For the past 25,000 or so years of human history, people have been finding ways to get intoxicated, and for nearly as long, they have been trying to stop. Many methods for recovery have been tried and failed or met with limited success. In May of 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was born when a stockbroker and reformed drunk from New York named Bill Wilson met Dr. Bob Smith (another drunk) in Akron, Ohio. They discovered that the idea of one alcoholic talking to another went a long way towards keeping them sober. It became the first structured psychosocial program to treat alcoholism, and to this day remains the most widely used methodology for recovery from chemical and behavioral addictions worldwide.

The twelve steps have helped countless numbers of alcoholics and addicts get sober and on the road to recovery and, when combined with psychotherapy, exponentially increases the odds against relapse.

Psychodrama is a role playing method of therapy developed by J.L. Moreno in turn of the century Vienna. Recent research in neurobiology along with a deepened understanding of how emotion is processed by and stored in the body, have paved the way for a method of therapy that allows the body to participate in the therapeutic milieu. Another window into the necessity of a mind/body form of therapy comes to us through the growing body of research in trauma and an increased awareness of how the mind and body process fear and pain.  A third driving force in the popularity of psychodrama is that it is relational and allows for complexes and conflicts to be concretized by casting group members to play roles from the life of the protagonist. “By the group they were wounded, by the group they shall be healed” says Moreno. Psychodrama allows for resolution through action insight rather than talk alone. Through role play, thinking, feeling and behavior emerge simultaneously in an interactive process, to allow a fuller picture of what is being carried in the psyche to come into view.

Addiction has devastating effects on all who become addicted, but adolescents are especially vulnerable to the disease. The behaviors and thought processes associated with adolescence create a need for a specialized treatment to be effective.  Between peer pressure, awkward phases, bullying, academic pressures and athletic pressures, teens in modern society have many reasons to seek the escape of mood altering substances.  In recent years, the growing popularity of prescription pain killers and sedatives has exacerbated the problem of teenage addiction.

Jewish drug treatment, like many other targeted treatment methodologies, can be effective for any addict seeking recovery, but focuses special attention on Jewish beliefs and spirituality. For most faith based drug treatment programs, addicts do not necessarily need to be of any specific faith, but rather have a general desire to seek out spirituality in the process of their recovery.

A two-year study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found that:

• Adults and teens who consider religion to be very important, and who attend religious services weekly or more often, are far less likely to smoke, drink, or use elicit drugs.
• Individuals who attend spiritually based support programs, such as the 12-Step programs of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, are more likely to maintain sobriety.
• Individuals in successful recovery often show greater levels of faith and spirituality than those who relapse. 

Over recent years, numerous studies have been conducted to examine various kinds of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, including women's recovery.  It has been found that women tend to heal very differently than men, which was no real surpirse, giving way to gender specific drug and alcohol treatment.  Women's recovery tends to happen more smoothl and comfortably when it is done among other women, increasing the trust and commonality within the group.  This article explains the scientific data behind these studies into women's recovery as well as more information about some of the drug and alcohol rehabilitation options within geneder specific guidelines.