Category: Kids at Risk (Winter 2008)

Dr. Abraham J. Twerski is the founder and medical director emeritus of Gateway Rehabilitation Center, cited by Forbes magazine as one of the 12 best drug and alcohol treatment centers. Dr. Twerski, an ordained rabbi, is recognized as an international authority in the chemical dependency field and has written over 50 books and articles including: I'd Like to Call For Help, But I Don't Know The Number; Do Unto Others; and collaborative effort with Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz, When Do The Good Things Start?; Waking Up Just in Time; I Didn't Ask To Be In This Family and That's Not A Fault...It's A Character Trait. Scientific contributions and community efforts have earned him numerous awards and honorary degrees from St. Vincent's College, Duquesne University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

It is axiomatic in psychiatry and psychology that a client’s religion is not a subject for the therapist to consider. It is the client’s prerogative to choose whether or how to be religious. However, it should be realized that spirituality, which can stand totally apart from religion, is essential for a person’s wholeness and well-being.

In Happiness and the Human Spirit, I pointed out that a human being is more than a physical body. Our physical body is essentially an animal body. What makes us human are those qualities which are unique to us, which animals (other than domesticated pets) do not have, among which are: intellect, the ability to contemplate a purpose in existence, the ability to improve ourselves, the ability to act ethically and morally in defiance of bodily urges, the ability to give of ourselves for the welfare of others, the ability to delay gratification, the ability to forgive and several other traits. The sum total of all our uniquely human traits is what I call the human spirit, and when we exercise these abilities, we are being spiritual.

The human being is, therefore, a composite creature, comprised of a body and a spirit. We know that the body is subject to deficiency syndromes when it lacks an essential nutrient, e.g., iron deficiency, vitamin C deficiency, etc. The spirit, too, has essential nutrients, and if it lacks these, it develops a “Spirituality Deficiency Syndrome” (SDS), The symptom of SDS is discontent or chronic dissatisfaction. This is not the same as depression, and will not be relieved by antidepressant medication nor by traditional psychotherapy that attributes emotional problems to early life experiences.

Chronic discontent may have serious physical effects. People seeking relief from this discontent may have recourse to alcohol or drugs, both licit and illicit, to gambling, to compulsive eating, to promiscuity, to workaholism, to a relentless drive for wealth, none of which give more than a fleeting respite, with return and even aggravation of the discontent. People have wrongly blamed a spouse for their unhappiness, with unfortunate divorces affecting them and their children.

Just as an iron-deficiency syndrome will not be relieved unless iron is provided, neither will the Spirituality Deficiency Syndrome be relieved by anything other than providing the spirit with its specific nutrients, i.e., by implementing the unique traits that makes us human.

It is simple to prescribe an anti-depressant or tranquilizer in the desire to help a patient with his/her unhappiness. This is as unproductive as prescribing zinc for iron-deficiency. Furthermore, long-term use of tranquilizers can result in serious addiction. Attributing discontent to early life experiences does not address SDS. An understanding of spirituality as described above makes it clear that while one does not address religion with a patient, failure to consider spirituality deficiency may be a disservice.

While religion is of great importance, it should be obvious that one must be a mentsch in order to be religious. If one does not exercise the uniquely human abilities that make one a mentsch, one is nothing more than what science says, a homo sapiens, which essentially means “a baboon with intellect,” hardly capable of being religious and relating to G-d.

What does this have to do with “Students at Risk?” Let us realize that the deviant behavior that young people may manifest is essentially their effort to get what much of the adult world has demonstrated to be the goal in life: immediate gratification, which is the most prominent characteristic of animals. If there is anything that distinguishes humans from animals is that people should have spiritual goals. If adults, whether religious or not, fail to successfully model what it really means to be a mentsch, there is little that we can expect from young people.