title: Alcohol recovery and spirituality: strangers, friends, or partners?
abstract: Alcoholics Anonymous, with its steady but nonspecific promotion of belief in a higher power and its emphasis on the group process, long held a near-monopoly in the outpatient alcohol recovery field, but its hegemony has now been challenged by two very different perspectives. The first is a nonspiritual approach that emphasizes the individual's capability to find a personal pathway to sobriety, exemplified by Rational Recovery. The second is a faith-based method, built on a religious understanding of alcoholism, of which Celebrate Recovery is a prominent example, based upon Christianity. Most communities offer a variety of approaches, so clinicians who are aware of these differences are in a good position to help patients make intelligent choices among the competing recovery philosophies.
authors.affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, 3701 Kirby Drive, Suite 600, Houston, Texas 77098, USA. anthonyb@bcm.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Anthony E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Simon N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Whitney
authors.forename: Max A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Charles P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Vega
mesh_terms: D000436:Alcoholics Anonymous; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D029181:Spirituality; D014481:United States