Recovery and spiritual transformation among peer leaders of a modified methadone anonymous group.
This analysis of five recovery narratives from leaders of a peer-led, 12-Step-based self- help group in a methadone treatment program highlights the importance of spiritually-mediated role transformation in the recovery process. For these men and women in their forties and fifties, their progression to a leadership role helping others with their recovery validated the spiritual transformation they regarded as underlying their own recovery process. Assumption of this new leadership/helper role marked a tangible sign that their deepened spirituality allowed them to assume a new, higher function in a struggle with the addiction that had plagued their lives. For these peer leaders, methadone was at the core of the group experience and an aid to spiritual transformation.
Glickman
Linda
L
Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical Center/ Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY 10016, USA. L.Glickman@med.nyu.edu
Galanter
Marc
M
Dermatis
Helen
H
Dingle
Shannon
S
D000851:Anonyms and Pseudonyms; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D029181:Spirituality
D008691:Methadone