There are many people that believe spirituality and treatment for drug addiction go hand in hand. The reasons for drug addiction are deep enough to allegedly harm a person in a spiritual sense. In fact spirituality and recovery and key to the very successful 12 step programs which have saved millions of lives.
Since addiction can permeate a person on a spiritual level, it is believed that the healing ought to take place in that person’s soul. Many people find a spiriutal connection in 12 step programs that they have never found in their religion of choice. Religion can play an important part in your recovery but you must make that spiritual connection first. Many people are deeply religious but cannot break their addiction until they surrender to a power greater than themselves and beleive that no human power can fix them. This is the problem with relgion its run by humans.
There is much evidence that attempts by religion to provide recovery are not always successful. Some people argue the reason originates from the confusion others often hold about religion and spirituality, claiming that the line between them becomes blurred in many situations. This problem is exacerbated especially when the religious organization of the addict happens to sees addiction to be a sin or something shameful, two things which can cause greater harm than good in the time it takes to help an addict.
Unlike the Alcoholics Anonymous approach, others who claim they are using a spiritual rather than religious technique assert that a person must take full responsibility for their addiction and for their recovery rather than allowing it to be placed in the hands of a higherPower. Concentrating on inward causes for their addiction rather than possible outside sources allow addicts better access to the reasons why they became addicts initially. Some programs employ this very same method in their treatments for addiction. But they do not use such an approach under the guise of strengthening a person spiritually speaking.
As with any kind of residential drug treatment for addicts and their family and friends must realize that no one treatment will work for everyone. Further, whatever treatment an addict chooses with the support of those they love, they must realize that a program cannot only treat the addiction but the entire person in order to be successful. It has however been my personal experience that the 12 step program of Alcholholics Anonymous works almost without exception when the program of action is rigorously followed.
