Aaron Betty | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Aaron Betty
Title: Addiction and Religion: Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery, and Side Effects
Major: Religious Studies
Minor: Urban Studies
Advisors: Jeremy Rapport; Terry Reeder

This study involves research using secondary sources and focuses on the relationships between substance use disorder recovery, religion, and spirituality. I dive into these issues by focusing on Alcoholics Anonymous and A.A.’s potential path to becoming an established religious organization. I also focus on religion as a substitute addiction and analyze if religion helps or hurts substance use disorder recovery. Religion proves to be generally helpful in recovery, but the risk of it becoming a substitute addiction is prevalent. Stigma and its negative effects on recovering from a substance use disorder are also discussed.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.