A quick perusal of the 12-step recovery program of Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous reveals a sobering reality to the addict who doesn’t have a Higher Power to speak of. The reality is that half of the steps require God for proper recovery to take place.
Me, I’m Baha’i. So I have a Higher Power, who I believe spoke through all the world’s great Messengers. I find peace and purpose in that. However,?what about the many millions who consider themselves agnostic or atheist? What are they to do?
Luckily, a movement has been long afoot to accommodate the addict in secular ways.
Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART), founded in 1994, has groups that meet all over North America and parts of Europe geared toward a science-based approach to teaching addicts how to stay clean and sober.
A tutorial on SMART principles states that this group will evolve along with the world’s scientific knowledge and that religion isn’t required to succeed. However, you don’t have to be an Atheist or Agnostic to join:
“…many SMART participants hold religious or spiritual beliefs, although we do not focus on these in SMART. At SMART, the emphasis is on self-empowerment.”
Another well-known organization, founded a decade before SMART, also has? groups meeting all over North America and in 11 foreign countries. The Los Angeles-based Secular Organizations for Sobriety (or, to some, Save Our Selves), is sponsored by the Center for Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism. In the United States, regular meetings are held in most major cities and many of the smaller ones, too; however, its meetings, like those of SMART, are nowhere near as prevalent and widespread as those under the AA/NA umbrella.
It’s not a contest though, the burgeoning group claims. According to a policy paper called “SOS and AA Relations” on the SOS website:
“SOS welcomes sobriety in whatever form it takes.”
“We are not in competition with or opposed to AA or other 12-Step programs. SOS recognizes that AA has helped, and continues to help, many people to get and stay sober and clean.”
This is how the group differentiates itself:
“SOS is for those people who find that the ideas of reliance on a Higher Power or God, ‘powerlessness’ and the emphasis on character defects to be an obstacle to recovery. Also, many spiritual or religious people prefer to join SOS because they prefer a less cult-like atmosphere and/or are comfortable with the white, middle-class, Christian character of many meetings…
“Instead, SOS is about self-empowerment, rational, free-thought and open discussion, where ideas, differences and exchanges are aired openly in cross talk, which is not permitted in AA and 12-Step meetings. Many people, religious or non-religious, prefer the SOS forum, because it has a less rigid, more real and cult-free character and spirit, and encourages individuality and self-reliance.”
Yet another group, called LifeRing Secular Recovery, which split from SOS in 1997, today offers about 150 meetings in major cities across the United States, Canada, and Europe. The chief difference between the two is that, instead of using the standard SOS recovery handbook, LifeRing meetings center around a newer handbook by Nicolaus Martin, How Was Your Week? Bringing People Together in Recovery the LifeRing Way.
Whatever the book or God or way of not believing, academics seem to agree that what really matters is fully engaging in like-minded (and like-hearted) fellowship.
According to a 2007 study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, what seems to work best is for the recovering addict to gather in fellowship with other like-minded addicts:
“Survey data indicate that active involvement in support groups significantly improves one’s chances of remaining clean and sober, regardless of the group in which one participates. Respondents whose individual beliefs better matched those of their primary support groups showed greater levels of group participation, resulting in better outcomes as measured by increased number of days clean and sober.”
Clifford Beninger, founder of Secular Recovery Ottawa, recently told CBC News in Ottawa that he struggled with sobriety in the 12-step program for two decades of what he considers wasted time:
“Why should we have to wade through all of this religion to what’s really important? Young people who are walking into these meetings?are hearing the religious aspect and are walking out again…
“Some of them will stay, definitely, and some will benefit, but why should they have to get through that to get to exactly what you’re talking about: the peer support and the help they need?”
Though options are opening up for those who aren’t of the Christian faith, there’s still a lot of room in America and the world for these establishments to grow.
