EPOCH6

Thoughts on religious faith as a tool for recovering addicts?
My mother ended up becoming an example of this about 8 years ago.

I grew up in a irreligious home, both my mother and father came from religious families but dropped the church and faith by their adult years. My mother struggled with addiction for most of her adult life, from her teens and well into her 40s with very few sober spaces between. She tried the detox/rehab game several times throughout the years, failing each time, until she eventually broke under the pressure and ended up doing a stint in the psych ward. That breakdown was the catalyst to her recovery but this time for whatever reason she ended up trying the 12 Step Program. As many of you probably know part of that program involves recognizing a "higher power" as a channel for strength, a lot of 12 step sponsors encourage Christianity to fill that role (whether that's loyal to the program or not). So she ended up doing that, wen't away to live in recovery house with other recovering addicts, did the whole 12 Step thing, and came back an evangelical Christian with a new lease on life.

She was headstrong about it for a year or two, got baptized, read the Bible, went to church with her new friends every Sunday, attended church functions and dinners and whatnot, but eventually began distancing herself from the institution after being exposed to the inner drama and politics. She hasn't actively attended church for probably 6 years now but kept the faith and a handful of Christian values close. This has become a very comfortable way of living for her. Psychologically it gave her purpose and direction, the threat of eternal hellfire has worked much better as a motivator against relapse than anything else in the past, she has been consistently more charitable and eager to help other recovering addicts, and is generally a much happier person than she was prior to all of this. At the end of it all she's now 8 years sober, much happier and no longer using anti-depressants, doesn't serve any particular religious institution, and keeps a cherry picked version of the Christian faith to herself only as a motivator to be responsible and kind.

Is this the best option for serious drug addicts? Is it the most effective means to recovery?

Is there a better alternative recovery system that has worked for even close to as many people?

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