Boyne
Ian Boyne, Contributor
THE gripping, moving testimony of drug addict Kirk Tyrie, interviewed by Cliff Hughes on CVM's Impact recently, tugged at the heart strings of many viewers and some confessed that they could not hold back the tears. The articulate, Uptown "Jamaica white" young man, now living on the streets and abandoned by his parents who have emigrated, painted a picture of both hopelessness and powerlessness, and exemplified the indescribable tragedy of drug addiction.
The death of former journalist and drug addict, Hugh Crosskill, has put the discussion of drug addiction on the front burner. Not just the problem of drug trafficking but the problem of drug addiction and its devastating effect on individuals; people whom we love; our heroes and role models(?). We all heard how in desperation and at his rock bottom stage, Crosskill sought refuge in the church and was to be baptised just two days after his death. Many believe that the church would have been able to save him where his family and friends failed so miserably over a number of years.
How useful is religion in transforming the lives of addicts and in rehabilitating them? The simple among us tritely say, "Jesus is the answer" without even properly understanding the question, but are there sophisticated, educated people who believe - or have empirical evidence - that religious belief has a positive role in the lives of those who have been in bondage to drug addiction?
The Winter 2001 issue of the scholarly Journal of Religion and Health contains a fascinating article by Drs. Ho-Yee NG and Daniel T L Shek, the latter a Consulting Editor of the Journal of Clinical Psychology, which reports on a one-year study of the progress of heroin-addicted persons at a Christian drug rehabilitation centre in Hong Kong established by an English missionary, the St. Stephens Society. Report the researchers: "The present findings clearly indicate a reduction in depression and hopelessness and a corresponding increase in purpose of life as a function of the rehabilitative process. Positive post-conversion changes are significant in the once chronically addicted persons. The findings suggest that the longer the converts stay within the St. Stephens Society and remain committed to its cause, the better their mental conditions."
This study is one of many which have found a positive correlation between positive mental health and religiosity and which have pointed to the socially and psychologically useful purposes of religion. The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, the most respected in the field of empirical study of religion, regularly demonstrate the positive value of religious orientation in coping with the myriad challenges of life. Continues the Journal of Religion and Health: "The immediate post-conversion changes were observed to be most significant. This observation compared favourably with the finding reported by Raymond Paloutzian (1981) that converts had a higher measure of purpose in life as compared with non-converts. With specific reference to drug addiction, James Ridgeway (1972) found that as his subjects moved through the rehabilitation programme, they came to reject the drug cultures. They fund new goals and purpose in life, having gained self-acceptance and the acceptance of others and of God."
The researchers had reported earlier in the article that "according to the literature on drug addiction and psychotherapy, depression with a sense of hopelessness is found consistently to be an important feature in heroin addiction. Some writers have postulated the use of drugs as offering temporary relief from the pain of living".
Heroin addicts were found to be lacking in self-confidence and self-esteem. Ho-Yee NG and Daniel T L Shek say that based on the literature on religion and drug addiction, the following mental health changes were expected as participants progressed through the various stages of gospel rehabilitation: There would be a decrease in depressive symptoms through progressive stages; a sense of hopelessness would likewise decrease as depressive symptoms receded, and purpose in life would increase as conversion offered "new possibilities for meaning".
"The present study suggests that religious faith can serve to resocialise chronic heroin-addicted persons through their conversion to Christianity. Some authors have argued that religious conversion gives new identity to the rehabilitated drug addicts that enables them to begin a new life". Since the 1970s there has been a whole body of literature focusing on the role of religion in combating drug use. Says the article: "Religious institutions maintain social order by discouraging deviance and by instilling personal restraint through a set of norms and values. In particular religion offers the following deterrent effects on drug use: Attachment to church and a congregation which endorses non-drug use; involvement in religious activities which leave less time or opportunity for experimentation with drugs; religious commitment which provides meaning to life, making drug use less attractive and the anti-drug norms promulgated by the church that reinforce personal beliefs against drug use".
In the book Religion, Personality and Mental Heath, Lawrence Brown concludes that "all authors accept that religions can offer preventive and therapeutic resources, most obviously among the poor, homeless, bereaved and for those who are physically and mentally ill."
Agree the authors of the Journal of Religion and Mental Health article: "In so far as religion promotes mental health, as indicated in the present findings, not only can it insulate a person from pressures to experiment with drugs through providing meaning in life, support in times of stress, healthy friendship networks and recreational activities, but it can be beneficial in drug rehabilitation as well".
Yet religion has had a bad rap in the psychoanalytic and social scientific literature, largely due to the naturalistic philosophical presuppositions of most social scientists.
The father of psychoanalysis himself, Sigmund Freud, says in his disparaging book on religion, The Future of an Illusion, that religion was "a universal neurosis" and dismissed it as inherently unhealthy. The atheistic founder of Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) Albert Ellis saw religion as a threat to mental health. Says he: "The elegant therapeutic solution to emotional problems is quite unreligious. The less religious they (clients) are the more emotionally healthy they will be". (Issue No 48, 1980, of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology). But this has never been empirically proven.
"The dominance of the positivistic model adopted by the social sciences has long rendered the topic of religion a taboo area for research," begins Ho-Yee NG and Daniel Shek in their article. But they note that the cognitive revolutions of the 1970s and they might have added the deconstruction of modernism by the post-modernists "have steered research in the human sciences away from objective behaviourist doctrine, causing a new way of understanding the world; the full range of people's inner experiences was considered a to be a legitimate for study". Hence the hard research emerging, stripped of the naturalistic prejudice, showing the positive role religion can play in mental health.
Ian Boyne is a freelance journalist.
