If the spirit is truly willing, perhaps the flesh is not so weak, after all.
Increased spirituality in teens undergoing substance abuse treatment
is associated with greater likelihood of abstinence (as measured by
toxicology screens), increased positive social behaviors, and reduced
narcissism, according to a study by researchers from The University of
Akron, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and Baylor University.
The study — part of CWRU’s “Project SOS” and “Helping Others Live
Sober” research initiatives, two ongoing studies of adolescent
addiction — explored changes in daily spiritual experiences of 195
substance-dependent adolescents, ages 14-18, who were court-referred
for treatment at New Directions, the largest adolescent residential
treatment facility in Northeast Ohio.
New Directions provides a range of evidence-based therapies, including
cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy, group
therapies, and relapse prevention and aftercare. New Directions uses
the 12-step recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous, which does not
require participants to hold any particular religious beliefs.
Researchers measured “daily spiritual experiences” independently of
“religious beliefs and behaviors.” Daily spiritual experiences are not
bound to any particular religious tradition and include reported
feelings of a divine presence, inner peace or harmony, and
selflessness and benevolence toward others.
The researchers found that, on the “religious beliefs and behaviors”
scale, adolescents reported a range of belief orientations at intake,
including atheist, agnostic, unsure, non-denominational spiritual or
denominational religious. The researchers also found that most of the
adolescents, regardless of their religious background or denomination,
reported having more daily spiritual experiences by the end of the two
month treatment period.
The study, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, is the first to
include detailed measures of both spirituality and religiosity as
independent variables at baseline and over the course of treatment,
while controlling for background characteristics and clinical
severity, says Co-Investigator Dr. Matthew T. Lee, professor and chair
of sociology at The University of Akron. Professor Lee also is vice
president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love.
Participants, most of whom were marijuana dependent (92%) with
comorbid alcohol dependence (60%), were interviewed within the first
10 days of treatment and two months later at treatment discharge.
Outcomes assessed included urine toxicology screens, alcohol/drug
craving symptoms, clinical characteristics, global psychosocial
functioning, spiritual experiences and religious behaviors.
Co-Investigator Dr. Byron R. Johnson, director of the Institute for
Studies of Religion and distinguished professor of the social sciences
at Baylor, notes that “although about a third of the teens
self-identified as agnostic or atheist at intake, two-thirds of whom
claimed a spiritual identity at discharge, a most remarkable shift.”
More important, these changes strongly predicted toxicology,
narcissism and positive social behavior, Lee says.
“The key message is that changes in spiritual experiences are
associated with better outcomes, including lower toxicology, reduced
self-centeredness, and higher levels of helping others,” Lee says.
The study, one of the few involving teens participating in Alcoholics
Anonymous, “supports the AA theory of addiction — which views
self-centeredness as a root cause — and suggests that this approach
would be helpful in designing treatment options for adolescents,”
Johnson adds.
The adolescents’ capacity to become more spiritual, and overcome
self-centeredness, evidences the malleability of personality and
belief orientation, Lee says.
“Contrary to the conventional wisdom,” he says, “personality is not
relatively fixed by late adolescence, and Axis II disorders such as
narcissistic personality disorder can improve. What this means is that
belief orientation, like personality more generally, is malleable.
Just because an adolescent is not spiritual prior to participating in
the treatment project, does not mean that they are incapable of
becoming spiritual. Our results demonstrate that if they do become
spiritual, they will tend to have much better outcomes.”
Principal Investigator Dr. Maria Pagano, associate professor of
psychiatry at CWRU’s School of Medicine, suggests that “changes in
spirituality during treatment may serve as the ‘switch’ that moves
youth off of the track of substance dependency and onto the track of
recovery and enhanced well-being, thereby countering harmful social
trends like youth unemployment and decreased volunteering that have
worked against addiction recovery.”
“In other words,” she adds, “change is possible and spiritual
experience may be the key. Hopefully our results will encourage other
researchers to further explore this thesis.” – Eurasia Review
