Summary of workshop, ‘This is Your Brain on Drugs’ by Dr. Mike Emlet (CCEF Conference Live Blog)
(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. 🙂 )
Back to last Friday afternoon (November 14) …
Fred and I were tremendously blessed to get to meet Dr. Emlet at the devotional breakfast and I have to say that I was looking very forward to his workshop.
It was more ‘technical’ than the other workshops and the plenary addresses—but I just loved it. Made me miss my cognitive psych classes (nature/nurture; brain functioning/chemical vs. behavioral/training, etc etc.)
If this topic is of interest to you, please read the entire Live Blog transcript. But here are just a few highlights:
Dr. Emlet started with that old video of, ‘This is your brain on drugs’ (showing an egg frying). Then he asked, ‘Is that true from a scientific perspective? If we use drugs, do we fry the brain? Do changes happen over time? Do these changes lead to a true chemical dependence? Does the brain change in some way as to make it harder for someone struggling with addiction to say, ‘No’?
Leading scholars on addiction say that drug addiction is a brain disease; ‘the brain of someone addicted to drugs is qualitatively different from a normal brain in fundamental ways.’
As Christians, we are tempted to go into two extremes:
1. Allow the medical establishment to totally overshadow; a disease; Scriptures are functionally irrelevant.
2. Bury our head in the sand about the research being done about addictions and conclude that addictions are only spiritual problems and all that is needed is repentance and faith. (‘Just say no in the power of the Spirit!’)
But both extremes are to be avoided because we are both body and spirit. We are to take both aspects of our personhood into account.
Addiction is a heart issue–a disorder of worship.
And it is a brain-based issue.
Not all patterns of sin affect the brain in the same way.
How many of you have gotten a high from gossiping? (None? Good.)
So some sin patterns have bodily components and some don’t.
You’ll hear plenty in this conference about the heart-based aspects of addiction; and how the playing field is level—’the addict in us all.’ Yes. This is true. And if we don’t see the roots of addiction as misplaced worship, we will effectively truncate the ministry of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. But we must also address the physical, brain-based areas of addiction too.
The goals for this workshop are to:
1. Gain exposure to the biological and brain-based research in addictions.
2. Understand how drugs hijack the normal brain pathways that underlie the experience of desire, pleasure, and reward.
3. Discuss the implications of this knowledge for ministry to those struggling with addictions, including the role of detoxification and medical maintenance therapies.
(Tara here again … )
Doesn’t that make you want to read the entire Live Blog entry? I hope you will! And I look so forward to learning from Dr. Emlet in the coming years as he continues to minister through CCEF.
I’ll leave Dr. Emlet with the last word …
The experience of an addict suggests a bodily component and it can be hard to sort out nature versus nurture. As Christians, we should consider genetic predispositions (especially remembering that, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’) and we should consider the physiological changes that take place with drug use.
That doesn’t mean that there is no hope. Of course there is hope!
I do not agree with the medical model that drug addiction is an incurable illness. Drugs change the brain, yes. But so does abstinence. So does embracing gospel-centered counsel.
We do need to take these bodily issues into account, though. For example, if you have a first degree relative who has struggled with alcohol, it may be wise for you to consider abstaining yourself. Even if you feel like scripturally you have liberty to engage in this, it may be wise to refrain.
Christ-centered help has that goal to turn people to God away from their idolatrous addiction. We don’t minister to disembodied souls. Some people can stop their drug use and there is not as much push-back from the body. True. But many people do experience the bodily effect of their addiction.
Let’s not neglect the role of the body in dealing with these desires. Let us not overly spiritualizing and not over-medicalizing this complex problem.