Recovery Farmhouse hopes to see more stories and insight from Chris Joubert in the near future.
Chris Joubert a recovered addict shares from his up and coming book on addiction and recovery. He speaks and writes in a grounded and emotionally sober manner. His tone seems to exude a certain peace and serenity as he shares on topics of spirituality, and the disease concept .
“I have to mention”, says Chris, “I had a great mentor called Pastor Sophos Nissiotis, the founder of Noupoort Christian Care Centre. His understanding of addiction is unparalleled.”
Chris shared that The Noupoort Christian Care center has a very high 90% recovery rate. The 90% recovery rate pales by comparison to an estimated 5% recovery rate hailed by Alcoholics Anonymous. Like any grass roots Bible believing recovery center and ministry, the Noupoort Center has come under much scrutiny for its methods. Chris stated that,
“Frontline ministry is not for the faint hearted and is always under attack. I was a staff member at NCCC for a couple years. I would need time to explain the extreme spiritual conflicts. NCCC still has a 90% plus success rate. This speaks for itself.”
If you consider addiction to be a spiritual malady, then it makes perfect sense to have a spiritual solution.
Chris Joubert is Group Admin of one of Facebook’s much appreciated and needed addiction recovery fellowship and sharing groups. He has overcome the oppression of addiction by gaining spirituality.
Manage
By Chris Joubert
“The reason society is more focused on drug and alcohol addiction is because these addictions are less forgiving. Meaning, the consequences of these addictions are too serious to ignore or to minimize. They are chaotic and ultimately, life threatening.
The main question we might ask is why people get themselves into addiction predicaments. Many times it starts off with ignorance and/or social pressures and/or health issues. But then, why is it so hard to break free once we are hooked? We might argue that it has become a physical, chemical and/or habitual prospect. The question then might arise; why would someone who had been clean for a long time, go back to illicit drugs or alcohol, knowing what it will do to them, and their loved ones? Interestingly enough, should you present this question to any person in the relapse predicament, they will have many arguments and excuses but will eventually relent to admitting ‘I don’t know’. I think we are ready to admit and realize that there must be a silent force behind addiction, there must be! I have learned that anything that we do, that does not make sense to our natural thinking, and overwrites our logic and inelegance, is spiritual.
Secular ideas and strategies are based on physical consequences and observations; it is an attempt to fix the problem from the outside in, but actually, addiction must be fixed from the inside out. It is remarkably similar to an infection. We can say that addiction is an infection of the soul. In my experience ALL addictions pivots on these realities.
Since we are on the subject of infections, let us discover whether addiction is a disease. The popular notion these days is that addiction is a disease. Has this idea been given the necessary study and thought?
A disease, in its literal sense is a diagnosable condition with a physical cause. Having or being infected by a disease has nothing to do with choice whatsoever. Addiction is better defined as voluntary slavery. Disease serves best as a metaphor to addiction; it highlights the way we can feel controlled by something other than our own will. We can thus say that addiction is LIKE a disease and not be fooled by the general assertion that addiction IS a disease. The AA them self’s identifies that we need the help of a “higher power”.
Most, if not all addicts, describe their drug addiction as an intimate relationship with their drug of choice. This drug means everything to them. It is closer to them than
their own breath. They are ready to sacrifice anything and anybody for their next hit. There is no limit to what they will venture in order to support their addiction. Many institutions describe this relationship between the drug and the addict as a “Romeo and Juliet” phenomenon.”