Central and Eastern Kentucky
(2009-05-20)
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LEXINGTON, KY
(WEKU) -
There is certainly more than one road to recovery in the fight against drug addiction. Professionals who have studied substance abuse recovery for years will tell you as much. What works for one person may not be the answer for everyone. One successful strategy is based on religion.
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35 year old Roger Crowe, who's a native of Winchester, began using at age 12. At first, it was marijuana. Crowe then escalated to alcohol, nerve pills, and eventually prescription pain pills. After a minor car crash, Crowe took his first Percaset painkiller. In time, he was taking 15 to 20 pills a day.
"It starts out all fun and games, and then when you get hooked on them it's no fun and games no more because your body gets sick and you have to have them you're not using them to get high no more. You're using them to keep your body from being sick and hurting to where you can function just normal every day," Crowe said.
He remembers what he calls his drug couch' at his mother's house.
"My mom used to always tell me 'You're gonna get hooked on them. Please don't get hooked on them.' I'd always say 'I'm not gonna do it,' and that was when I first started out. 'I'm not gonna get hooked on them mom.' But at the end of the long road, I took on drugs. I was telling my mom I'm gonna do drugs until the day I die. Because I was so hooked, my mindset was 'I can't get off of them. There's no way,' but there is a way to get off of them," Crowe said.
Soon, Crowe faced ten years in prison for doctor shopping, and got into treatment. First, at a 30 day program in Corbin and then at Lighthouse Ministries in downtown Lexington.
Tay Henderson directs Lighthouse Ministries. Her husband Dan founded lighthouse ministries in 1993. He knew firsthand the ravages of drug use.
"Father God, we just come before you Lord, and first of all we just thank you for this time to set these men apart and work in their lives," Henderson began in a sermon. "We believe that God is the answer. The Bible says if any man be in Christ he is a new creation old things pass away and all things become new."
"Crowe was converted in Detroit jail. I met him later after he had been a Christian like three years. I met him in Michigan and we ended up getting married later, but people can change. So that's the thing. People can change, and he changed, and he spent his whole life giving back," Henderson said.
Henderson said Dan passed away about two years ago from complications related to past drug use. Like her husband, Tay Henderson also abused drugs.
The counselors who work in the Lighthouse Drug Recovery Program don't necessarily have state-issued credentials. Instead, they rely on their own abuse of drugs and with their eventual recovery. In the program, Henderson says the men take God, not as crutch, but God as an answer.
Henderson said every person in the Lighthouse recovery group is treated as an individual, adding, "We don't cattle-call people through here." Still, there is a regimented schedule.
"They get up at 6:30, they have class in the morning, they help with community service during the day because we feed the public a hot meal. That's part of their program. They have afternoon program and they have work duties and recovery classes."
Tom McClelland is in the business of assessing drug recovery programs.
McClelland is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He's also President Obama's appointee as a deputy director at the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"We don't honestly know why certain people respond to faith based, certain people respond to medications, certain people respond to other kinds of behavioral treatments some respond to the love of a good woman," McClelland said.
McClelland's not aware of any specific study that compares faith based recovery programs with secular programs. He believes it's good to have as many options as possible when breaking dependence on drugs.
"They're not incompatible you can have a spiritual approach with a medicinal approach with a behavioral approach and often they're some of the things that work the best."
Carl Lukefeld directs the University of Kentucky Department of Behavioral Science. Lukefeld says individuals who find success often talk about spirituality. He adds spirituality may or may not focus specifically on the divine.
"Just talk to anyone that's in recovery a good recovery and they'll say yes I believe in something is it a deity, no, does 12 steps talk about or self help talk about God, it talks about God as we know him and that's a very different thing than God as God," Lukefield said.
Change came, Roger Crowe said, when he allowed God into his life. For two years now, Crowe has been clean. And he also works as a counselor at Lighthouse Ministries. A police roadblock is no longer a time of anxiety.
"I was actually anxious to go through the roadblock because I had good driver's license, good insurance, no drugs on me I was clean you know the cop just walked up and looked at my license and handed em back, he didn't run no numbers he didn't get me out of the vehicle or anything and I said wow' that was awesome because two or three years ago I would have been trying to figure out a way to run," Crowe said.
Drug use did have an indelible impact. Crowe's health suffered and his sister died from an overdose. Crowe remains eager to repair some of the damage he's done.
"Once I get to see my daughter now, she's gonna' have her dad, that's something she didn't have before, my daughter didn't want for anything she wanted for one thing and that was her father she wanted my time and my love and that's something that was kind of hard for me to give to her and the addiction I was in but now when we get back together this time it's gonna be a good reunion she's gonna have her dad in her life."
For any recovery program to work, Crowe says the substance abuser must be ready to make a change. For him, he says when he allowed God into his life. Veteran Drug and alcohol researchers like Tom McClelland and Carl Lukefeld agree having something to hold on to is important as one tries to break a dependency on drugs. © Copyright 2012, WEKU
