Helping others has been an integral part of the folk wisdom about addiction recovery for more than 250 years. From early Native American recovery circles, early Euro-American recovery mutual aid societies and the 20th century advent of 12-Step recovery through the ever-widening menu of religious, spiritual and secular recovery pathways, the message has been clear: help yourself by helping others. The helping prescription is based on two core ideas. The first is the concept of wounded healer--the notion that people who have experienced and survived an illness or great trauma may have acquired unique perspectives that allow them to offer assistance to others in similar circumstances. The second is what sociologist Frank Riessman called the helper principle--the idea that the act of helping benefits the helper as much (or quite often more) than the person being helped. > > > > Read More
