drug rehab state sponsored forced acceptance of god

[Autumnlicious]

Many addicts will replace one addiction with another. As Jesus related in the parable of driving out the demons, where seven more take their place -- aka, if you don't fill the hole in your life that the addiction occupied, you'll merely fill it with something else, usually just as bad.

I had an uncle who was an alcoholic. He replaced his addiction to alcohol with fundamentalist baptist servility. He was college educated.

Due to his "new" addiction, he and his wife home school their daughters. Who never attended college or went onto any other endeavor worth mentioning past "marry early and breed".

[Faith No More]

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long story short i have had a problem with opiates for about 10 years, and am currently very poor.

decided to get some help and get on state sponsored suboxone, for those who do not know it is basically another opiate that also
blocks the effects of opiates and allows the user to live a somewhat normal life.. catch is the medication is very expensive, around 12-15$ per tablet, and at two tablet a day that is almost as expensive as a heroin habit.

after months of going through the system i ended up at a local health department, and got government issued insurance for my state for those with low income to cover the medication, the state also offers a doctor who will script the med, the catch: you have to attend "meetings" at the state health department once a week for two hours.

in my condition i accepted right away, i did not have much of a choice. upon going to the first meeting i am surprised to see posters on the wall talking about God etc.

basically they are doing the AA 12 steps, the first day they talked about the first two steps. next meeting they have alluded that we are going to the third step i think which is acceptance of a "higher power" aka God.

i find it very immoral the way that AA and NA works, in that they try to recruit people into the christian cult when they are at their lowest. they speak as though I cannot move on from drugs without accepting that their is a god. they tell me i have a disease and I must give myself into god in order to get past it.

i think personally that accepting i have no control over myself is a dangerous thing... and i feel that self control is my best route for staying on this program and not going back to trying to get "high" and breaking the law.

i do find it odd that this is happening at a state sponsored place, and oddly enough a bunch of my "classmates" have been court ordered here, some even simply for being caught with marijuana.

i have never been convicted of any drug crimes, and i always placed rules on my usage, but sadly with opiates the physical dependence part is a real bitch.. and i have tried the "cold turkey" method with little to no success, and feel that suboxone is my best chance here, otherwise trust me i would not be subjecting myself to this, but also i do not want to be "thrown" out of a class and lose my medication. many of my friends have taken the advice of NA people and tried to quit "cold turkey" eventually they snap, and a few have gone back to their "old dosage" and died from overdose. i blame these people telling my friends that god will heal them for their deaths. a simply pill could of saved my friends lives but these groups see taking any medication like the one named as not being "upfront w/ god".
ironically at the first meeting when i was honest i had some people with DUI's telling me how i should stop taking the medication and just go to church with them, that is all i would need. the arrogance astounds me.

so do i just fake it and say what they want to hear? do i say what i really feel? do i write a letter complaining about the religious nature of this program in a government building?

advice.

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Maybe I can give some insight here because I was on suboxone for two years to quit my opiate addiction. I never would have been able to quit without it and I think faking belief in God would be a small price to pay to get it for cheap. Suboxone is very helpful for quitting because it keeps you from turning to other opiates. It also gives you control over your addiction and allows you to eventually slowly wean yourself off where as you would never be able to wean yourself off of a street habit.

Pretending to believe in God for this medication may seem like you're selling your integrity, but you know it's bullshit and pretending is what you have to do. Suboxone is a very powerful tool in fighting addiction and if you have to fake being a follower of God, do it. No one will hold it against you.

Like Moros said you can vent here, or if you have any further questions or want to speak privately send me a PM.

[LastPoet]

@OP: Can't you explain them that this problem is raising your anxiety, thus endangering your cure? Here in portugal they put psichologists and other technicians to help, in specialized offices around, so it would be as easy as explaining it...

But anyway, like Syn said, feel free to vent around here, I am an ex heroin user, I went cold turkey and its been 11 years and 3 months since I last used! Be strong my friend, there is nothing more powrfull than a man's will, you can do it!

Oh, and feels great to be free! When I was using, I could not imagine life w/o smack, now I am not a slave anymore

[Jaysyn]

basically they are doing the AA 12 steps, the first day they talked about the first two steps. next meeting they have alluded that we are going to the third step i think which is acceptance of a "higher power" aka God.

Don't give them the satisfaction of thinking they converted you. Pray to Odin, the Sun, the FSM or the IPU.

[Kayenneh]

I agree that if you have to pretend, do so. I tip my hat to all of those who has been able to quit cold turkey, but I don't recommend it to anyone. The body goes into shock and it's possibly lethal to do so. Medication is a safer choice.

It's deplorable to force those who need help to worship, but I think you know better than to fall for their bullshit, right? And even though we're just text on a screen, we really do care.

[Faith No More]

I tip my hat to all of those who has been able to quit cold turkey, but I don't recommend it to anyone.

Yes, I have done that before too. If it is avoidable then whatever is necessary should be done. Plus, like you said, you can die.

[Epimethean]

Here are a few you might contact with questions:

http://www.apmandadept.com/

http://www.chasebrexton.org/

http://www.hchmd.org/ (I know they are listed as serving the homeless, but they do more than that)

http://www.annearundelcounseling.com/

At the very least, talk to them about your issue and ask questions. The first one allows you to talk with a counselor online.

[LastPoet]

I agree that if you have to pretend, do so. I tip my hat to all of those who has been able to quit cold turkey, but I don't recommend it to anyone. The body goes into shock and it's possibly lethal to do so. Medication is a safer choice.

It's deplorable to force those who need help to worship, but I think you know better than to fall for their bullshit, right? And even though we're just text on a screen, we really do care.

Agreed, I was downing my usage in preemption to the shock, so it was easier. What really messed me up was the inability to sleep, ah man, those nights are true nightmares, almost getting one to insanity!

[BethK]

Ah boy.... I'm sure by now you've encountered the abysmal success rate that Alcoholics Anonymous, and I would presume by extension, other 12-step groups for substance abuse such as NA. It is SO LOW, that one is actually better off going without such a group and simply deciding to quit without any program. See http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effe...otreatment for discussion and tables about this issue. In the book _Games People Play_, there is a game which involves AA in which some of the alcoholics backslide and begin drinking again so that the "sober" alcoholics have someone to rescue.

I know that you haven't been court ordered to these meetings, but you have been ordered by the doctor/program from which you're getting the medications to help you off of the opiate addiction with the medications being held hostage. I don't know of a court case which involves that so much as there are district court decisions in which a person cannot be mandated to attend 12-step meetings with their religious overtones as a condition for other things because it violates the establishment clause. See http://www.webcitation.org/5lyGIFiqE "But the appeals court said Nanamori should have known in 2001 that coerced participation in a religion-based program was unconstitutional because eight state and federal courts had ruled on the issue by then and all had agreed that a parolee has a right to be assigned to a secular treatment program." Although you are not on parole, withholding or threating to withhold medications amounts to coercion And, http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/I96_0137.htm In a case which came short of declaring 12-step programs a religion, it did say that there were enough religious components to it to make coerced attendance a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

These groups on their own claim about a 5% recovery rate. If someone with a 5% recovery rate were touting their methods which are only slightly better than faith healing, http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/wirthstudy.html has a long discussion of faith healing. If someone were touting a method of faith healing as a method of recovering from diabetes or heart problems or cancer and requiring a faith-healing augmentation to their medication therapy, they would be laughed away, and certainly no government or insurance would pay for such a treatment.

Now, 12-step groups, 12-step recovery is so ingrained into the medical community now as a whole, that it is accepted as "the only way that works" to "save the lives" of "millions of alcoholics/drug addicts" that it's accepted in hospitals accepting government funds (including Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, and many others). There are even 12-step chemical addiction recovery programs in Veterans Administration hospitals and Bureau of Indian Affairs hospitals. In any other field, if "Billy Sunday" tried to convince them that patients could be healed, and only healed, if they attended his church services, no government, insurance, or other 3rd party payer would accept it. They wouldn't even accept it in any other area which cannot be directly measured, such as mental health. Alcoholics Anonymous, and by extension other 12-step groups have done their sales and outreach very well to people in charge of these things. If hospitals receiving any government funds or government-run hospitals required some faith based program to help heart patients, cancer patients, diabetics, and told them they could not receive hospital treatment without it, they would be quickly stopped. Why the insistence on "evidence based" medicine in all other areas, and "faith based" in this one area?

Another group to help alcoholics and addicts recover without the religion is Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) http://www.cfiwest.org/sos/index.htm to read about it and maybe find one in your area. If the doctor or counselor you're seeing is interested, perhaps you could help facilitate the start of a SOS or Recovery, Inc group. http://www.lowselfhelpsystems.org/

Good luck in any event.

[rrpostal]

I as well have been dealing with a greater than average like of opiates. I used the methadone route and haven't so much as had a beer for over ten years. On another subject, methadone often gets hammered by suboxone advocates for some reason although the basic concept is the same. That's a peeve of mine, but another coversation. I don't think I've ever mentioned this on an atheist site, but like others have said, feel free to vent. I am astounded by what the 12 step community gets away with in regard to forced religion. Their excuses are so sad and they hide the success data behind the "anonymous" label. I'm happy it's available. Some people think they would fall apart without it. But to force it or assume it's the only way is just wrong. Feel free to message me.