Addiction recovery commonly uses the 12-step method and a variety of religious-based practices to work through the recovery process. Atheists, agnostics, or people with alternative religious views may find following and personally understanding these steps challenging. It is still possible to recover without the focus on religious beliefs. There are recovery alternatives that can be useful to you.
12-Step Program
The 12-step program is a very common and productive program to work through the process of addiction recovery and develop a sense of self-worth. These steps are based upon subjecting yourself to a higher power, such as God, and focusing on religious-based strength to push you to success. Regardless of the religious focus of these steps, the methods can still be extremely beneficial to non-religious people in the process of addiction recovery. Changing the focus from God to yourself can strengthen your understanding of this process.
Altering the 12-Step Program
Using the 12-step program without any religious beliefs is possible. The following steps can be re-worded to your liking. Based upon the 12-step method, the following steps, which shy away from the religious focus of the originals, can be used as an alternative to the classic 12-step program.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that the power greater than ourselves could be overcome by our ability to change.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to our future, working toward improvement.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to allow ourselves to remove all these defects of character.
7. Set goals that led us to this characteristic change.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal reflections and recognized when we were wrong promptly.
11. Sought through self-care to improve our conscious contact with our decision-making.
12. Having had a personal awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
While some of these steps have remained the same, other steps have been altered to focus on giving in to yourself, rather than God. These steps still have extreme benefits for individuals who do not have religious beliefs but choose to focus on their sense of self or nature as the higher power.
NA/AA Meetings
Many individuals who do not have a religious background worry that these meetings will not be useful to them because of their strong religious focus. Despite the fear of feeling ostracized for not having a religious background, atheists who attend these meetings can still benefit from them just as much as other members who do have religious beliefs. The overall focus is to prevent a certain substance from taking over your life. If you do not believe in God, you can simply think of subjecting yourself to your higher self-power, rather than the higher power of God.
Alternative Recovery Plans
While using these alternative methods to common support group programs may be useful, there are many other alternative recovery options to look into that avoid religious beliefs. There are a variety of therapeutic methods that can be used to help work through the process of addiction recovery without relying on the 12-step program. The following forms of therapy and treatment are all extremely beneficial in addiction recovery.
- Medication-assisted treatment
- Behavioral therapy
- Combination of individual, group, and family therapy
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Dialectal behavioral therapy
- Support groups
- Evidence-based programs
You can implement multiple of these programs of therapeutic services to increase your success in recovery. If multiple approaches sound like good potential options, look into a recovery plan incorporating aspects of each approach that interests you. Your recovery plan should be catered to you and what will benefit you and your recovery.
Learning about each of these therapeutic programs and determining which one has an aspect that you feel will benefit you is important to ensure you maintain a focus on recovery. Find aspects of your life that are extremely valuable to you and use that as a focal point on which to base your process. Having your mindset on a goal and reasoning behind that goal that contributes to valuable aspects of your life can help ensure you work toward success in your treatment process.
Many addiction recovery programs, such as the 12-step program, focus on the belief in God or religious systems to help people work through the recovery process. For atheists or individuals without a religious background, these recovery programs may seem useless or off-putting. However, the 12-step program has beneficial steps, even with the religious aspect removed from them. By altering the 12-step method, you can use a personalized version to help you through recovery. There are also alternative recovery methods that do not focus on religion. Ensuring you are engaging in a program that is personally motivating highly increases your chances of success in addition to recovery. To learn more about how to alter the 12-step method to work with your personal beliefs, or find other treatment options that do not involve religion, reach out to Dream Recovery at (949) 732-1960.
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