The Soul of Recovery

Christopher Ringwald's purpose in this volume was to find out how spirituality figures in an individual's recovery from alcohol or substance abuse and how it is deployed by the treatment programmes. He explores a range of programmes: 12-step; Christian; Muslim; and Native American among others.

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It is common knowledge that for most alcoholics and addicts recovery programmes like AA seem to hold out the best hope of conquering their addiction. Most of us also know that such programmes usually stress reliance on some sort of "higher power". This book shows that in fact spiritual development is the central factor in the recovery of a significant percentage of substance abusers, and that spirituality is the lynchpin of many if not most recovery programmes in this country. Journalist Christopher Ringwald visited many treatment centres and interviewed hundreds of recovering alcoholics and addicts, counsellors, and family members, many of whose voices are heard in this book. Ringwald's purpose was to find out just how spirituality figures in the individual's recovery and how it is deployed by the treatment programmes. He explores the differences among a wide range of programmes : 12-step, Christian, Muslim, Native American, and those based in Eastern religions. Vividly written and thoroughly researched, this book is the first to focus on this intruiging phenomenon--an all but hidden, yet thriving new spiritual movement in our midst.