I’ve previously voiced my concerns about the Rehab Industry and how (too often), religious doctrine is intertwined with the prescribed addictions recovery process.

Most recently, I highlighted how some people still consider that religion is a ‘clinical’ treatment. But, please note; none of my observations should be taken as an attack on any religion, nor should they be seen as disparaging of anybody’s individual beliefs.

I will always accept and support a person’s human-right to believe in whichever faith system they chose to follow. Just don’t tell them what to believe, because of your own belief structure. In light of my personal stance, I was clearly enthused by Paul Delaney’s recent Tweet (below).

The news item relates to the now commonplace process of; mandated attendance at AA meetings (or a similar mutual-aid resource), particularly but no logier exclusively, within the Americas. Court orders are increasingly awarded by the Judiciary to address the ‘criminality’ of people impacted by their substance use disorder. This process is (mostly) designed to provide ‘evidence’ of ‘engagement’ with a rehabilitative process.

I don’t necessarily subscribe to the overall efficacy of this mandated recovery, which is probably a good subject for a different blog post however; there is some value in the process, when applied appropriately. That said, it’s worthy of note; my bottom line is… people rarely achieve ‘recovery’ …unless they actually want to.

The particular news report (above) highlighted some of the common issues but, more importantly (for me), it also suggested there might now be some belated but positive forward thinking and progression.

Perhaps people impacted by addictions, in other jurisdictions across the world, will start to benefit from similar considerations?

I’m still unable to condone the fact; many addiction recovery support structures (and some clinicians), still expect their service-users to swallow that over-prescribed magic pill of ‘faith’ being a ‘clinical’ treatment process.

It’s as if the ‘industry’ is still inhabited by snake-oil salesmen, people who are happy to peddle witchcraft, as a ‘clinical intervention’ but why, when so many increasingly secular interventions are available? Options that are born in science. Today, more than a decade into the 21st century, the process [mandated AA attendance] is ridiculous. We should be and need to be better than this!