However, we must use the tools God provides for us to fight our afflictions. Of course the best tool in the tool shed is the bible. But the bible alone is like trying to tighten a nut on a bolt without something holding the head of the bolt from turning. We need the help of the disciples that God puts in our life to help us hold on and make forward progress and stop spinning in circles. Someone in our life helping us hold to the teachings of the word, and holding us accountable is essential.
John 8:31-32 (New International Version)
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
No better tool has been created in the church than the Chemical Recovery Ministry. The easiest way to describe this help is basic discipleship – having someone to help you and your helping of others.
A common misconception of this ministry is that it is a class or a program you take then you are healed. No, quite the contrary. It is not a class, a course or a program it is a ministry. Also, we are never healed from our addictions anymore than someone becomes cured and immune to sin.
Romans 7:14-25 describes not only our sin but the sin of addiction and even dual diagnosis if that applies to you.
Romans 7:14-25 (New International Version)
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
In this passage we have the apostle Paul showing us it isn’t the good he WANTS to do that he keeps doing but repeated evil. He says it isn’t even him doing it. The sin has taken on a life form of its own and is feeding off his soul to stay alive.
Now that defines addiction! As much as I want to not relapse and use or as long as I go without drinking or drugging I am still only a decision away from going back to it as I have unfortunately proven a few times during the course of my recovery.
The CR Ministry helps us to help ourselves by helping others. How much easier it is to see our own faults when we see them played out in the lives of others. Also if we are busy helping others, we do not have the time to indulge our own sinful natures.
Using all the tools God provides is the best way to work on recovery. Even the tools of modern medicine for help with dual diagnosis.
Thanks be to God he has provided the Chemical Recovery Ministry to help those like me get to heaven.
Coming soon:
- Testimonies from graduates
http://www.chemicalrecovery.org/