Addiction and Recovery: Accompaniment Toward Wholeness and Healing

[00:10:30] The Role of Faith in Healing from Addiction
Fr. Sean Kilcawle and Beth Hlabse focus on the synergistic relationship between spirituality and science in addiction recovery. They argue that churches have the potential to act as sanctuaries, aiding healing through a combination of faith-based support and contemporary psychological understanding.

[00:25:45] Addressing the Brain Disease Model of Addiction
Dr. Amy Ricke offers a medical perspective, defining addiction as a chronic brain disease. She details the interaction between genetics, environment, and life experiences in addiction, explaining how the brain’s reward system affects self-control and how understanding this can aid recovery.

[00:40:05] Transitioning from Victimhood to Agency in Recovery
Scott Weeman emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and humility in the recovery process. He highlights storytelling and supportive community as powerful means for healing, illustrating the transition from fear-based reactions to taking ownership of one’s recovery journey.

[01:00:20] The Importance of Empathy and Boundaries
Through the conversation between Dr. Ricke and Fr. Sean Kilcawle, listeners learn the balance needed in providing support to individuals struggling with addiction. Empathy and hope are crucial, but so are setting healthy boundaries to ensure that support is constructive and sustainable.

[01:15:40] Overcoming Stigma and Promoting Open Dialogue in the Church Community
The panelists underscore the need for candid conversations about addiction within faith communities. Scott Weeman and Fr. Sean Kilcawle particularly stress the importance of addressing the often-taboo topics like pornography addiction, arguing that these discussions can lead to transformation and a deeper, broader grasp of the Gospel’s relevance to personal struggles.

• The Power of Sharing in Recovery: “It wasn’t until I found myself in a 12 step meeting. After that meeting, a man darted across the room, looked me in the eye, and said, I know exactly how you feel.”
  — Scott Weeman [00:24:42 → 00:24:51]

• Understanding Addiction: “In 2021…estimates that more than 46 million people in the United States have a drug or alcohol addiction.”— Dr. Amy Ricke [00:05:17 → 00:05:24]
  The Nature of Modern Addictions: “A lot of times it’s a way of replacing negative emotions with positive sensations, like things that I can influence my body so I don’t have to feel my feelings.”
  — Fr. Sean Kilcawle [00:16:37 → 00:16:38]

• Understanding Addiction and Recovery: “we have to understand and hold that context that people will get better; they may get worse for a while; they may get better, and we need to stick with them as they go through that process and not see this as a moral failing, not see this as a moral referendum. As I think Scott said, each of us have vulnerabilities based on our genetics, our early environment, our upbringing. The causes are multiple, and these predispose us to various forms of suffering through our life and very few of us would voluntarily choose to suffer and certainly someone struggling with addiction. So much of it is involuntary, once the disease takes hold.”
  — Dr. Amy Ricke [00:32:21 → 00:32:59]

• Spiritual Healing in Addiction Recovery: “The spiritual dimension of recovery is about speaking the truth into those lies, and helping someone come to believe that they are in fact lovable, that our Lord loves them as they are, that our Lord can meet their needs, and that he’s trustworthy, and that’s what happens when we preach the gospel.”— Fr. Sean Kilcawle [00:19:32 → 00:19:49]
  Talking About Difficult Topics with Kids: “Sometimes we fear that if we introduce a topic such as pornography to someone or bring it up to our kids or others, that might be the activating event that leads them to go do it. I don’t think that’s ever been the case, and there’s this, I think that’s actually more of a manifestation of our own fear, maybe shame, maybe our own challenges on the topic, and have the conversation, be bold and don’t be, don’t fear the conversation.”
  — Scott Weeman [01:02:01 → 01:02:24]

• Youth Exposure to Inappropriate Content: “For pornography use, the number of eighth graders, for example, it’s a big, a large percentage. By the time kids graduate high school, an even larger percentage have used pornography, for example, and they think the same applies to drugs, alcohol.”
  — Dr. Amy Ricke [01:04:33 → 01:04:46]