This essay is written to generate new ideas about recovery. I explore what works well in tradiional 12-step models, while also looking at where these programs might evolve. This is written to spark discussion and innovation, so I welcome any response or feedback.
I got clean on February 26, 2020. For almost 20 years, I tried to juggle conventional psychotropic approaches to my manic depressive symptoms with ongoing consumption of alcohol and many illicit mind-altering substances. I got clean through Narcotics Anonymous, and I am committed to this path for myself.
But over recent months, I have begun to ask myself about the potential for new approaches to addiction and other compulsive behaviors. I have been challenged by trying to support friends who struggle to remain abstinent from all substances or who have developed deep resentments towards behavioral and interpersonal norms in 12-step recovery circles. I have wondered about integrating insights from distinct 12-step fellowships, as well as the question of placing focusing on mental health and trauma at the center of recovery.
MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA
In Narcotics Anonymous, there is not a uniform approach to mental health. Most will encourage people to get professional help as they need it, but typically this mental health support is seen as an ‘outside issue’ and not as integral to recovery. There are also many people who view psychotropic medications as so adjacent to drug use that they should be avoided.
This perspective works for some people, but leads to a marginalization of issues that arise for people with acute mental health challenges. There are many ways to explore mental wellness, ranging from seeking a therapist or a coach to participating in group therapy. If medications seem useful, it is critical to forge an engaged and reciprocal relationship with a psychiatrist who is open to exploring the client’s lived experience.
In my experience, most recovery circles center trauma and emotional distress in helping people explain their path towards compulsive self-destructive behavior. Yet trauma healing is not explored systematically. Innovative somatic and embodiment approaches are not widely practiced. Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families has profound literature on emotional trauma that often transpires in families.
SIgnificant scientific research on the brain, the nervous system, trauma, and addiction has emerged since the advent of 12-step programs. Yet this information has never forged a re-evaluation of 12-step norms. We now know a lot about how the vagus nerve regulates the body. Breathwork aimed at recalibrating the polyagal system can affect anxiety and our ability to heal from trauma.
Trauma can be many things. The word derives from a Greek word for “wound.” Sometimes the trauma is physical or sexual violence. Sometimes it is emotional. We can carry emotional trauma if our families did not create safe space for sharing difficult emotions. Trauma is normative human experience that we are rarely given space to process. It is both an individual and collective wound.
CONCENTRIC CIRCLES
12-step fellowships focused on sexual compulsion or sex addiction tend to follow a step by step approach analogous to the practices of AA or NA. But these groups have also innovated by using a model of three concentric circles, or three columns, to integrate some harm reduction into the work.
Your inner circle are typically your red light baseline behaviors. Red light behavior is considered a relapse. The outer circle are healthy behaviors that participants are encouraged to do more of and lean into. The middle layer are slippery slope behaviors. With these a specific amount is considered within the plan, but too much is often considered a relapse.
I wonder about applying this to addiction. Perhaps there are people who can stay clean most of the time, but can indulge in a psilocybin trip once every 6 months. I have a close personal friend who dealt with severe addictions earlier in life and now lives productively while smoking cannabis upon occasion.
The black or white approach to whether someone is an addict makes sense for many people. But there is nuance that this approach tends to bulldoze. If we want to minimize the damage drugs do, perhaps some amount of harm reduction needs to be encouraged for people who cannot maintain total abstinence.
Amplifying the array of outer circle behaviors can be a joyful process. I encourage creative expression from visual art to poetry to journaling. Enjoying video content that is enlightening can be valuable. Physical exercise and healthy sexual practices can be elemental. Reading recovery literature, calling other people in recovery, and attending meetings are great tools. Once we start brainstorming, we realize that the possibilities are infinite.
INTEGRATING ACCOUNTABILITY
Over the past 20 years, participants in social movements and in work in marginalized spaces have developed a model for accountability processes when people cause harm. Transformative justice is a model for getting at the root of harm and helping people work on underlying patterns that lead to a recurrence of harm.There is sizeable literature on all of this as an alternative to either punitive judicial punishment or the social violence of cancel culture.
I wonder if this model could be helpful with addiction and the behaviors that often accompany drug use. An accountability process usually brings together a circle of engaged participants who are in relationships with the person who has caused harm. This accountability pod meets regularly to help a person who has caused harm to see root causes of problematic behavior. Accountability pods dig deep in order to generate ideas for qualitative transformation.
SYNCRETIC SPIRITUALITY
12-step recovery relies heavily on helping participants learn to listen to their higher power. These programs describe themselves as spiritual not religious. Participants are entitled to their own conceptions of a higher power. Identifying spiritual principles and exploring them has strengthened this process profoundly.
My curiosity is over whether exploring varying aligned spiritual paths might amplify this work. My own conception of spirituality is fueled by classic tantra, the gnostic tradition, and hermetic practice. The ‘Phoenix Recovery’ space could create conversations about different traditions and encourage a syncretic method. This is a term referring to the integration of concepts from varying sources into a spiritual vision that feels coherent.
SEXUAL RECOVERY
Addiction to substances often aligns with sexual practices that are compulsive or even predatory and abusive. There is small ecosystem of sexual recovery programs that vary based on their insistence on monagamy as the sole route to sexual integrity and on their openness to queer and trans experiences.
This world needs to be integrated with wider recovery work. But everyone in recovery needs to have an approach to recovering healthy sexuality. People who can achieve genuine pleasure and ecstasy are likely to seek more from life. When we own our sexual power, we are harder to manipulate either by toxic people or toxic social systems. Sexual healing can include exploring path-breaking erotic practices from the Taoist and Neo-tantric traditions. People seeking recovery might benefit from social circles exploring sacred sexuality or the wide array of consensual kink practices.
REHABILITATION TREATMENT AND RECOVERY HOUSING
For many people, stints in rehab or detox facilities are part of the process. Developing ways for these programs to dig as deeply as possible is critical. Too often, programming in rehab facilities is just ‘busy work’ without being tied to a longterm vision for transformation. When individuals leave treatment they often face limited options. Unless a person has family who can take them in, the best option is often dedicated housing for people recovery.
The challenge becomes creating space for people to move forward in an environment where honesty and vulnerabilty are welcome. Many recovery houses will automatically expel a member who relapses. It is important that recovery houses remain safe from active use, but making a relapse an expellable offense means that many people hide their relapses and do not share their experiences and seek support.
I wonder about creating new housing options. What if we had spaces that welcomed people recovering from addiction but including people who are not addicts or whose recovery is prolonged? What if on site support for mental health and addiction were integrated into public housing facilities.
CENTERING PHYSICAL HEALTH
Regular rigorous exercise is one of the best ways to give our brains the dopamine and adrenaline boost we used to get from drugs. Martial arts and yoga have the benefit of adding a spiritual dimension to physical engagement. I was trained in modern dance and ballet, and spent a couple of years as a dancer at clubs. For me, recovering my capacity to go out dancing without using has been important. There is something magical about a dance floor on fire where everyone is vibing and connecting.
Unfortunately, many people in recovery feel they go into collective dance spaces because of prevalence of intense substant use. We need to work towards spaces that compartmentize substance use in clubs, so that the wider space is safe for people in recovery. Dancing is joy and inner liberation.
Over recent years, adult sports leagues have expanded in many cities. The baseline benefit of exercise is exponentially amplified by being on a team and building healthy relationships. It is ironic that most of us play sports at some point in childhood or adolescence, yet most of us leave this in the past as adults. Sports are not just something to watch as spectors. They are a fore of nature calling for our participation.
CONCLUSION
This is merely a rough sketch of what it might look like to develop new models in recovery. i aproach this from a place of humility and curiosity. I welcome all ideas and suggestions. The world of 12 step recovery has transformed our ability to confront addiction. I am imagining wider circles of support and creative innovation that can strengthen this critical world of recovery.