Addiction recovery is a time of change and restoration. While this often leads to positive growth, it can also be draining and overwhelming. For this reason, many people lean on their spirituality during addiction recovery. For some people, spiritual recovery involves practicing their religion. For others, spirituality may mean something different, like a connection with nature or a path of personal growth. No matter the definition, spirituality can provide many benefits for people in addiction recovery.
Addiction recovery is a leap of faith to challenge harmful thoughts and beliefs. Spirituality can provide guidance for better ways of living. Spirituality in recovery is common but not universal. A small number of recovery programs have been created for people who do not want to focus on personal spirituality. These groups focus on practical coping methods and scientific findings as guidance through addiction recovery. In the end, people seeking help from recovery groups need to find programs they can relate to.
Spirituality in Recovery
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Spirituality has a consistent role in many recovery programs. Because spirituality is extremely personal, many programs leave the definition up to the individual. This broad term can refer to a connection with a higher power outside of the individual or to a broader sense of meaning. Spirituality can also be defined as a connection to nature, to the universe or all living creatures. People can define spirituality by whatever connection is meaningful to them.
Religion is a more structured and defined way of expressing spirituality. It often involves a sense of community and connection with others and is guided through traditions, rites, rituals and organized leadership.
Healing from drug addiction can be a challenging process. For many people in recovery, accepting personal responsibility is painful. Practicing spirituality can provide healing from past mistakes. Spiritual healing often involves forgiveness, reconnecting with others and finding a sense of belonging.
Gratitude is a common and strong theme through many forms of spirituality. When a person follows the guidance of a higher power or spiritual beliefs, they are encouraged and often inspired to feel more grateful in their life. Gratitude has an important role in recovery. It helps people stay focused on the positive and helpful things in their lives. While much about addiction recovery can be emotionally upsetting, cultivating a sense of gratitude can make an important difference and help remind people of the numerous benefits of sober living.
Many people feel lost and without a sense of purpose in life after addiction. These individuals are unsure about finding purpose on their own, so they turn to spirituality for help. Spirituality encourages people to focus beyond themselves and step out of their comfort zone to help others. This activity often helps people find ways to feel useful, important and valued. From that sense of purpose and value comes higher self-esteem and confidence.
Connections are powerful during addiction recovery and support can make a huge difference for an individual. Addiction pushes people to isolate themselves and disconnect from others. Spirituality encourages connections with others to restore a sense of belonging. People can connect with a higher power within themselves, in others, in nature or from a variety of other sources.
Those in early recovery will see the word spirituality often, but what is spirituality in recovery? In recovery, spirituality refers to tapping into the part of human existence that is outside of yourself. Spirituality involves reaching out to something bigger than yourself and exploring your relationship with the grand universe. It involves asking unanswerable questions or tapping into a new part of your brain and soul.
Early detox centers were only about flushing the body of drugs or alcohol than sending the recoveree out into the world. Next came psychological healing, with several types of counseling like CBT. Recently, detox and treatment centers have implemented a holistic approach to recovery, which links the physical, emotional, and spiritual sides of the recovering addict.
Spirituality is a key aspect of the recovery process. Some may confuse the concept of spirituality with religion, but they are two different things. Religion refers to a defined system of beliefs, rituals, and institutional structures. In contrast, spirituality refers to the transcendent connection between us and something perceived as existing on a higher plane. Some people express their feelings of spirituality through structured religion, while others experience spirituality in many different ways.
In recovery, spirituality plays an important role in healing a wounded soul. In active substance use, the person becomes separated from their core belief systems. They lose contact with the essence of who they are, their purpose, and the meaning of their life. Once in recovery, they are able to slowly restore not only their mental and physical health, but also their spiritual self. A holistic treatment program will address all three of these areas.
The forms of spirituality can follow vastly different paths. You might practice your personal spirituality through a Judeo-Christian religious belief system, an Eastern practice such as Buddhism, or a type of New Age belief that is based on the laws of the universe or nature. Whichever path you take, all types of spirituality seek truth, promote personal growth, inspire a connection with the transcendent, and help uplift the human spirit.
Of all the things on our list, gratitude ties closest to perspective. Spirituality can add a new perspective to your recovery. Once you learn who you are and how you fit to those around you, you can try living accordingly. That is, living with greater gratitude.
Recovery from SMI has been studied and documented by researchers, practitioners, and individuals with lived experience around the world and across time. Recovery is real. Recovery can be supported by practices and services that encourage participant engagement, community inclusion, valued social roles, and overall wellness. This webinar series will introduce you to recovery from SMI and many of the evidence-based and promising practices that support recovery. This session focuses on the role of religion and spirituality in recovery.
So, what can we do with the broad definition of spirituality? How can individuals in addiction recovery (and others) attain a sense of spirituality and use it to their advantage? Anderson and Sternlicht offer their guidance:
Finally, some people practice spirituality by dedicating their time and effort into building strong relationships with others: with friends, family, even strangers. These people find meaning in catering to these relationships and assisting their people with whatever they need.
them to engage in behaviors that are detrimental to academic success. Stress reactions may lead to drug or alcohol use, absences, failing to complete assignments, and social isolation. Stress reactions may also result in more serious forms of mental disturbances. Research shows that, among college students, aspects of spirituality and religiosity can facilitate recovery from such stress reactions and mental disturbances. Celebrate Recovery (CR), an intervention method, is a faith-based recovery program designed for accountability and growth. CR has been shown to increase confidence among participants helping them to resist substance abuse and develop strategies for improving mental wellness. This program may improve self-efficacy and increase confidence in students by helping them obtain skills for coping with high-risk situations that may hinder recovery (Brown, Tonigan, Pavlik, Kosten & Volk, 2013).
The meaning of spirituality is a diverse and intriguing concept. For some it is associated with God, a higher power, religion, church or prayer. For others it may be meditation, yoga, nature, intuition, energy or even dancing. It ranges from person to person, but the idea behind spirituality is connecting to something greater than ourselves, garnering a sense of feeling alive and is an avenue to find peace, balance, connectedness and unconditional love.
Becoming curious and reaching a point in life where we start asking questions, wondering and exploring this vast topic of spirituality is monumental. Often times, a person might not begin their search for more meaning until they hit a rock bottom, which is a great place to start becoming more aware of how you define this for yourself. Many people come into this search at the height of their addictions when life seems unmanageable.
By connecting to a path in spirituality, we also connect to a higher level of emotional welfare. In turn, this helps us feel more connected to something bigger than ourselves and to the people in our spiritual tribe, which tends to evoke more feelings of happiness, gratitude, peace, contentment and calmness. Spirituality goes hand in hand with emotional health and wellness, which is also instrumental in recovery.
Successful recovery is rooted in spirituality and is a concept that has worked for many. Spirituality and recovery can be overwhelming when approached separately and even more so when paired together. However, they are both beautiful experiences, especially when combined.
Let us help you find your paths to both recovery and spirituality. Contact us today to find out how our programs work, options available for you and how to get started on the road to recovery and finding your meaning of spirituality today: 844-291-0654
Spirituality plays an important role in recovery because it gives us a sense of peace and purpose. It is an individual practice, so no one can tell us that we are doing it wrong. It also relates to developing our own belief system about the meaning of our life and our connection to others. Once we find our spiritual essence, using drugs and running from problems and stress no longer can take a hold of us because we have found our center. No one can take that away, ever. 2ff7e9595c
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