While I was driving, I turned on the radio and I was shocked by the information the host shared – there’s about 6 – 8 people died daily because of illicit-drug overdoses in BC in the past first ten month 2021.
When I was still the rector of St Elizabeth’s Anglican Church in Mississauga three years ago, we welcomed the NA (Narcotics Anonymous) group in our church building. I was allowed to attend their meetings. One time I had conversation with a Canadian born Chinese young man. He told me he’s trying to live clean but it’s difficult with the emotional support of the family. He was kicked out by his parents because they could not accept his son with drug addiction. I could see his tears when he talked about his family. He loved and missed his family very much. I did not know what to say, I just gave him a hug. He cried and said “thank you” to me. Because he moved to another shelter, he had never come to the NA meeting in our church since that evening. I have been keeping him in prayers.
There are many people need others’ emotional support so that they can continue their journey of living clean. In fact, emotion support is one powerful way to prevent people to use drugs to escape from their personal problems and pains. In fact, we all need others’ emotional support.
There’s so much misconception out there about addiction etc. It’s not an easy topic and I understand why people will excommunicate others who are struggling with addiction. I think most of the time it’s because people have their own idea of how quickly or easily someone can get over an addiction and if that expectation isn’t met then they dismiss that person as lazy or not even trying etc… I wish everyone had a more supportive approach and trusted in God’s timeline instead of their own.
A good source about addiction is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8AHODc6phg&ab_channel=Theatrum. the research isn’t perfect (mainly because I think there is a large part of genetic disorder in play, so just surrounding yourself with good connections and changing your environment might not be enough. Also, experimentation on rats don’t perfectly translate to humans.) but there is a lot of useful information.
It is my opinion that we should stop treating people who are addicted to substances as criminals or even less than human. Connection is one factor that can definitely help but like I said above it’s a complicated topic and there’s more too it so let’s try to have some empathy