Children from homes with just one parent instead of two are four times more likely to abuse drugs, and twice as likely to develop alcohol abuse issues. They’re also twice as likely to develop psychiatric issues and twice as likely to commit suicide.
… But the traditional family structure is such a quaint, old fashioned idea.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
It’s not entirely fair to point this out, since it’s hard to quantify levels of depression and such, but I suspect that a “midpoint” between the family structure and substance abuse is depression and other forms of mental illness.
Along these lines, I suspect that a certain portion of opioid deaths are actually suicides without a suicide note. A young man in our church who did the 13 month “MN Adult and Teen Challenge” program for heroin noted that he believed a big part of his addiction was that he was bored to tears in his job. Along the same lines, when our local homeschool group hosted a group of clients (current & former) from Adult & Teen Challenge, all of them reported that the substance was just a way of coping with what was lacking in family life.
If church becomes a bit more like a functional family, we might be able to do a ton of good.
Discussion
NewA bit more
… But the traditional family structure is such a quaint, old fashioned idea.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
NewIntermediate point
It’s not entirely fair to point this out, since it’s hard to quantify levels of depression and such, but I suspect that a “midpoint” between the family structure and substance abuse is depression and other forms of mental illness.
Along these lines, I suspect that a certain portion of opioid deaths are actually suicides without a suicide note. A young man in our church who did the 13 month “MN Adult and Teen Challenge” program for heroin noted that he believed a big part of his addiction was that he was bored to tears in his job. Along the same lines, when our local homeschool group hosted a group of clients (current & former) from Adult & Teen Challenge, all of them reported that the substance was just a way of coping with what was lacking in family life.
If church becomes a bit more like a functional family, we might be able to do a ton of good.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.