Canada Drug Rehab

Geoff Thompson, Program Director for the Sunshine Coast Health Centre, talks about overcoming fear to pursue your dream job or life’s ambition. Famed mythologist Joseph Campbell is discussed in regards to his classic phrase, “Follow Your Bliss.”

By Geoff Thompson, MA, CCC
Sunshine Coast Health Center Program Director

University of Windsor professor Dr. Ken Hart and I have been invited to contribute a chapter on spirituality and recovery for a new book that will be published by the American Psychological Association. Dr. Hart is one of Canada’s foremost researchers in addiction.

Much of our job will be to get a handle on this thing called “spirituality.” When the experts try to figure out what it means, they inevitably end up using words like “multidimensional” and “complex”; not all the helpful but, then, it’s a tough idea to put in everyday language.

Here are three of hundreds of definitions: “Caring for others, seeking goodness and truth, transcendence….”; “A focus on the transcendent….”; “the search for existential meaning.” Most people would struggle with these definitions. What does “goodness and truth” mean exactly? I’m pretty sure Adolph Hitler would have an idea of “goodness” much different than we would. What does it mean to “focus on the transcendent”? It seems to me that focusing on the transcendent is exactly what a lot of addicts do: think of Hunter S. Thompson or Thomas De Quincey or, of course, Bill Wilson (‘the alcoholic is the fellow trying to get his religion from a bottle’). And “search for existential meaning”? The great atheistic writer, Eugene O’Neill, searched for an existential meaning. But, then, so did the great Christian theologian, Paul Tillich. Who’s right?

Of course, this is likely why ‘spirituality’ is such a useful term: vague enough to cover very different experiences.

But Dr. Hart and I still have to write something down.

Most addiction experts agree that spirituality is somehow linked with good recovery. Every time we study recovering addicts we discover that an increase in spirituality is correlated with less drug use and higher quality of life. We still don’t know precisely why this is—at least not from a psychological view—but we do know that we keep getting the same results in our studies. Harry Tiebout, Bill Wilson’s psychoanalyst, believed that when the self-centered addict came to believe in a higher power, then, by definition, he could no longer believe that he was the center of the universe. Addiction researcher Scott Tonigan has a different idea. He sees ‘spirituality’ as “a distinctive, potentially creative and universal dimension of human experience…,” which is needed to find the transformative change required for recovery. And these are just two versions of hundreds.

In this article, we’ll look at how some of the experts deal with this spirituality thing. Not that we’ll find any answer…but perhaps they’ll offer a clue.

Synchronicity

At our Edmonton alumni reunion in June, we spent the afternoon talking about those things in life that seem more than coincidence. One alumnus told us about a situation where he was driving past a house at the time it was on fire. He rushed out and helped extinguish it. The grateful owner invited him to supper the next day. At supper, the owner offered him a great job. Another alumnus had noticed enough coincidences that he believed that there must be some hidden hands at work for him. Another described a situation in which his sponsor told him something during the day; he rented a movie later in which one of the characters said the exact same thing. It was as if someone were trying to tell him something.

We talked about what these ‘coincidences’ meant. Several of the alumni thought that “something” was telling them something. One who said he didn’t believe in the traditional idea of God said that he thought that perhaps some force was watching over him. Another said it was God.

These ‘coincidences’ happen all the time to people in recovery (and to some in active addiction, by the way).

In psychology, we have a fancy word for these events: synchronicity. We still don’t understand it. I do, however, have a book in my library called Synchronicity, which states that there is a logic to these ‘coincidences’.

Unseen Helping Hands

We talked in the April 2008 online program about the great mythology expert, Joseph Campbell. If you’re interested, there’s a famous series of television interviews between Campbell and Bill Moyers of PBS, which will be available at your local library.

Campbell is the one who coined the phrase “Follow your bliss.” He said that when you pursue a life that you truly want, all sorts of apparently magical things will start happening. The way he phrased it was that you will feel as if “hidden hands” are helping you in your life. Here’s an excerpt from those interviews:

BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of… being helped by hidden hands?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.

Campbell has personal experience in following his bliss. In fact, he quit school because his professors were not happy with his particular interest in mythology. So, he went off on his own quest and published a wagonload of books.

Positive Living

In the past two weeks, in our work with alumni participating in the Online Support Program, we have been dancing around spirituality, without being too specific. We noted two famous descriptions of life that seem to be linked to good recovery: noticing ‘coincidences’ (what psychology calls ‘synchronicity’) and Joseph Campbell’s famous comments on feeling as if helping hands are guiding you along your life.

But there do seem to be some common elements to spirituality, no matter what you think ‘spirituality’ means. One common element is that the experience is positive. However we define spirituality, it always seems to be a good thing—a better way of living.

People who say they are ‘spiritual’ tell us that they have found serenity, peace of mind, comfort in their own skin, a sense of belonging. And they usually say their family relationships are better, they have fewer physical problems such as headaches, they are excited to get up in the morning. And Sunshine Coast’s preliminary research findings on our alumni’s progress in recovery indicate that those who say they are pursuing ‘spirituality’ report much greater quality of life.

Hope and Faith (that things will get better)

Most of those in early recovery still have a lot of ‘wreckage from the past’ to deal with. Some have large debts to pay off, some have family relationships to mend, some have to deal with problems at work, some have medical issues as a result of their addiction, and so on.

This is usually not a pleasant experience. All the guilt over what we’ve done to family and fears of their rejection, dealing with the government tax bureau or legal matters, going back to the dentist for some of us, and so on, are usually not something we look forward to. And of course, there’s all those cravings and triggers to deal with. It’s even common to hear in the program that the first year of recovery is easy; it’s the second year that’s tough. (Not exactly an inspiring message, which does not have to be true, by the way.)

So, what how do we make it through this time? Researchers have concluded that hope and faith that things will work out is the key. For some alumni this hope and faith comes from witnessing those with long-term recovery who are happy, who say that ‘things get better’. And if you are into positive affirmations, the best one is to look into a mirror and tell yourself: ‘I may not like what I see now, but I have hope and faith that I will in the future’. (This is a much better tactic than Saturday Night Live’s Stuart Smalley who tried to convince himself, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!”)

Perhaps this hope and faith is a good part of the power of spirituality. Those who feel that there is ‘something’ bigger than they are can hold on to hope and faith that this ‘something’ may know what’s happening even if the person in early recovery doesn’t. It may interest you to know that research has shown that hope and faith are consistently related to good recovery.

A Way of Life

One more of those common elements that people talk about when they describe ‘spirituality’ is that it is not a compartmentalized part of life. People are not ‘being spiritual’ for a moment or an hour, and then not being spiritual. Rather, this ‘spirituality’ thing seems to influence most of their lives—except, perhaps, during a root canal. But, then again, even there. 

Whatever ‘spirituality’ is, it informs all aspects of life. The Native peoples talk about being unified with nature and this forms the basis for living. The Dalai Lama describes his connection with the ‘hidden’ world as being a basis for his actions in everyday life. Many people in recovery describe their connection with their higher power as influencing how they treat others, how they deal with their own imperfections, how they make sense of their suffering.

Perhaps part of this is regaining a sense of awe and wonder at the world. One of the sad things about modern life is that we seem to have lost the enchantment of daily things that we once had as children. Spiritual masters often tell us that we look but we don’t see. Others tell us to “Wake up!” to the world around us. It is a human thing that we often don’t pay attention to how precious life can be until we hit a crisis, such as the death of a loved one or a serious medical diagnosis or—sometimes—a drug overdose.

But one can only ‘see’ by learning how to look, which is the subject of many spirituality books in Chapter’s or Cole’s self-help bookshelves. And learning how to see demands that we recognize that underlying everyday things is some ‘hidden’ power.

By Daniel Jordan, General Manager

The other day I was at the library and came across a DVD called Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason which is a 7-part series that helps shed light on the gray area between faith (having an open heart) and reason (having an open mind). Bill Moyers is the acclaimed journalist who has been a mainstay on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for many years and in Faith & Reason he is joined by some of the world’s most provocative thinkers and writers. One of the series that I found very relevant to a better understanding of addiction was Bill Moyer’s interview with Pema Chodron, perhaps North America’s most prominent practitioner of Buddhism. For the past 30 years, Pema has been a Buddhist nun and has written extensively on Buddhism including When Things Fall Apart, The Places That Scare You, and No Time to Lose.

Pema’s work in exploring Buddhism and making it more accessible to a larger audience has also made it possible to show how Buddhism’s teachings can benefit people struggling with addiction.

Lesson One: Distingishing Between Pain and Suffering

According to Pema, “it isn’t the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it’s how we relate to the things that happen to us that cause us to suffer.” Typically, it’s not the physical but the emotional pain that we struggle with most such as that which we experience with rejection, abandonment, or loss. For Pema, it was the day her husband of 30 years came home to announce that he was leaving her for another woman. After many years of struggling with her husband’s betrayal, Pema came to realize that while she could not undo what had already happened or pretend like it never happened, she could ‘let go’ of the need to suffer.

Lesson Two: Shenpa and Being ‘Hooked’

You may have heard the term ‘hooked’ but it is often associated with ice hockey, drugs, even phonics. Pema’s definition of hooked, however, comes from the Tibetan word ’shenpa,’ meaning an unwillingness of human beings to let go of certain thoughts, particularly those that cause us suffering. For those familiar with Buddhism, shenpa is more than just attachment since, according to one of Pema’s teachers, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche,  ”attachment doesn’t touch the magnitude of shenpa and the effect that it has on us.”

As a metaphor, Pema compares shenpa to scabies where shenpa is the the itch that goes along with it and the urge to scratch. Shenpa is a universal condition that all human beings share. For example, when someone says something to hurt your feelings your first reaction will be physical - a tightening in the face or in your stomach - then an outward (anger, blame) or inward (self-pity, self-blame) spiral of negative feelings and emotions. Even though this can happen many times a day, when we are hooked, we often aren’t even aware of it.

For people with addictions, shenpa is how drugs or alcohol are used when we are ‘hooked’ by a feeling or an urge. Like any shenpa, people who abuse drugs or alcohol don’t want to suffer but they often love the thing that causes the suffering. The thing that causes the suffering for addicts is more obvious (drugs and alcohol) than in the rest of society but it’s basically the same thing. Anger can have, as Pema puts it, the same ’delicious’ quality (such as feelings of superiority or being victimized) that keeps people hooked on anger even when they know it won’t make things better.

De-Escalating From Shenpa

Over time, we can reduce the negative effects of shenpa through a process of ‘de-escalation’ since, we can never entirely rid ourselves of shenpa. First, Pema recommends that we merely become aware of shenpa: observe it in both ourselves and in others. Next, we can slow the escalation of shenpa by noticing our breathing. Third, by leaning into the feeling rather than fighting it we can observe physical sensations in your body and the thoughts in our mind. The fourth and final step involves letting go and getting on with the day. This four-step process can be challenging, particularly during the awkward early stages of practicing de-escalation, however, it is the start of loosening the grip that shenpa has over us. 

Pema recommends that people who want to reduce the amount of shenpa in their life start with the little things first that cause suffering. There’s a million little shenpas - line ups in the grocery store, the way people drive, mosquito bites - and if you work with these you can slowly strengthen your ability to deal with the more challenging shenpas such as criticism, embarrassment, or loneliness.

Lesson Three: Groundlessness and Distractions

Part of what attracted Pema to Buddhism was its focus on the present moment. Pema saw that most human beings are afraid of negative feelings and are constantly scrambling to find ways to avoid feelings of embarrassment, boredom, anxiety, etc. Pema calls these moments of insecurity ‘groundlessness’ or being ‘off-balance.’ Human beings avoid the experience of groundlessness in a very effective way - we get distracted.

For example, when you are flying in a commercial jet, notice how uncomfortable the other passengers are with doing nothing. Imagine what would happen if there was no in-flight entertainment, no snacks or meals, nothing to read, and hand-held devices such as Ipods were not allowed. But it’s not just keeping our five senses busy that keep us preoccupied, it is also our internal thoughts. Pema claims we are addicted to these distractions and are quite willing to spend hours, days, and years avoiding the discomfort of being alone with our inner most thoughts.

For people with addictions, boredom can often jeopardize sobriety. While most ‘normal’ people will resort to ‘harmless’ distractions such as mindless channel surfing or checking email on their Blackberry, someone with a chemical dependency will drink a case of beer while someone with a food addiction will eat a pail of ice cream.

As far as Pema is concerned, as long as human beings are constantly scrambling to avoid feelings of groundlessness, there will always be wars, hatred, prejudice, and addiction.

‘Hanging Out’ with Groundlessness

It may seem paradoxical, but individuals can learn to ‘hang out’ with feelings of groundlessness. Buddhists practice meditation as a way to bring ‘room to the mind’ and take time out from the ‘busyness’ of life. While we may at first feel very threatened by a sense that nothing is happening (interestingly, Pema describes her initial experience with meditation akin to “an intense detox” or “climbing the walls”), over time your senses will seem more alive and the constant chattering voices will subside. Meditation allows us to hang out with our thoughts, free from judging and resisting them.

Using Groundlessness as a Force for Positive Change

Pema’s story of marital infidelity points to an event that shook her to her very core. She couldn’t just shake off feelings of anger, loss, hurt, betrayal, and worthlessness off through distractions. Eventually, as Pema tells in her interview, she felt that her husband leaving her was the best thing that ever happened since previous to his disclosure, Pema lived, in her words, a ’superficial life.’ Only two years after her husband left her, Pema had become a Buddhist nun and had ‘found her niche’ doing something that continues to provide her with a sense of endless abundance, meaning and purpose.

For individuals struggling with drugs and alcohol, addiction can also be a blessing if one has the willingness to experience moments of groundlessness and make positive change.

Lesson Four: Don’t Look Out There, Go Within

Pema uses a metaphor to emphasize this point. Suppose you are barefoot in a field of thornbushes. To take away the pain of walking through the field covered in thornbushes, you could criticize the farmer for not cutting down the thornbushes or you could wish that the field was covered in giant strips of leather. Or you could simply wrap the leather around your foot.

In the same way, we all have the choice of finding happiness by trying to change the world or by working on ourselves.

Lesson Five: Don’t Forget Your Past, Celebrate It!

Pema suggests that we don’t lose touch with our past suffering because that’s what keeps us relating to others. Along the same lines, remembering our past suffering can help us empathize with others and practice humility.

Lesson Six: Faith Without Works is Dead

In the New Testament, James 2:14-26 reminds Christians that “for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” It appears that Buddhists such as Pema Chodron think the same way. In her interview with Bill Moyers, Pema states that she has devoted her life to escalating love, kindness, and compassion and de-escalating violence and aggression. When Bill Moyers wonders if Buddhism is nothing more than long periods of silence holed up in exotic temples, Pema responds by saying that ”if the result of my life is that I lived a life of seclusion, it wouldn’t add up to a hill of beans. I always go in and out of seclusion so that I can be more present for others.” *

Similarly, for people with addictions, going to meetings or reading the Big Book may not be enough: one must also also practice what one preaches and be of service to others.

(*) Note: Pema Chodron has taken a vow to awaken herself and to the degree that she raises her own awareness, help others to reach the same level of awareness.

Conclusion

Bill Moyer’s interview with Pema Chodron points out that the spiritual practices of Buddhism can reduce the suffering of people from all walks of life regardless of race, religion or creed. By introducing concepts such as groundlessness and shenpa, the teachings of Buddhism and its proponents suggest that addiction is a universal condition: problems with drugs and alcohol are simply different symptoms of the same condition or an extreme example of what lengths people will take to avoid suffering.

Recommended Articles

Buddhism and recovery: Working on the self to lead a healthy life (May/June 2005) Addiction Today article.

The Shenpa Syndrome (September 2002) is an introduction to the concept of shenpa by Pema Chodron. In this article, there is a lot of discussion on addiction, particularly chemical dependency.

Recommended Books

12 Steps on the Buddha’s Path: Bill, Buddha and We (2006) Laura S., Sylvia Boorsteing

Mindful Recovery (2002) Thomas Bien

One Breath at a Time (2004) Kevin Griffin

Still Waters: Sobriety, Atonement, and Unfolding Enlightenment (2006) William Alexander

The Zen of Recovery (1993) Mel Ash

Recommended Websites

Buddhist Recovery supports the use of Buddhist teachings, traditions and practices to help people recovery from the suffering caused by addictive behaviours.

Gampo Abbey is a Western Buddhist Monastery in the Shambhala Tradition located in Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Pema Chodron is the principal teacher at Gampo Abbey. 

Great Path Tapes and Books - has a complete library of Pema Chodron teachings (retail only). Great Path also has the Great Path YouTube site that has free videos of Pema.

Judith Ragir is a Zen priest and teacher who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Judith has a number of lectures provided as audio recordings that try to bring together 12-Step recovery work, Buddhism and meditation.

Kevin Griffin has a website that integrates recovery and Buddhism.

Shambhala Community - is a global community of 170 centres around the workld that offers courses in meditation, other contemplative arts and disciplines, hosts community gatherings, celebrations and family events.

By Geoff Thompson, M.A., CCC

“The Power of Myth” is a very famous series of interviews between Bill Moyers of PBS and the famous expert on mythology, Joseph Campbell. Campbell explains his ideas on what makes people happy. Here are some excerpts:

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are - if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.

BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of… being helped by hidden hands?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.

Recovery demands that you live the life that is suited for you, that your actions match your beliefs and values. So many people in early recovery forget that the goal of recovery is not staying away from drugs and alcohol. The real goal is to “follow your bliss.” There is no recipe for such a life; no scientific equation. It is personal to each person. Your job is to discover what makes your life worth living.

Be True to Yourself

If you are going to follow your bliss, then you have to be true to yourself. You probably know that on one side of the chips given out at AA meetings, it reads, “To thine own self be true.” Bill W. was a wise man; he understood how important this is. In active addiction, we pursued drinking and drugging, even though we did things that went against our beliefs and values. When anyone acts against his beliefs and values, the result is suffering: guilt, depression and aggression.

The idea of being true to yourself is backed up by psychology. Beginning in the 1950s, many psychologists examined healthy, happy people to understand what made these people happy. They discovered that every person has to grow and develop throughout his life and become the person he wants to become.

In other words, psychologists learned that a person’s happiness depended on his being true to himself. Any interruption to this growth led to suffering. In fact, addiction was used as an example of people who suffered horribly because they were driven by drug use, not by their values and beliefs.

Be the Author of Your Life

A key to recovery is to take control of your life. Here’s a remarkable fact: many people recover in Vancouver’s notorious, drug-infested Downtown Eastside. We don’t recommend putting yourself in such a place, but there is documented evidence that some can pull this off. The reason is that they have taken control of their lives. It doesn’t matter to them that they are offered drugs daily, witness addicts smoking or injecting, and so on, because they choose not to use.

If you don’t take control, then you are likely a victim of life. If you are reading this and in recovery, think back to your first days in treatment. Did you blame anyone or anything for your drugging and drinking: your lover, your work, your friends, your environment, physical pain? Or perhaps you were like a pinball, just rolling along until some outside event or another person knocked you into a new direction.

People who blame people or things for their suffering or who simply wander through life reacting to things are not in control of their lives.

Pay Attention to the Racehorse

My mentor, Dr. Paul Wong, told me once: “You have a racehorse, and you have a donkey. If you don’t pay attention to the racehorse, you’re stuck with the donkey.”

The racehorse represents those things and people that are meaningful to each of us, such as pursuing a cherished career, falling in love, working on a hobby. The donkey is the boring or irritating stuff of life, like doing laundry, going to the dentist, fixing the wreckage of the past, showing up for work that you find dull but which you need to pay the mortgage or rent, forcing yourself to go to 12-step meetings even if you’re tired.

What Dr. Wong is saying is that you if don’t pay attention to the things that make your life rich and satisfying, then all you have left is the dull, boring, irritating stuff. The donkey stuff becomes bigger than it really is, because you don’t have a racehorse. The racehorse puts the donkey stuff in proper perspective. 

Conclusion

I would like to conclude this discussion by repeating the possibility that “hidden hands” await for those who choose to follow their bliss. If you’re waiting for proof before you embark on this journey, chances are your tomorrows are going to look a lot like your today. Perhaps the following quote says it best:

“Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have dreamed would come his way.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.’ ”

~ W.H. Murray
from The Scottish Himalayan Expedition

About the Author

Geoff Thompson, MA, is the Program Director at Sunshine Coast Health Center, a private addiction treatment facility for adult men. His book, A Long Night’s Journey into Day, explores Eugene O’Neill’s life to uncover the truth of addiction and recovery.