For many people entering rehab, the word “spirituality” sounds hopeful, a promise of peace, purpose, or some kind of inner calm. But for others, it lands like a gut punch. It reminds them of guilt, hypocrisy, or unanswered prayers. It triggers memories of church pews, moral lectures, or people who used religion as a weapon.
And yet, in most recovery programs, especially those rooted in the Twelve Steps, the concept of a “Higher Power” is unavoidable. You’re told to “turn your will over,” to “find faith,” to “let go and let God.” For some, this is transformative. For others, it feels like being asked to believe in something they already tried, and lost.
What happens when rehab’s spiritual message feels like another kind of hangover? When you want to heal, but you can’t buy into the faith everyone else seems to find so comforting? You’re not broken. You’re just allergic to blind belief. And that’s okay.
The Collision Between Religion and Recovery
Rehab isn’t church, but sometimes it feels like one. Group meetings begin with prayers. Step work references God. You’re told that “faith” is essential, and that “self-will” is the enemy. For someone who’s had a complicated relationship with religion, or no relationship at all, this can feel alienating. The language of surrender might sound like defeat. The insistence on belief might feel like pressure.
And in that environment, many people shut down. They stop engaging, not because they don’t want to heal, but because they don’t feel seen. They start wondering, If I don’t believe in God, can I still recover? The answer is yes. But it requires separating spirituality from religion, and understanding that belief doesn’t have to fit anyone else’s template.
The Origin of “Higher Power”, and the Misunderstanding Around It
The concept of a “Higher Power” comes from the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous, where the founders, who were both spiritual men, used the term to invite faith without prescribing a specific religion. It was meant to include everyone, not exclude anyone. “Higher Power” didn’t have to mean God. It could mean love, truth, nature, community, or simply something greater than the self-destructive ego that drove addiction.
But over time, many rehabs forgot that nuance. The phrase became shorthand for God, often delivered with religious overtones. For someone who’s been burned by religious hypocrisy, or who just doesn’t believe in a divine being, that message can backfire hard. You come to rehab to heal, not to be converted.
When Faith Feels Like Another Form of Control
Addiction thrives on control, trying to control feelings, people, and outcomes. Ironically, many recovery programs tell you that the solution is to surrender control completely. “Let go. Hand it over to your Higher Power.” For some, that idea is liberating. For others, it’s terrifying. Especially for people who’ve survived abuse, neglect, or trauma, surrender doesn’t feel like trust. It feels like danger.
When “faith” is presented as the only path forward, it can feel like another demand, another authority to submit to. You swapped your addiction for obedience. And that doesn’t heal, it just rebrands your dependence. True spirituality isn’t about giving up your power. It’s about rediscovering it, the quiet strength that exists underneath the chaos. The kind that doesn’t need a name or a sermon to feel real.
The “Fake It Till You Make It” Problem
Many people who struggle with the spiritual aspect of recovery are told to “fake it till you make it.” Say the prayers even if you don’t believe them. Act as if. But forced faith is hollow. It creates a performance, not a connection. You start mouthing words that don’t resonate, surrounded by people who seem to be having some transcendent experience that you just can’t access.
You begin to feel like the odd one out, the broken skeptic in a room full of believers. And instead of feeling inspired, you feel disconnected. You wonder if there’s something wrong with you for not feeling what they feel.
But the truth is, real spirituality can’t be faked. It has to emerge honestly, in its own time. It’s not about pretending to believe, it’s about finding what belief means for you.
The Spiritual Bypass
Sometimes spirituality in rehab gets used as an emotional shortcut. People say, “Just pray about it,” instead of, “Let’s talk about what’s really going on.” Pain is pushed aside in the name of faith. This is called spiritual bypass, using religious or spiritual ideas to avoid dealing with trauma, grief, or shame. It looks good on the outside, but it’s just another form of numbing.
You can’t meditate your way out of childhood abuse. You can’t pray away PTSD. You can’t chant your guilt into silence. You have to face it, not spiritually, but psychologically, emotionally, and physically.
When rehabs lean too heavily on faith without giving people real therapeutic tools, they end up replacing one illusion with another. Recovery becomes about appearing enlightened instead of becoming whole.
When “God Talk” Brings Up Old Wounds
For many addicts, religion was part of their trauma. Maybe they were shamed for being different. Maybe they were taught that suffering was punishment. Maybe they were told they were unworthy, sinful, or damned. So when someone in rehab says, “You just need to let God in,” what they hear instead is, You’re not enough as you are.
That’s why faith-based recovery can feel like emotional sandpaper, it rubs against wounds that haven’t healed yet. And when those wounds are triggered, some people walk out of treatment entirely. Not because they’re unwilling to recover, but because they feel unseen in their pain.
Recovery shouldn’t require belief in a system that once broke you. Healing should feel safe, not conditional on your theology.
Redefining Spirituality
So what if spirituality wasn’t about religion at all? What if it was simply about connection, to yourself, to others, to something beyond your immediate pain? Spirituality can mean standing barefoot in the grass and remembering that you belong to the world. It can mean writing in a journal until you feel human again. It can mean music, art, or nature. It can mean the deep silence that comes after chaos.
You don’t need to believe in God to find meaning. You just need to believe that something greater than your addiction exists, something worth fighting for, something worth living for. That’s your Higher Power. It’s not out there somewhere. It’s within you, waiting to be heard.
The Balance Between Science and Spirit
The best rehabs understand that recovery isn’t either/or. It’s not science or spirituality, it’s both. Addiction changes brain chemistry. It damages neural pathways linked to pleasure, reward, and emotion. That’s biology. But healing also involves rebuilding identity, trust, and meaning. That’s spirituality.
When science and spirituality work together, recovery feels grounded. The therapist helps you process trauma. The mindfulness session helps you breathe through it. The medication stabilises your brain, while the group gives you belonging. That’s how spirituality should work, not as a demand for faith, but as an invitation to feel connected again.
The Courage to Question
In some recovery spaces, questioning faith is treated like rebellion. You’re told to “keep an open mind,” but only if your openness leads to belief. Doubt is seen as resistance. But questioning is a form of honesty, and honesty is the foundation of recovery. You don’t have to censor your skepticism to heal. You can say, I don’t know if I believe in this. You can say, This language doesn’t work for me. You can even say, I don’t want a Higher Power right now.
Recovery isn’t about obedience, it’s about authenticity. The courage to question faith is the same courage it takes to question your addiction, both require confronting illusions and finding truth underneath.
You’re not faithless. You’re truthful. And that’s a spiritual act in itself.
Building a New Kind of Faith
Faith doesn’t have to mean religion. It can mean trust, in the process, in yourself, in the possibility that life can be different. The first time you wake up sober and face the day without escaping, that’s faith. The first time you tell the truth in therapy, that’s faith. The first time you reach out for help instead of running, that’s faith.
You don’t need to have blind belief. You just need to believe in small things, that growth is possible, that healing takes time, that you deserve peace. Those beliefs are enough to build on. Recovery is, in many ways, the slow reassembly of faith, not in a deity, but in life itself.
Making Space for Everyone in Recovery
The future of addiction treatment has to evolve beyond dogma. It has to create space for the believer and the skeptic, for the atheist and the spiritual wanderer. The question shouldn’t be, What do you believe in? but What helps you feel alive again?
For some, that’s prayer. For others, it’s poetry. For others still, it’s the sound of laughter after years of silence. Every one of those is sacred. Every one counts. Recovery doesn’t need a single path to meaning, it needs multiple doorways. The moment we stop forcing one version of faith, more people will walk through them.
The Real “Higher Power”
At its core, the Higher Power idea is about humility, recognising that you can’t heal alone. Whether that “power” is God, community, music, love, or truth doesn’t matter. What matters is that you stop isolating yourself in pain. The power that saves you doesn’t need a name. It just needs your willingness to connect.
So if you’ve ever sat in a rehab room and felt like the faith talk was pushing you away, remember this, you don’t need to borrow someone else’s God to recover. You just need to find what gives your life meaning, and protect it like it’s sacred.
Because in the end, that’s what recovery really is, the slow rediscovery of meaning, one honest breath at a time.