Beliefs Help Kick the Drug Habit

In the long, challenging road to recovery from drug addiction, who is most likely to continue to remain drug free, seeking support from Narcotics Anonymous? Former addicts with stronger spiritual beliefs tended to be the most faithful attenders of Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings, found researchers at London?s Centre for Research on Drugs and Health. This had direct implications for recovery because, "NA attendance was associated with reduced drug use," or relapse, they noted.

Interviewed six months after they had successfully stayed off drugs for six weeks, the recovering addicts with stronger spiritual beliefs were not only more likely to remain involved in NA, but also tended to view a potential future relapse as something for which they would be personally responsible. Willingness to accept personal responsibility helps curtail future drug use, the investigators noted.

Consequently, the researchers found that spirituality does not encourage passive helplessness, but on the contrary encouraged clients to take more personal responsibility for staying off drugs.

"We found no evidence to suggest that clinicians should discourage spiritual beliefs on the assumption that these might...create helpless 'victims of circumstance,'" the researchers stated. In fact the findings of this study showed the opposite.

Knowing God is healthy in a number of ways.