by Sonia Tagliareni for DrugRehab.com
When a debilitating substance habit consumes someone’s life, they often look to a Higher Power to help give them the strength to get better. Although it’s not for everyone, a spiritually-inclined treatment process helps thousands of addicts each year find the motivation necessary for recovery.
Faith and Religion in Drug and Alcohol Recovery
Alcoholics Anonymous, perhaps the most well-known recovery support group, puts faith at the foreground of its philosophy. Since being founded in the early 1900s, the group proposes that alcoholism reflects a disease of body, mind and soul. Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. said men and women who abuse substances “have not only been mentally and physically ill, (they) have been spiritually sick.”
Nearly 80 years later, substance abuse in America has yet to slow. Over the past century we’ve seen myriad medications, therapy modules and self-help routines developed to battle the problem. Faith and spirituality remain among the most time-tested supplements in the world of addiction treatment and provide a core value for many rehab facilities and community support groups that yield success stories.
Ceasing substance use does not guarantee a full recovery for the chemically-dependant; a dramatic change in how one feels, thinks and views the world plays a major role as well. This change can occur in a number of ways, but a renewed sense of purpose can often be credited to an individual’s improved spiritual health and a relationship with God or a higher power.
Methods of Treatment
The role of faith in substance abuse treatment ranges from minimal to pervasive. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration supports more than 800 faith-based community organizations that span the spectrum of treatment methods.
For some, underlying religious principles provide a backdrop for traditional psychological approaches to treatment, such as behavior management and other therapies. In these cases, spiritual principles come to the foreground sporadically.
Other organizations weave faith and religion into every piece of the treatment process. These groups may reject the involvement of doctors or any kind of medication, believing that the power of prayer, spiritual strengthening and an intimate relationship with God can cure the illness of addiction and send addicts back into the world as healthy, rejuvenated individuals.
Does Faith Work?
No two people are the same. Each person struggling with substance abuse will respond differently to any given philosophy of treatment.
That said, recovering individuals who report higher levels of spirituality display a number of promising qualities:
- Lower anxiety
- Higher resilience to stress
- More optimistic life orientation
- Greater perceived social support
People with a prior history of religious beliefs respond better to faith-based treatments than agnostics and atheists. This is especially true for people of color.
In general, people who identify with being spiritual and those who attend regular church services are less likely to drink or take drugs. Adults who skip out on religious services are five times more likely to experiment with hard drugs and seven times more likely to binge drink.
Spirituality works as a protective factor against chemical dependency, according to one study, by promoting values of leading a substance-free life, occupying a person’s free time, and encouraging abstinence.
Sonia Tagliareni is a writer and researcher for DrugRehab.com. She is passionate about helping people. She started her professional writing career in 2012 and has since written for the finance, engineering, lifestyle and entertainment industry. Sonia holds a bachelor’s degree from the Florida Institute of Technology.
