Hope in the Age of Addiction - Part 1

Transcript of a Sage Hill Live Fully Podcast conversation with Dr. Chip Dodd. Lightly edited for readability; speaker labels omitted.

This podcast is brought to you by Sage Hill, a social impact organization. Our mission is to help people be who they're made to be so that they can do what they're made to do. Find more resources to live fully, love deeply, and lead well at sagehillresources.com. Hey. This is Stephen James, executive director of Sage Hill Counseling. Thanks for listening to the Sage Hill Live Fully podcast. I'm joined today by my good friend, Dr. Chip Dahn from chip.com. We're discussing our new book, Hope in the Age of Addiction, How to Find Freedom and Restore Your Relationships. Hey, Chip. Hey, mister Stephen James. How are you doing today? I'm doing very well. I'm glad I'm glad we're doing this together in in the big city of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Murfreesboro. Yeah. That's right.

Home hometown. Hometown. Yes, sir. Today's podcast, we are talking about addiction as a pandemic. Yeah. And, you know, being sensitive with the word, like, we're in the midst of a global pandemic called coronavirus. I'm glad you said that because most people don't realize that books are written a long, long time before current events. Long ago. And, you know, we We wrote this book last year. We wrote the book last year. 2019. And, also, you you know, as a as the director of the Center for Professional Excellence, which was an addictions treatment center that started in 1996, over the years, I watched this whole process grow and grow. And I started doing numbers back in, you know, before 2000. And we've been using the word pandemic for some time, accurately and logically.

So we talk about disease, whether it be coronavirus or addiction. We're we're talking about a widespread occurrence of something. And either you have an outbreak, which is like a one time flash up, you you have an epidemic, right, or you have a pandemic. And an epidemic is a disease that spreads rapidly throughout our certain region, and a pandemic is a disease that spreads rapidly around the world. Yes. And it's like all populations is kinda like the easiest translation. And what's amazing is that it it a pandemic doesn't discriminate. It doesn't choose a specific group, ethnic, bunch, religion Social class. Social class. It it is it is just a death movement. Yeah. It's horrifying. And we're gonna talk about in a later podcast, if we're experiencing something horrifying like COVID, how come we're not horrified? And that we'll get to that when we talk about the invisible dragon because there's something. The trick of addiction keeps us from the horror of of the obvious. Yeah. So let's talk about the numbers of addiction then, like the the the stats. Yeah. Stats are, frightening. And when you put them all together, really, really makes us wanna turn our heads. It's just too big to have to deal with. Well, I know when we turned the manuscript into the publisher,

and some of their resistance to even doing the book is why did they why did we need a book about alcohol and drugs? Yeah. In fact, let's go back and tell a quick story about we had a two book deal with Revelle Publishing. We did. You reminded me of that. And they wanted two relational books. Two parenting books. And then then it came down right. Two parenting books. And so we did the parenting book. Yep. We did parenting with heart. Yep. Which it we wouldn't say is a complete story, but it's enough. It was enough. It was enough for us. Enough. We didn't have anything left to say. Well well, that's not true. You know that. You know, hey. You know that. We didn't have enough enough energy to do another book on parenting. But something that has been sort of a burr in my saddle for, you know, ever and ever and ever is this addiction thing, this addiction reality, this this thing that is killing us, and yet we're we continue to commercialize, the products that kill us. So, we we introduced that to the publisher, and they they were, what, at first hesitant? Resistant. Resistant. Yeah. Didn't didn't see it. Really thought, why do we need another book on alcohol and drugs? Yeah. How would that help people? And they they and they that and that is part of the problem. They saw, oh, alcohol, drugs, and that's somewhere else, someplace else. But we start doing the numbers. When we gave them the numbers, they thought, oh, and this is a cultural, death trap. This is something that's just affecting us everywhere at every place. They thought we need to do it. Yeah. Because alcohol and drugs are a piece of addiction. Yeah. But they're a small piece. Yeah. When you talk about really what addiction is. Yeah. And when we talk about the emotional relational cost in the in the next podcast, but but just numbers. And I I believe with everything in me because of my experience that the numbers are minimized and the way it's diagnosed is often it has to be, like, really acute and obvious, almost like body evidence, like a person sick and in the hospital before it's really seen as addiction. Right. So with alcoholics, people who have, you know, it's true substance abuse disorder, alcoholism,

there are about twenty million. Yeah. And in America, so we're talking these are these are just American statistics. And in America, a hundred thousand people a year die from direct results of alcoholism. Yeah. K. There's twenty three point five million Americans that are Yeah. Addicted to alcohol and illegal drugs. Not not prescription drugs. Well, the illegal drugs is is actually fifteen million. Yes. Yeah. So we're talking we're really talking about, you know, fifteen million plus twenty million. I minimize that number. So you got thirty five million people just doing alcohol and illegal drugs. That does not even begin to account for the pharmaceutical industry, the anxiety medication, sleep aids that we know are addictive takes two weeks for a person to become addicted to Xanax. Yeah. It Two weeks. Yeah. And doctors, tragically, up until narcotics furo started and doctors had to change their ways, doctors were one of the major dispensers of addiction Suppliers. Unintelligible I hate to say it that way, but but doctors accidentally have been one of the main suppliers of illness because of some ways their illness, which we'll talk about later too. They have, as we'll call it an illness, an addictive influence to have to prescribe addictive substances or else they personally become threatened To lose all of their patients. Their job. Yeah. So with the pharmaceutical industry, you're the one that told me, was it 2017, 287,000,000 prescriptions for the top three antidepressants were written. Now antidepressants are not addictive. No. But we're talking about not curative. No. Well and there's a lot more evidence to suggest they're not curative. But but doctors were fooled by the pharmaceutical industry related to narcotics. And because they didn't have the time to know differently in so many ways in their own research, they had to take the information to run. They always pronounced that if a person was using a narcotic and they were using it for medical reasons, post surgical reasons, then they could not become addicted.

That's insane, Stephen. I remember working with a guy in my counseling office who's dying of cancer, and his treatment for cancer was super painful. Right? And so he was he was on an opioid. Most of the stuff we worked on in therapy, like, in the initial phases of his treatment were not his death or was, okay, how do I get off this drug? Yeah. How do I deal with my withdrawals? How do I How do I end up dying while being present in my life? His withdrawal symptoms from the opioids were more painful than the cancer treatment. Yes. And now we have, which we'll toss we'll talk about later. We'll talk about all these things we're gonna talk about later. Yeah. But the the Suboxone treatment now is is kinda like a reflective of the old heroin treatment. We use methadone. We addict people to methadone to get them off heroin. Well, now we've got a new form of treating narcotics for the masses. We addict people to Suboxone in the name of withdrawing them slowly, but the percentage of people being withdrawn from Suboxone, is very low. It's a promise without a result in a lot of ways. We got 23,000,000

people in America addicted to alcohol and illegal drugs. We've got two million addicted to prescription drugs. At at least At least. Stephen, it it's it it it has to be because, was it ninety ninety million people a year are diagnosed with some form of anxiety disorder, difficulty, some type of symptomatic, most of those people are going to a physician. Yeah. And Like, not a psychiatrist or yeah. Right. And physicians are prescribing help. And some of those people, become addicted, from I mean, I've treated Klonopin addiction, Xanax addiction, sleep aid addiction. I've treated NyQuil sleep aid addiction. I've treated this is crazy. I've even treated whiteout addiction. Like sniffing whiteout? Sniffing yes. So, I mean, I'm just saying when a person doesn't doesn't know what to do with what's happening below their foreheads and above their belts in the heart of who they are, the chances are whatever they they they they they're given to run from having to feel becomes an addictive process. And then we've got almost forty million people in America addicted to pornography. And, yeah. So we got forty million. Thirty eight point seven is our number. But Forty plus thirty five illegal drugs Yeah. And and alcohol. Thirty five and forty. Seventy five million. Plus gambling. Gambling is 10,000,000. 10,000,000. So that's that's 85,000,000.

Yeah. And then we have other, like, just obvious process addictions. We'll talk about process and chemical addiction. Yeah. But an eating disorder would be a process addiction. Yes. And Right? Yeah. That's eight million. Yes. And we talk about work addiction, which is a very real thing. A lot of Yeah. Family members will abandon their their their the best for their families in the name of staying active to keep from feeling, dependent or fear. Or So just that list is Cosmetic addiction? Oh, cosmetic surgery addiction. Oh my god. We all seen those people. Or might be those people. And it's not in the book, but tattoo addiction is another one too. Believe it or not, there's a mood altering experience that of of of tattooing. Preoccupation.

So we're we're, like, about 85, 90,000,000. Easy. Easy. Yep. Right? And so ease In in inactive addiction. Inactive addiction. And most people are sort of subtly pacified or trained to believe that it's not actually something out of their control. Right. Something they really can't help Yeah. Doing. Yeah. And so a 100,000,000 lies it and they shame it or they give up or they social make it Think what would happen if there were a hundred million was since this is a timely With COVID. Yeah. A hundred million people with flu. A hundred million people at one moment suffering from, some form of lymphoma. I mean, the outrage, the cry out, the, the anxiety disorders that would be flying out of that and depressive disorders. So it would expose how unrooted we are in terms of how we're made and how we're made to live too. And you and you so so we've got we've sadly,

like because people in addiction are, like, some of some of the most in pain people in the world. Pain's real. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. And Spot fathom. Conservatively, everyone in active addiction is directly affecting at least three people who are also in pain because of the person in addiction. Yes. Which we'll talk about. Right. Yeah. You know? And so we're talking about, like, the pandemic, the emotional, spiritual, psychological, and physical effects of addiction in America Yeah. Is well over a hundred million people right now. Well over. And then if you talk about three people, that that the emotional relational cost, three people per addict are are are detrimentally affected on an emotional, spiritual, and relational level Yeah. Which means they're set up More prime for addiction. For an addiction, then you take three to minimal number times, let's just say, ninety million Yep. People with active addiction. Stephen, that's that's the population of The United States Yeah. Minus children 10. That that's a pandemic. Yeah. Now how can It's more than a pandemic. Yeah. How this is it is a it is an acute crisis. It's more akin to the black plague than it's akin to COVID. Right. K? It makes COVID look like a child's game. Yes. What's amazing about that is that addiction has, regardless of its flavor you know, Baskin Robbins always had, what, 32 flavors. Well, addiction has as many flavors as a a a crayon box. What is it? A 164 crayons Yeah. Or something? So There is many addictions, symptomatic expressions as there are, you know, the most crayons you can possibly have in a box. Right? Because humans are incredibly creative and addiction's incredibly effective. Yes. It works. Like it works. That's what makes it a problem. Yes. It actually works. And and the amazing thing is that but it comes out of a core just like the the all the crayons come out of the core three primary colors. You know? Yeah. What is it? Red, yellow Oh, and blue. Red red, blue, yellow. Red. Okay. Good. Yeah. So the free bright colors. But still is there's a core factor. There's a core influence, and that thing is also ignored because we keep trying to heal addiction through means that ultimately don't work. And it turns out that the core, the significant core of what causes I put that in quote marks. Causes addiction is not knowing what to do with what we feel. Yeah. And it's a feelings disorder.

Yeah. And and we our culture and the American culture, we treat it primarily as we wanna talk about it as a, physiological illness Which it is. Which it is. But what makes addiction so hard to deal with is that before it's a physiological illness most of the time, it's emotional, it's spiritual Yeah. It's psychological, and it's physiological. And then after a person's addiction is arrested, which we call abstinence Right. They've been the person's acknowledged they have a problem. And so abstinence is required. Withdrawal from the thing so that they can, you know We didn't mention sugar addiction. Oh, gosh. We oh, oh my goodness. Carb addiction. Yeah. But in carbs, you know, like, you you take a carb into your your brain, it it goes past Have you ever gone off sugar? Yes. The headaches I get? It goes past the the blood brain barrier in seconds. Make me irritable, restless, and discontent. Yes. Just like dipping dipping a skull. Oh, god. I mean, it goes past the it goes through the blood brain barrier in seconds as fast as cocaine. So will, potato chips. Yeah. Sugar. Sugar heads. But my but the but the point is that when a before a person becomes addicted, they're having emotional struggle, not knowing what to do with emotions because of ignorance, denial, and so on, or being raised around addiction. And what yeah. And then after abstinence, they're same problem. So Now I have to learn what to do. Exactly. If that second problem, which was the initial problem, isn't addressed, what's the option? Yeah. Find another addiction.

We'll we'll talk a lot more about how addiction works in another episode of this podcast, but no one starts out to to use a substance or a process or behavior to try to harm themselves to the people they love. They're just trying to feel better for a minute. They're just trying to feel human for a minute. It's it's safe. It is the the it's an action of creation. We're created to experience what the neuroscientists tell us now. We're created to experience social connection, to experience social contentment. Yeah. So in other words, there is a Security of love. There is a relational brain that is demanding to feel safe and comfort and, sense of peace, security, a place to return, a safe place, sanctuary. I mean, the brain commands us to seek it and find it. And if we don't brain, you mean the organ of the brain, not the thinking mind. I mean I'm talking about the Yeah. The literal of the brain. The organ that functions in the body. Yes. And it turns out that the seat of addiction is in what we call the limbic brain Yeah. Not in the frontal lobe brain, not as the root thinking brain. Yes. But the limbic brain is the attachment brain, the feeling brain, the dreaming brain. It's the seat of long term memories. It's the place that is frozen when trauma hits. And guess where all addiction, predominantly, affects the area that mostly affects. And the the most addictive substances predominantly affect the limbic system. It's the the feeding center, whether it's even running addiction, which is not a substance. Or love addiction. Talking to,

exercise addict this week. He cannot not exercise. Yes. Like, even if we heard something. He can't. He he he will run on his own. Only. He's the only thing I have to make a deal with. Foot. Yeah. Absolutely. No. He has run on a broken Exactly. And I've gone through it. Two paragraphs as we wrap up this this episode, the special episode of the podcast using the book Hope in the Age of Addiction by Dr. Chip Dodd and Stephen James. Are you being serious? I'm being funny. Oh, god. As we wrap this I mean, are you doing a a cut version? I'm doing a radio radio by radio voice. Okay. I'm gonna read two paragraphs that kinda end the, our the first chapter in our book about addiction and about the pandemic. And I I want you to respond to these. Okay? Okay. The addiction pandemic is an emotional, spiritual, and relational crisis of massive proportions. We are in the midst of a pandemic that is symptomatically, destructively affects our minds, hearts, and bodies. It has infected our families, our friends, and our neighbors. It's eroding our ethics, our morality, our culture, and our economy. It threatens to shed the woven fabric that connects us all to ourselves, to one another, and to God. No matter how much we attempt to address our personal, family, community, national, and global problems without dealing with addiction, we will fail. As we individually accept responsibility for our addictions, we can all be part of the solution for the addiction pandemic of our age. We can return our hearts to the God who desires to know us for what we cannot do for ourselves.

That you know, even as you read that, I hear it as if we didn't write it. Right. And it's so profound. I I just sit still and almost want to begin to weep like lament. Mhmm. Like, where are we? Where are we? Because we're we're at we're at risk, tremendous risk. And what's amazing is, you know, I did the book, The Voice of the Heart, you know, thousand years ago now. You you artfully edited that book. That's where we met. And, that book taught and talked about what we avoid and the solution to our avoidance and that feelings are not our enemy, but we live in a culture that would do anything to avoid them. I mean, the eight feelings, gladness, sadness, anger, guilt, loneliness, fear, shame, and hurt are the reasons we run away. And the answers the beginnings of the answers to almost all of our problems is to face that you and I are created as emotional and spiritual creatures, hearts and souls, created to do one thing in life. We're not self made. We're made a certain way, and we're created to live fully. And living fully really does mean living completely and utterly from the ground up in relationship with ourselves, others, and God. We cannot help In all the good and in all the hard. In all the good and all the hard. We stick together. We absolutely do. And we're created that way and either we we run from it, which Ends up in addiction. Uh-huh. Or we stand in it and find a way to find what addiction is doing for us in a genuine and pure fashion. I mean, from the very beginning, we've been using our frontal lobes, our brains to hide out instead of using our brains how how they were created to cry out. And I know that survival is a a a demand to scurry around like rats, but how we're created was to stand and thrive like human beings who've been touched by God. Thanks, Chip. Thank you, Stephen.

This podcast is brought to you by Sage Hill, a social impact organization. Our mission is to help people be who they're made to be so that they can do what they're made to do. Find more resources to live fully, love deeply, and lead well at sagehillresources.com.