Many who have a family member or loved one who is addicted to drugs or alcohol often ask the question, “Is a faith-based treatment model best for my addicted loved one?” Remember, if you have a faith of some kind or another that does not necessarily mean that a faith-based approach will be best for your loved one. However, when all the cards are on the table this is an all-around stellar approach to intervention whether one is particularly religious or not.
How Faith-Based Intervention Works
Faith-based intervention is ultimately reliant upon inviting the addicted person to live an active faith-based lifestyle that can use faith to win against addiction. For the addict himself or herself, sobriety can be the ultimate and final result of personal accountability and reflection through embracing personal spirituality in a new and guided way so as to effect permanent and lasting change.
What this all boils down to is that the issues regarding addiction are addressed piece by piece and this model ultimately seeks to really focus on solutions to problems to prevent addictive and further destructive behaviors in the future, all while strengthening and solidifying faith. The addict really does become aware through family, Church, counseling, and peer therapy that the old ways of dealing with life through drugs and alcohol were not adequate ones and the way to live different is to get rid of drug and alcohol dependency once and for all.
Some of the aspects applied to a faith-based intervention are:
• Church
• Family
• Personal Spirituality
• God or other higher power
• Religious Community
Why You Should Give this Model a Shot
Sometimes it’s hard to see the silver lining, but successful drug and alcohol treatment is possible within the system that we live in. Faith-based intervention and rehab though has been proven to slow down addiction, reduce crime and stop the spread of intravenously contracted infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis among others. These treatment programs help substance-abusing criminals and individuals alike to change their attitudes and behaviors toward drug abuse all together, to avoid relapse, and to avoid situations that trigger substance abuse and associated criminal behaviors of one kind or another. Indeed, for every dollar spent on addiction treatment programs, there is approximately a $4 to $7 decrease in the cost of drug-related crimes! Studies also go on to indicate that substance abuse treatment in criminals and drug users alike can reduce drug abuse by 50 percent, reduce criminal activity up to 80 percent, and reduce arrests up to 64 percent and no less. These methods really do help.
Religious individuals tend to really pay attention to and do something very special with each and every holiday. In addition to normal and typical day to day problems that might inspire varying degrees of substance abuse, the holiday season, (between Thanksgiving and New Year’s in the United States), is easily the most dangerous time of year for anyone trying to maintain sobriety from an addiction and for those driving on highways too. In fact, more alcohol-related traffic fatalities are reported between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than during any other time of year. By some estimates in fact, Americans can expect to witness 1,200 alcohol-related traffic fatalities and 25,000 traffic injuries during the holiday season alone. Additionally, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, (MADD), reported to us recently that 52 percent of motor-vehicle fatalities on Christmas Day and 57 percent of motor-vehicle fatalities on New Year’s Eve/Day are directly attributable to alcohol. This is a grim and saddening dampener on holiday spirits, and it affects religious families way more than others.
If you and your whole family are quite religious, then this is probably the best method to go for. It really does utilize a lot of key and wonderful aspects to it that all result in a strong and lasting change in the individual who is addicted. With this intervention model, addiction in your loved one can be broken once and for all.
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