Substance Abuse, Recovery and Closeness to God: Insights from the Retrospective Interview Technique

Abstract

Two research questions guide the study reported in this chapter: (1) How does one characterize spirituality and religious belief; and (2) What is the relationship among spirituality, religious belief, conversion, and recovery over different times, people, contexts, and life events? A review of religiousness, spirituality, lived religion, conversion, and recovery provides context for the first question. Of particular importance is a focus on lived religion. These questions will be directly addressed through case study narrative analysis applied to interview data of two university students collected through semi-structured interviews following the Retrospective Interview Technique (Baxter and Bullis, Turning points in developing romantic relationships, Human Communication Research, 12(4), 469–493, 1986). These case studies paid particular attention to the role of conversion and lived religion in recovery from substance use and abuse.