How the Satanic Temple helped this Fresno-area woman’s recovery from heroin, meth addiction

Stephanie Hahn carries around a paperback copy of the “Satanic Bible.”

It’s well read.

The cover is missing and large sections have come apart. Every page is covered in multiple colors of highlighted passages. The book is one of the few possessions the Hanford native managed to keep through years of an alcohol and drug addition that took most everything else — her job, her home and even her children.

It’s also a symbol of her recovery.

Hahn is now living in Fresno and is 135 days sober, a fact she owes to the Satanic Temple and its Sober Faction program.

The Satanic Temple is a nontheistic religious and human rights group that has gained national attention for its political lobbying in defense of religious freedoms. The group has filed lawsuits in multiple states, including Arkansas, where it tried to get a statue of Baphomet placed on the grounds of the state capitol.

Recently, it helped start After School Satan Clubs in several school districts in the Midwest.

“Sober Faction began as an unofficial Satanic recovery group when some members of the Satanic Temple saw the need and began organizing ideas of what Satanic recovery meetings would look like,” says the program’s co-director, Joe Dee.

It became one of the Temple’s official campaigns in April 2021 and currently has close to 4,000 members in its private Facebook group. The program offers weekly meetings, conducted by trained facilitators, plus daily meetings with its online community, Dee says.

There is also that Facebook group, where members can find 24/7 support, they say.

Meetings are currently offered via Zoom and carried out in much the same way as other recovery programs.

There are differences, of course.

The program doesn’t have 12 steps. Instead, it operates under Seven Tenets with Seven Rituals, things like practicing “continual introspection and mindfulness,” “striving towards self-actualization,” and seeking knowledge on a “path to act and respond ethically and responsibly in all things.”

There is no Big Book, but members do have a recovery tome, where they record their progress through the rituals.

Hahn’s tome is a worn-in journal her daughter would scribble in during visits with Child Protective Services. The first few pages are filled with a child’s drawings; then with Hahn’s daily thoughts.

Sobriety is marked with numbered chips, much like Alcoholics Anonymous, but given out at 66 days, six months and 666 days.

“Most peer support groups owe a lot to traditional 12 step programs and that model,” Dee says.

This is a structured process of support, and coping skills, based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Motivational Enhancement Techniques, all offered in a compassionate, supportive community of peers striving for self-empowerment and continual betterment, Dee says.

“How we differ, is that we recognize that there is no one correct way to ‘do’ recovery. We promote science and self-empowerment as opposed to a supernatural force that will remove our defects.”

There is also no hierarchy in Sober Faction, so no sponsors or sponsees like in AA. Instead, the program encourages participants to work with whomever they feel comfortable.

And members don’t have to be Satanists. In fact, most members come to Sober Faction without knowing anything about the temple or the religion.

“We have an extremely diverse community,” Dee says, one with an “open-mindedness and non-judgmental attitude.“

“We are truly a community where people feel comfortable and safe being their authentic selves.”

That was true for Hahn, who had attended other 12-step and faith-rehab programs and never had the sense of support she got in one meeting with Sober Faction.

“It was the most amazing feeling of community,” she says.

“I experienced true compassion and empathy from people who I’d never met.”

Sober Faction is now part of a mandated rehab plan for Hahn. She currently attends meetings — once, sometimes twice, a day — in conjunction with an outpatient program in Fresno that administers court-ordered drug testing.

The program can sign off on court-ordered meetings and is acceptable for court-mandated rehab, Dee says, though it can take some work depending on the jurisdiction. Dee wrote a letter of support in Hahn’s case, attesting to the temple’s status as a tax-exempt religious organization and to Hahn’s consistent attendance at meetings.

Hahn remembers being two weeks sober with a warrant for her arrest. Her children had been taken by CPS and the case turned over to the adoptions unit. “I couldn’t be the person I wanted to be without being sober,” she says.

Through her recovery with Sober Faction she is no longer holding on to guilt or anger and has been able to take accountability for her past choices. And she’s gained back some of what she lost.

Hahn was told just last week that she could retain parental rights of her children and while they are still under the guardianship of their grandparents, she has the chance to eventually get them back.

She would not have that chance if it wasn’t for the support she found through the Satanic Temple and Sober Faction, she says.

“That was the missing piece I needed in my recovery.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 6:35 AM.