A Taylor Swift-themed addiction recovery group started in Philly and became ‘a community with the vibe of a Taylor concert’

Julianne Griffin read the first verse of Taylor Swift’s song “Style” to a Zoom room filled with more than a dozen Swifties in varying stages of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

Swifties suspect that the lines about long drives that could end in “burning flames or paradise” are a reference to a post-breakup tryst with Harry Styles. But, as Griffin explained, to her they are also a powerful metaphor for both self-sabotage and the compulsion to use.

Griffin is the founder of Blank Space Recovery, a recovery mentor service that hosts Swift Steps, a virtual support group for Swifties overcoming addiction.

The group — which has blossomed to nearly 640 members on Facebook since it was founded in January — meets virtually four times a week. Griffin uses a mix of Swift’s songs, lore, and guest speakers to start conversations about tough topics in recovery, such as overcoming the boredom of a healthy routine or accepting your selfishness. In between, Swifties from across the United States use the Facebook group to discuss Swift’s music and solicit support from peers.

Members say the group’s non-judgmental nature has made it a cornerstone of their recovery, with the Swift connections rendering it a safe space. Clinicians, meanwhile, view Swift Steps as a strong supplement to traditional 12-step programs, which can sometimes dissuade people from returning with their rigidity and religiosity.

“It’s brilliant,” said Eric Zillmer, a psychologist who worked in hospital recovery units before becoming the director of Drexel University’s Happiness Lab. “People with substance use disorder can feel alone … so to create a platform where people feel comfortable sharing under a cultural phenomenon driven by authenticity is fantastic.”

The group also represents its most important guideline: Remember that there’s no one way to recover.

Swift’s music is innately personal yet customizable. Her songs unleash disparate interpretations that have helped fans through cancer diagnoses, the whiplash of immigrating to America, and miscarriages, among other traumas. These bonds have also made Swifties a reciprocal and powerful fandom, Zillmer explained.

Because Swift has given them so much, Swifties feel called to help each other, making Swiftie-dom a natural breeding ground for support groups.

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Griffin trained to become a certified peer specialist after entering recovery from opiate and benzodiazepine addiction in 2016. She created Swift Steps and tapped her friend Emily Bee to help with community management after tailgating the Eras Tour at Lincoln Financial Field last year.

“It didn’t come to me that night, but I did think, ‘What if there was a recovery community with the vibe of a Taylor concert, where everyone’s accepted?’” Griffin said.

Cindy Shearer, a Swiftie from Grand Rapids, Mich., who has been in recovery from alcoholism since 2022, attends Swift Steps meetings regularly. The group reminds Shearer of how far she’s come from the loneliness she felt when she first got sober, since Shearer said many of her friends were “heavy drinkers.”

“I had a lot of FOMO, but I always had Taylor to listen to, which made me feel less lonely,” said Shearer. With Swift Steps, “knowing that everyone has this obsession with Taylor, there’s no judgment factor about anything.”

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Both Zillmer and Griffin believe Swift Steps is the first recovery community of its kind, but online music fandoms have always been “a place where people make sense of stigmas,” according to Jessa Lingel, an associate professor of gender studies and communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where she researches digital culture.

Some of the first messages sent on ARPANET — the internet’s predecessor — were from Grateful Dead fans and people discussing STDs, Lingel said. And Swift’s music recently elicited discourse around addiction after she referred to herself as a “functioning alcoholic” on “Fortnight,” the opening track on The Tortured Poets Department.

These stigmas can still crop up in recovery communities such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous that, while effective at ushering in long-term sobriety, can also be hostile to people who use medically assisted treatment (MAT) or those who want to leave religion out of recovery.

“For some people, [12 step] lifts them up. For others it can be isolating,” said Zillmer.

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Griffin stopped attending 12-step meetings a year into recovery. “I was told I wasn’t sober for using MAT,” Griffin said. She was placed on the treatment after overdosing on Dec. 13, 2015 — Swift’s birthday, but also near the 19th anniversary of Griffin’s father’s fatal overdose.

Both her parents dealt with addiction, Griffin said. She vilified them until she was prescribed opiates for back pain and didn’t want to stop taking them. Griffin’s mother has now been in recovery for eight years, Griffin said, and was Swift Steps’ first guest speaker.

Shearer said the group’s open nature has encouraged her to recommend it to others, including a member of her in-person LifeRing group.

“She didn’t talk much during [LifeRing] meetings, but as soon as I mentioned that Swift Steps existed, she was so chatty,” said Shearer. “It’s like a gateway. We build this connection over Taylor Swift. … Then we have the harder conversations.”

Swift Steps’ success has as much to do with its come-as-you-are mission as it does Swift herself.

“Swift is so culturally irresistible, but also amazingly authentic and so positive. She communicates a message of hope,” Zillmer said. “That’s not a message the Beatles were playing with.”

Swift Steps member Brontë Oldham wishes the group had been around when she became sober in 2022. An “accidental Swiftie” who got heavily into Swift’s music with the release of Midnights, Oldham said the group’s focus on fandom gave her a new perspective on addiction.

“Liking a celebrity is really lonely, just like addiction. Your family, or boyfriend, or whoever … they don’t always understand how you feel,” Oldham, who lives in Canada, said while recounting how her mother and boyfriend like to joke that her love of Swift is childish or “so college.”

Swift Steps, meanwhile, feels “like a group of friends hanging out together.”

Some of those friends aren’t necessarily in recovery.

Griffin’s friend and community manager Bee has never struggled with substance use, but her older sister Lawrie died of an overdose when Bee was 11.

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“I’ve carried a lot of guilt with me,” said Bee, who thinks about Lawrie every time she listens to “Bigger than the Whole Sky” from Midnights. Moderating the group has helped Bee understand what Lawrie went through.

Swift Steps “connects me to [my sister],” said Bee, who is from Northeast Philly.

Griffin, who works in finance, hopes Swift Steps can become her full-time job. Right now, Griffin sells Etsy merch and offers one-on-one mentorship sessions to offset costs.

“We’re all living by Taylor’s example. She’s not scared to be messy,” said Griffin “In recovery, we have messy paths. We have regrets, and that’s OK. We can turn them into something better.”