The Danger of Drugs: There is Always Hope - Menachem Poznanski, LCSW

[Music] you know you've heard about addiction and you've heard about drug abuse I think both of those things are important because they're both a very dangerous things right now it's very dangerous to be a drug addict and it's very dangerous to any drug abuser in the past you know you've heard the numbers but I can tell you just practically in a concrete level the past year and a half for me personally I've been to more funerals than have been in the 12 previous years which is like sue said as a community in the clubhouse for young adults in recovery so this is a serious topic and it's a great Avenue to talk about it so invariably what happens when I do an event like this it might pick my particular if my name's and some kind of lie or something my friend will come over to the shul and he'll tell me about some strange addiction that he has there's a there's a television show I heard on TV about people's strange addictions but I get I get a whole so my friend came over to me the other day I wasn't sure on Friday and he came over to me he told me about his addiction to traveling he wanted to know if it was a cobbler so so so I got to talking about it a little bit and and you know I asked him things like okay what does it beat you like about traveling yeah and he says well you know I dropped me I come up to the he works for a large corporation so he has like a high status on the airline season I pubs the curb guy comes and takes my bag and they ocean me through the airport and and then I go right through the check the security check and I go right and I go to this fancy place the first-class lounge and get me drinks I feel important so I said yeah that's that's kind of finally someone that you know acknowledge that you're valuable and you know and we talked a little bit about how but how that really occurs in a very significant way the life of all addicts you know because the truth is I heard a wise man once a the addicts are just like everybody else except all the stuff that we do they do accept an extremely so you know and and one of the things we talked about was that you can get so trapped you know that the only way that he was ever gonna feel important enough in his life was if he traveled with that concierge status on the airplane you know and to be trapped in that dependency that I can make myself values for lying and the human tendency to get trapped in those things and really in a lot of ways that's really what you see with addicts there really people there suffering people that are grew up using drugs also there are having fun aren't you are trying to have a good time to experience euphoria but they're also going through a lot of pain and and they're trying to find a way to feel okay and we need to consider that especially when we're considering how to take action to try to rectify the issue and save our lives so so you asked me to talk about hope and you kind of ask yourself why would you want to talk about hope you know I want to like make everybody feel better so you just gave us a very heart-wrenching speech about how serious this is and we need to get our act together we take action and that's true we live in this community and I know I'm teens but also five towns in Brooklyn Muncie and Lakewood and every you know so when I talk about hope is that gonna lead people to complacency so I want to give you a sense of why we should talk about hope why hope is a very important topic when you're talking about combating drug drug addiction we talk about combating overdoses drug abuse etc so when you're engaging a problem so it answer that question why health is important I'll give you another question so when you're engaging a problem there's really two ways that you can approach the problem and approach the problem with a problem centric perspective or you can approach the problem with a solution centric perspective I want to talk about the difference between those students so a problem centric perspective is that I have a problem I show up but I have a problem my human nature tells me I need to get rid of this problem I need to get rid of the problems what am I going to do something's wrong I have to fix it let me figure out where it came from let me eradicate the problem and make sure it doesn't exist that very gana now that makes sense it's a logical component I want to get rid of it there's a few problems with that particularly when it comes to addiction because that kind of perspective many times is the result of in the cause of denial which means that I think that just because I decided the problem should go away it's gonna go in I think that just because I'm going to police the problem it's gonna disappear and I think that just because I say that it's unacceptable it doesn't exist and that's the kind of tendency that we have to fall into so we have to you have to guard against so what do we do do you have a problem I want to fix it what do I do so one of the things I thought about talking about tonight is you know sue mentioned a meetings any meetings two of the larger 12-step fellowships that exist in this country you have some information on the table over there and there's many 12-step fellowships and the 12 steps have been around for 80 plus years they mystified everybody around them at their effectiveness their ability to help people they are one of the most effective teams and helping people they're addicts achieve abstinence achieve clean and sober and and living clean and safe so there's a lot we can learn from them and this is not meant to be like a commercial for the 12-step that's not my intention but without a doubt if we talk about effective models of recovery they're some of the most effective bottles of recovery now the novel teen the 12 steps people sometimes look at the 12 steps well sometimes people have a resistance the 12 steps many people look at it you look at the toe steps and you find that their wisdom is not new the wisdom is very old we're very familiar with their wisdom it's very it's very familiar to us it's ancient wisdom it's logically makes sense it's common sense but the real novelty in the 12 steps is in their order is in the order of which they take it combating the problem and I thought it'd be important or maybe interesting for us to just be committed to just kind of consider how they go about approaching the problem and maybe would kind of shift our perspective a little bit and how we walk out of here kind of what we do when we walk out of here so with the step stores they begin with the obvious that begin with an admission admission of the problem right now you assume that kind of sounds a lot like the problem centric perspective that I talked about a minute ago okay I acknowledge as a problem and now I'm going to move on but really what they do is they do something very very interesting so no no no it's not enough to just acknowledge the problem you need to admit the problem to yourself you need to admit the problems your innermost self is the language of these I mean you need to you need to accept the problem as it is and and as it will be meaning that I have a problem that's not going to disappear it's not just gonna go away because I willing to go away go away because I decide not to have but it's here I need to learn how to deal with it in comedy so you think okay let's get to the problem what's the source what's the route that you use what emotional problems let me get to the problem but that's not what they do interesting this is the novelty no they say no no no first you need to do is need to spend some time developing some hold that a life free of a problem is possible now why is this important why should I help hope that a life free of the problem is possible what do I mean if I just get rid of all the drugs people stopped done that's not true doesn't work so how can I develop a hope why should I develop a hope that that that a life free of the problem because possible because whenever I take now whatever action I take at this point whatever I can action I take my time acknowledge the fact that I can live free of this problem I won't just try to be managing and containing the problem policing the problem but rather it will inspire me to take action to gain freedom from it to gain freedom from its grips and learn how to live with this problem and I don't just mean for addicts by the way everything I'm talking about now it's not to talk to to the Attis that are in the room I'm sure there's a number of them if you look at statistics as probably 15 20 room and but I'm talking to everybody because as a community one of the interesting things that occurs one of the interesting things that occurs with addiction is that it affects everybody around them everybody starts thinking and talking like an animal so when we go when Smith talks about sitting down with a group of principals who refuse to acknowledge the problem is because they are suffering from the same disorder at the end of society we suffer from the deep sense of denial that if they stick their head in the sand the problem businesses so Miko look at that we have to look at that as a community okay so what do I do now cuz I have a hope that there's a there's a sense now is it time to act and I said no no no it's not time to act first you need to develop a sense developing awareness that there's a power that there's power outside of you that can help if there's great power and for us as observant Druze know we believe that powers the show right now my son is here he's gonna help us with this problem that we are facing may be silent you say oh no and then we have to face this problem head-on and then we need his help now the interesting thing about it is when you acknowledge they - Emma's here and you acknowledge needs help he also knows that he has given you the problem and he wants you to face it he doesn't want us to continue to ignore the problem he wants us to face it head-on with his own so now now if you've done that you acknowledge the problem that's knowledge as it is and you have a sense that there's an opportunity to live outside of this problem we can overcome this problem and live outside of it in a sense of meaningfulness and purposefulness that this is a spiritual action we have to take as a community to to help the people that need help and eradicate the acuteness of the project not that we can eradicate the problem entirely cos it's a human problem eradicate the acuteness of them provide support for the people that need it now we're ready to take action and the actions that you do with the 12 steps is you further diagnose the problem you remove blockages you learn a new way of living and we need to do that just the same that's the wisdom that we learned so really this is the great power of hope we readjusted read your reorients our thinking towards a solution or you had to perspective you need to come up with a solution so first I want to talk about what's happening we talked about asking a tough some some some hope this is what's going on the last in the last three years since I moved in started the work specifically that they're doing they have referred over 300 people to inpatient treatment imagine addicts with women suffering drug abusers are in inpatient treatment and 315 outpatient treatment now that's not the numbers for the entire New York that's numbers just for this specific organization I'll talk a little bit about the living room we try to really you know look here was like this operates in a non distinct building in the middle of Flatbush we really try to stay off the radar I'll give you a little sense of what's going on so you think that there was this huge problem there's really amazing peacefully you have a population of over 150 young adults were in recovery we have 35 young couples that common some many of there are people that came to our program and when they were single after we have it now it got married subsequently in established families summer people that have that have been married for a period of time and and and we're able to come to a place of acknowledging the proper now seeking help we've been able to this year the last year and a half we've have to adapt our program to provide a specific program for couples in recovery we provide a retreat once a year with with supports and information for them we're doing something very cool and this is a very excited about it's probably the most exciting thing that I want to share with you because it's it's inspirational and and I get I'm just like a backseat driver for this thing I had this idea you know in Israel there's a fledging english-speaking recovery community in Jerusalem you have a lot of people that are either in she were there for the year maybe they're in Colo there for a couple of years they're actively in recovery you know and the recovery community spans the entire spectrum of the Jewish community every level of religiosity every denomination every background and but one of the things that goes on in that community is that people are there temporarily because are there for a year or two years or three years or five years then they leave so the community is relatively budging so I have an idea that maybe we can take people from here that are kind of established a life of sobriety a life of recovery and we go there to a mission to Israel but it's very difficult to pay for something like that so so my friend Ari I came up with a great he came up with a great date he said you know everyone I have only like many organizations that utilize the Jerusalem marathon you have young people there raise money to run into Jerusalem marathon and they get a free trip to Israel she said why don't we get the young people to raise money to run the Jerusalem marathon and instead of spending the money on the organization we could spend the money on this mission so we're doing and 15 young people and this is this is not this is not a commercial for the organization's nothing to do with that this is 15 young people who previously as hopeless as we described we're now getting on a plane and they're gonna spend four or five days in his own without one break visiting we have visiting meet meetings going around encouraging people because there's hope there's real hope of you get asked I hope you can get help now I wanted to just add one I wanted to add one more metric just to a couple with C's metric and doctors metric since Rosh Hashana so since September you had 55 celebrate celebrate their year anniversary at the living room meaning every year someone in sobriety some losing 12-step program or not had told us the program they come back and hear that the day that they got sober they celebrated a second birthday anniversary it's 55 celebrates this year ADA that celebrated a year 11 them celebrated 11 - I'm sorry 11 of them celebrated two years and we had a total of 250 nine years of sobriety celebrated the Syrian regime and I mentioned that because his hope is real hope for people that want that one help I mean the greater Jewish community there's tons of things going on there's a lot of hope there's ten mental health substance abuse institutions that tree specifically the friend community there is on top of that many many many rehabs who have made a lot of effort as a result of efforts but seeing other people in our community to help them become confident to provide a support and treatment for from people that need penny that need treatment rehabs outpatient inpatient recovery support programs there's two the websites that are being that are being launched just for people recovery message boards support programs this is not I mean to do it these things but these things are going on I was so excited to hear about visions books are being published every year there's two or three books published either about recovery for people for people in recovery the Jewish community is beginning to respond to this issue unfortunately as we've begun to respond the issue is getting worse it's getting worse and it's getting more dangerous our population of my program has doubled and tripled over the last four or five years and of course you heard about the dangerous deaths that are going there the awareness about addiction communities rising and the awareness unfortunately about the kind of abuse specifically sexual abuse that many times is the precursor to a life of drug addiction and drug abuse is is being found out but at the end of the day it's a dangerous place out there there's dangerous drugs on the street as dr. Pascal mentioned there's a normalization of heavy drug use like heroin and that was in high school and in my early years of my career kids did into heroin I mean kids that had gone on beyond the level of experienced drug abuse and addiction for many many years would eventually graduate into heroin today I can tell you very clearly that young adults particularly will begin to use drugs maybe six months a year they're already using very illicit drugs cocaine heroin dangerous and illicit drugs this is not the progression towards dangerous and illicit drugs is quicker than everyone and and the last thing is people are done so what do we do so what do we do so I want to share it what's a Shabbos I want to share a little bit about the father you just just briefly in that I want to just give some specific comments so I was reading the other day I was in shul as before dominating I was reading through the the you know before chakras we read the the episode about them you know kids it's good it doesn't a shrimp challenge to give us a nice to give out with you know you say and one of the interesting things that happens is that a son gives album of eating this great news I don't they should bring his son yet slug isaac up to as a sacrifice and and it describes in detail every step that happened one of things I notice is that it doesn't point it doesn't say that he planned how he was actually gonna do and if you look at that if you look at the you look at the way that it's written in the Torah I'm not saying this is shocked and maybe just something he doesn't say that he planned out is maybe he couldn't imagine doing it but God had given him an asylum and he said listen I have to just put one foot in front of the other foot left foot right away right foot left one foot in front of the other even at one point I eat slug says the movie me says he says he was you know you know we have all the material necessary you know where's the Senate session will show us the sir this is a very important thing to think about it's a very very important thing to think about that even though the problem seems some movies but and we don't know how how we're gonna get through it but at the end of the day we need to take steps need to success like this but more and more steps each community we need to acknowledge to ourself that there's a problem and then it's not gonna disappear just because we decided to own it might never disappear to some degree we need to develop a culture of compassion for victims of abuse and suckers we need to provide community awareness like this and more you need to share what you hear tonight with your friends who didn't they ever have the courage of the alacrity that comes in it we need to develop more resources for those who are ready to get help crisis intervention outreach support we need to support the institutions that are doing that we need to advocate and support coach Lee company treatment there are treatment programs that providing treatment it's our responsibility as a community to reach out to those programs to reach out to those institutions political institutions to make sure they understand how to help our community and that's each individual community with all of its its little nuances and finally we need to embrace those who seek help instead of shaming them last thing I'll say we must accept I wrote this down because I want to just say you must accept that a shemin's presenting us with this challenge that we no longer could ignore it or just blame the sufferers or just try to finish them you have to educate ourselves adapt to the reality and grow but even more even more so mature as may all these efforts be explicit with the whole Jewish people to bring us closer tomorrow from the Google [Applause]