Originally Posted by zerothehero

I think secular humanism is a good place to start for those who are secular humanists or folks who are simply not inclined to engage in religious or spiritual endeavors. In terms of recovery, this means each individual is responsible for his or her own actions, and that causes and consequences (in this case addiction) are seen as matters of natural science as opposed to any belief in divine intervention. In my case, for example, I could say that there is evidence that the trauma of my early life and my environment were contributing factors to my eventual addiction, but that repeated, chosen behaviors led to the development of strengthened neural pathways that eventually caused increased difficulty with moderation in relation to those habits or repeated behaviors. From a scientific or secular humanist point of view, overcoming addiction, then, is a matter of behaving differently in order to develop alternate neural pathways while weakening the pathways contributing to addiction. In other words, I may have been genetically and environmentally predisposed to develop addiction, but I chose the behaviors that led to the addiction and it is my responsibility to change my behaviors in order to recover from the addiction. From a secular humanist point of view there is no higher power, so recovery is entirely the individual's responsibility. That has been my stance for the past four clean and sober years. Meditation and mindfulness have certainly helped, but I had to develop the discipline to practice. Social support helped, but I had to be willing to seek it and accept it. Prayer may help (though I don't know to whom or what I would pray), but even then, it's up to the individual to choose to pray.