Teaching Recovery Heart and Soul - Thesis Example

In addition, individuals undergoing recovery may occasionally be faced with the challenge of how to deal with their feelings and emotions. Its definition, the heart, and soul approach as a recovery strategy refer to the incorporation of spirituality and mindfulness as therapeutic tools to enhance the recovery of drug addicts. On the other hand, spirituality can be defined as any practice that enables an individual to discover his or her being while mindfulness is all about purposeful paying attention to the present moment to enhance self-awareness. According to educator Parker, J. Palmer (2003), spirituality is an individual’s eternal yearning to connect to a higher power.

Several authors (George DuWors, 2011, Galanter, 2007, Avants, S. Kelly, 2011) have also defined spirituality as the belief in a higher purpose and meaning of life. Generally, the use of spirituality in the addiction recovery process is quite distinguished from religious-based sectarian practices and other theistic connotations. Davis (2010) argued that “the use of spirituality and mindfulness therapy in the recovery process of addicted adolescents and youthful students generally focuses on the spiritual side of addiction recovery by cultivating a belief in a higher being than one’s self to improve their emotional sobriety” (104). The two interrelated concepts are critically important pillars of the current holistic therapeutic approach used in the drug recovery process. For example, spirituality and mindfulness are increasingly becoming one of the most commonly used therapeutic options in the addiction recovery process of adolescents as a complement to the mainstream approaches.

The increasing use of spirituality and mindfulness in contemporary Western psychotherapy is particularly attributed to a diverse number of potential benefits offered by spirituality and mindfulness some of which include increased self-awareness, reduced relapse-provoking stressors, improved internal peace, and induced peace of mind. Although opponents of the approach often equated spiritual teaching with the imposition of religion on the students, spirituality does not always mean following a particular set of beliefs or religious doctrines. This project proposes a holistic addiction recovery therapy for adolescents involving the incorporation of a heart and soul approach to improving addiction recovery.

Drug and substance abuse in the United States is currently a major problem exacting nearly $600 billion every year in costs related to lost work productivity, crime, and healthcare (NIDA, 2014). For example, substance abuse in the United States has continued to claim many lives with approximately 88,000 lives currently being lost annually due to alcohol abuse (NIDA, 2014). This according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) makes alcoholism the third leading lifestyle cause of death in the nation. A survey in 2012 conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) indicated that nearly 23.9 Americans aged 12 and above (9.2% of the American population) were illicit drug users as shown below (NIDA, 2012).

In addition, the survey also revealed that drug and substance abuse was highest among adolescents, particularly those in their late teens and twenties. In 2012, 23.9 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds reported using an illicit drug in the past month.

However, there continues to be a significant treatment gap with only an estimated 2.5 million (1%) out of the 23.9 users of illicit drugs receiving treatment and successfully undergoing the recovery process (NIDA, 2014). In most affected individuals, alcoholism and addictive substance use often culminated in intense feelings of lack of purpose in life, alienation, loneliness, and helplessness. Although alcohol or drug dependence occurs as a result of a complex interaction of cultural, biological, psychological, and spiritual factors, most of the contemporary treatment modalities are psychosocial.