I recently watched a video of a talk given by founder of the Recovery Research Institute, Dr. John Kelly. The talk was excellent, and was very understandable for an explanation of scientific research. As I watched it I was surprised how similar the content of his talk was compared to what I've observed about recovery. It was like was was speaking from my mind!
Dr. John Kelly is the founder and director the the Recovery Research Institute. In a keynote speech given to the National Service Recovery Forum, he spoke about a research survey he had been involved in. The talk is very interesting and cover wide reaching topics, but I was amazed by what he said about different paths to recovery.
Apparently, twelve step programs such as Celebrate Recovery, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous, appear to do better than more clinical methods of assisting with recovery. The clinical methods certainly help, and are very appreciated, but twelve step programs do very well in helping individuals to recover from various things.
Now, what about the twelve step programs make them do so well?
Apparently, the answer is: they connect people with other people. When people encounter others, it lets them know they are not alone. And they can see other progress in recovery, and meet those who have essentially completely recovered, and these connections give them hope.
Loneliness itself makes addictions worse, this is well known.
So essentially, the presence of other human beings, meeting and interacting them, is perhaps the most effective tool in a recovery. Recovering on your own is hard, perhaps impossible, in many situations. Recovering in the prescence of others is much easier.
And this is the exact thinking behind Connections in Christ!
We hope to connect people to each other so we can help each other grow in Christ and avoid stumbling into sin.
Thank you to Dr. John Kelly for his excellent talk, and for his work researching and working to help people recover. And thank you to everyone else who works in order to help other people recover and become all they were meant to be.
See Dr. Kelly's talk below:
To see the video on the Recovery Research Institute's website, click the link below:
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