Broadening the Base of Addiction Mutual Support Groups

Mutual-help groups have proliferated, diversified and adapted to emerging substance-related trends over the past 75 years, and have been the focus of rigorous research for the past 30 years. This book reviews the history of mutual support groups for addiction that have arisen as adjuncts or alternatives to Twelve Step Programs, including secular mutual support groups like Secular Organization for Sobriety, Smart Recovery and Women for Sobriety, and faith-based mutual support groups like Celebrate Recovery. It also considers the mutual support groups attended by families and friends of addicts. These mutual support groups are examined in terms of their histories, theoretical underpinnings and intended communities. The structures common in mutual support groups have influenced the rise of a new recovery advocacy movement and new recovery community institutions such as recovery ministries, recovery community centers, sober cafes, sober sports clubs, and recovery-focused projects in music, theatre and the arts. This volume explores how collectively, these trends reflect the cultural and political awakening of people in recovery and growing recognition and celebration of multiple pathways of long-term addiction recovery. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Groups in Addiction and Recovery.

Jeffrey D. Roth is Editor of the Journal of Groups in Addiction and Recovery and the author of Group Psychotherapy and Recovery from Addiction: Carrying the Message. He is the medical director of Working Sobriety Chicago, an outpatient treatment program for addiction. William L. White is a Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems in the USA. John F. Kelly is Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, USA, Program Director of the Addiction Recovery Management Service and Associate Director of the Center for Addiction Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA.

1. Introduction: The Promise of Mutual Support Jeffrey D. Roth 2. Broadening the Base of Addiction Mutual-Help Organizations John F. Kelly and William L. White Part I: Mutual Support Groups Outside of Twelve Step Programs 3. SMART Recovery: Self-Empowering, Science-Based Addiction Recovery Support Tom Horvath and Julie Yeterian 4. Empowering Your Sober Self: The LifeRing Approach to Addiction Recovery Martin Nicolaus 5. Moderation Management: A Mutual-Help Organization for Problem Drinkers Who Are Not Alcohol-Dependent Anna Lembke and Keith Humphreys 6. Women for Sobriety: 35 Years of Challenges, Changes, and Continuity Rebecca M. Fenner and Mary H. Gifford Part II: Mutual Support Groups for Addiction for Specific Populations 7. Ethnic-Specific Support Systems as a Method for Sustaining Long-Term Addiction Recovery Arthur C. Evans, Jr, Ijeoma Achara-Abrahams, Roland Lamb and William L. White 8. Methadone Anonymous and Mutual Support for Medication-Assisted Recovery Walter Ginter 9. Mutual-Help Groups for People With Co-Occurring Disorders Joan E. Zweben and Sarah Ashbrook 10. Giving Back and Getting Something Back: The Role of Mutual-Aid Groups for Individuals in Recovery From Incarceration, Addiction, and Mental Illness Chyrell D. Bellamy, Michael Rowe, Patricia Benedict and Larry Davidson Part III: Mutual Support Groups for Addiction - Generalizing the Principles 11. Use of Mutual Support to Counteract the Effects of Socially Constructed Stigma: Gender and Drug Addiction Jolene M. Sanders 12. Youth Participation in Mutual Support Groups: History, Current Knowledge, and Areas for Future Research Lora L. Passetti, Susan H. Godley and Mark D. Godley 13. Al-Anon Family Groups: Origins, Conceptual Basis, Outcomes, and Research Opportunities Christine Timko, L. Brendan Young and Rudolf H. Moos 14. New Addiction-Recovery Support Institutions: Mobilizing Support Beyond Professional Addiction Treatment and Recovery Mutual Aid William L. White, John F. Kelly and Jeffrey D. Roth