Recovery theories and models

Many urban missions and churches around the country provide faith-based solutions to drug problems. Anecdotal data suggest that some people find recovery from drug problems in this way, but a scientifically controlled study of these approaches has not been completed to see how many people really do benefit from them. The federal government has become more interested recently in some of these approaches, but we still are not sure how effective they are, nor are we sure whether they would be effective with people who do not share the religious model being espoused. 

As alluded to at the beginning of this section, traditional Minnesota-model treatment merges the disease model with the spiritual model. Since within this model the disease has no known cure, a spiritual solution has taken on importance. Because of this, disease-model counselors refer people to 12-step support groups for continued recovery. Some treatment centers even have spiritual counselors who work with clients on spiritually related goals listed in the treatment plan. This arrangement provides a great service to the many people with drug problems who have spiritual doubts or problems. However, it has been my experience that not everyone who enters treatment feels he or she has a spiritual problem. 

A third way to conceive of a drug problem is as a family problem rather than an individual problem. This model draws from the tradition of family therapy, which sees client problems as a symptom of a system-wide problem within the 

A fourth way to conceive of a drug problem is to consider it as a behavioral disorder. Many psychologists and other mental health professionals operate within this model. The typical treatment within this model involves individualized therapy with a psychotherapist. Three common avenues for treating a drug problem as a behavior disorder include behavior modification, cognitive modification, and skills training these techniques have been described previously, so I will not describe them again here. 

One of the earliest forms of treatment conducted within this model was called aversion therapy. The idea was to pair drug use with a really nasty consequence 

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Your therapist or counselor can provide you with information from this book and other sources about different recovery theories and models. This information may help you decide which support group, if any, would benefit... 

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