Page 18 - Sonoma County Gazette April 2017

Recently, my family visited a small tribe in the Ecuadorian Amazon to explore the possibilities of bringing people from the US to receive traditional healing. Our hosts, the Sapara people, live in a remote region of the rainforest, adhering to a traditional lifestyle. They are now confronted with dwindling numbers of their people and by hungry petroleum companies trying to encroach on their land to access underground oil reserves. Consequently, they want to collaborate in the hopes of gaining allies in their fight to preserve their territory. If this struggle results in defeat, they at least want to have shared their gifts with the world before they disappear.
Like many addicts, Joe came from a broken home, with an alcoholic father, and a mother addicted to opioids. His parents divorced when he was in the 5th grade, and he moved with his mother to Sebastopol from Mendocino County. He started using drugs and alcohol, beginning with meth at about 13.
A personal insight from the trip was appreciating the roots of human su ering from our di erent vantage points. In our discussions about depression and anxiety (so pervasive in our culture), they really had a hard time understanding what our problems were. They seemed legitimately ba ed by the sadness, loneliness, and preoccupation that are such a fundamental part of the experience of so many people in the modern world. In their view, membership in the tribe, a good diet, and connection with the natural world prevent this type of su ering, and they were puzzled that we let these problems persist.
By the time he was 14 years old, he was arrested for the first of what would become 35-40 times by the age of 24, mostly for minor drug charges and thefts to support his drug habit. Within a short time he had become an intravenous meth addict who didn’t care about anything other than what it took to get his next fix. He never had sex, unless it was for drugs, because that’s all he cared about, and even shared syringes with someone he knew was H.I.V. positive.
A Deeper Look
One particular officer had arrested Joe about three times, each time telling him “I’m saving your life.” Never once, after 35-40 arrests, was Joe ever offered substance abuse treatment until he finally got tired of going to jail and requested it. The judge granted his request for treatment, and he was released to seek treatment on his own, with no particular treatment minimum specified.
The writer Sebastian Junger in is 2016 book Tribe dives into the roots of this modern malaise. He juxtaposes the lifestyles of our hominid ancestors, lived
for almost a million years prior to the dawn of agriculture, with the experience of the contemporary world. Since genetic adaptations take an average of 25,000 years, our organisms have just begun to make adjustments over the 10,000 years since agriculture began.
He tried to go to Turning Point, but the fee was $300 he did not have, the waiting list was four months, and he didn’t have any place to
“Getting Arrested Saved My life”
Alienation in the Modern World
we decided to call “Joe” to keep him anonymous. He had a bright smile, and
a kind and gentle demeanor. He seemed a little nervous to tell me, a complete stranger taking notes for a newspaper, the most personal details of his life. But he was anxious to share his story to help someone else living a hopeless and desperate life on the streets due to the imprisonment of addiction.
By Jennifer Wertz
I recently listened to the story of a 29 year-old recovering meth addict, who
Joe said about five or six of his arrests occurred in Sebastopol. “This is why Sebastopol doesn’t have many homeless people.
If you’re on drugs, you’re going to jail, period.”
From studies of Kung! tribes people in Africa, anthropologists extrapolate that, “Early humans would most likely have lived in nomadic bands of about 50 people... They would have experienced high levels of accidental injuries and death. They would have countered domineering behavior by senior males by forming coalitions within the group. They would have been utterly intolerant of hoarding or selfishness... They would have done everything in the company of others. They would have almost never been alone.” (p.17). This is a pretty good description of the lives of the people I met in the rainforest. So it is interesting to see their calm emotional state compared to our own.
live while he waited.
Since he had become
completely indigent
and had “burned all
his bridges” with
everyone he knew, he
sought treatment at
the Redwood Gospel
Mission, which is a free faith-based program that would take him in. There was one problem though, in order to be accepted into their program, he was also strongly encouraged to participate in “conversion therapy” to “cure” him of his homosexuality. He chose to agree to get in.
Contentment
One theory of happiness suggest that humans need three basic things to be content:
• to feel authentic in their lives,
• to feel competent at what they do, • to feel connected to others.
Joe said the Gospel Mission program was 6-12 months, depending on
how fast you could memorize scripture, and though he wasn’t religious, he tried to make the best of it. He was just happy to have a warm bed, and was immediately assigned a job, which he had never had before. He had to work
at cleaning and serving food, and was particularly impacted by cleaning up the vomit of other addicts/alcoholics coming in for detox. It opened his eyes to what he no longer wanted to be, and taught him structure and responsibility. After about six months, he was kicked out of the program and sent back to the street for homosexual activity with a staff member.
Conclusions
• Recognition of the value of “tribe” and cultivation of connection – church, family, work, sports can all serve these functions.
• Involvement in a cause. Junger takes an in-depth look at the decrease in mental health issues during times of community crises like war and disaster. Clearly we do better when working with others for the common good.
• Connection with nature. One of main treatments for the Sapara is getting out into the healing force of the forest. They are also doggedly working to protect the forest from destruction by extractive energy concerns.
• Implications for healing. They use plants and specific healing techniques to counteract these destructive feelings of isolation and despair. They feel very strongly that thoughts create our reality, and they place a lot of value in correcting our destructive thinking patterns. We will be taking a group of people down to the Amazon in July for a 9-day healing journey, to see if we can help counter-act our modern malaise with these ancient healing modalities.
Back living on the streets and homeless once more during a very cold winter Joe lost control and started using again. Using made him feel guilty this time. He eventually found his way to an Narcotics Anonymous meeting where he found a “friend” who took him to the Salvation Army’s Lytton Springs rehab center north of Healdsburg. It took him about four attempts to get accepted because he had to stay clean long enough to pass the required drug screening.
18 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 4/17
Once again, Joe was immediately given a job, this time working in the thrift store, from which the proceeds were used to support the treatment program. Transitional housing was also available to those that successfully complete treatment. He enjoyed working in the thrift store, and thought he had learned skills that he could use to find a job after he completed treatment.
ARRESTED cont’d on page 19