If you’re moving into recovery, you’ll have a choice of faith and non-faith-based recovery centers. This means you’ll have to make a choice between what kind of recovery center you choose. And, if you want God to be a part of your recovery and your return to health, you’ll have to actively choose that – now, or in the future. Today, some 73% of all recovery centers in the United States use a faith-based approach. Some of those do so fairly lightly, with access to 12-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. Others directly integrate service, prayer, and talking to God into treatment. So you’ll have options even inside of faith based recovery.While you can choose whatever you want, there are plenty of reasons you’ll want to look into faith-based recovery.
Evidence-Based Treatment
Most non-faith-based treatment programs try to advertise based on the fact that they are evidence-based. However, faith-based treatment also uses evidence-based treatment including medication as part of treatment. The difference is that faith-based care adds spirituality, prayer, and faith on top of your treatment, so you get that extra level of care and support. It’s not instead of the evidence-based treatment, it’s in addition to it. That means you don’t lose anything by choosing faith-based treatment and instead get to incorporate spirituality and work on healing at an even deeper level.
Talking to God from Day One
Most people find that faith is an important part of their recovery and their life. Getting to talk to God gives you insight into who you are, who you want to be, and where you’re going. It gives us motivation, peace, calm, and acknowledgement of the fact that we are loved. Incorporating that into your treatment from day one means that you will benefit from that from day one. Many of us in recovery are resistant to God and to faith. Yet, the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be able to acknowledge God and His presence in your life. For many people, that becomes a powerful reason to choose a better path.
Finding Motivation
Faith-based recovery treatment puts the focus on you, your future, your spirituality, and your relationship with God. It’s not asking you to get better for physical goals. It’s asking you to evaluate yourself in God’s eyes and to take steps to work on that. It’s asking for self-evaluation, honesty, and acknowledgement that although you have strayed you can always take steps to re-find the path and to welcome God into your heart. For many of us, that’s more powerful of a motivator than any amount of information about how we will be healthier, better able to hold a job, or that we’ll live longer. Of course, your family and your friends should still play a role, they are part of you. But getting to honestly acknowledge who you are and how you feel about yourself and honestly acknowledge where you need help is an important part of recovery for many people.
Experiencing Gratitude
A large element of finding yourself in recovery is realizing that you can appreciate the little things, that you can realize you can be happy with things that don’t matter, and that you can experience joy at things. It means switching focus away from and things that happen and towards good things that happen. That attitude of gratitude will help you to find positivity and joy in your daily life. And, faith actively asks you to look for it, it gives you tools to look for it, and it helps you to look for it by sharing it with others. It’s hard not to find things to be grateful and thankful for when you’re sitting down with a group every day to share the good things that happened, to talk about them, and to help each other recognize them. That act of practicing gratitude can be immensely helpful to feeling better about yourself, your life, and where you’re going. And that’s important for rebuilding your self-esteem, your confidence in yourself, and your knowledge that you don’t need drugs or alcohol.
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Getting Guidelines and Guidance
One of the hardest things about recovery is that we’re expected to find ourselves. We’re expected to find a new path. We’re expected to find motivation, gratitude, things to love. We’re expected to rebuild our sense of self and our sense of responsibility – after drugs and alcohol took those things away. Faith gives you a framework, a structure, a moral guideline to work from. It gives you steps to follow, people to talk to, help with your goals, people to lean on. The simple act of having real guidelines around your recovery can be an immense step in helping you to make it into recovery and stay there.
Having guidelines on what it means to be a good person, where to go when you’re struggling, who to talk to when you need help, where to ask for help and how to do it can all be lifesaving.
Understanding You’re Not Alone
Struggling with a substance use disorder alienates you from everyone. It disengages you from your body, from your social life, from your relationships, and from everything you love. It can make you feel entirely alone. Moving into a group of your peers, a group of people who have been to the same lows you have, can help with losing that feeling. But getting to talk to God, getting to feel loved, and getting to feel like you are part of the greater whole of your congregation will do so much more. You’ll have someone to talk to whenever you need to, you’ll have someone to have obligations to whenever you need them, you’ll have someone to be accountable for, and you’ll have a friend who will be there with you however you progress through recovery. For many people, that realization is one of the most important aspects of choosing a faith-based treatment center. You’re not alone because God is always there with you – no matter what.
Getting Help
Most treatment centers offer some form of faith-based recovery. However, many of them offer simple 12-step additions to their treatment. If you want a more in-depth faith-based program you’ll have to look for it. Often, that will mean choosing a program that offers a Christian approach to addiction treatment alongside cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, and group support. That means you get the best of both worlds, with medical treatment and support and full emotional and spiritual support from your new congregation.
Choosing to move into a faith-based program means you’ll get help and you’ll talk to God from day one of your treatment. The people around you will be as invested as you are. And, that’s an important part of getting help and taking steps to improve your life. Good luck with your treatment and your recovery.
If you or your loved-one struggles from alcoholism or other substance abuse please contact us today and speak with one of our experienced and professional intake advisors about our alcohol rehab, detox, partial hospitalization, and residential treatment programs. 10 Acre Ranch also has specialty tracks like our pet friendly drug rehab and couples substance abuse treatment programs. We’re here to help you recover.
