Discoveries this week.

SMART stands for "Self-Management And Recovery Training"

Training:
If you were told you were signed up for sex education, you probably be "ho hum"
If you were told it was "sex training" that would get your attention!
Training is hands on - how-to!

Self-Management:
Every day he complained "Not ham sandwiches again!!" as he opened his lunch.
After a month his friend said "Why don't you ask your wife to make different sandwiches for your lunch?"
The fellow replied "I make my own lunch!"
Keep doing the same things, how can the results be different?

Hierarchy of Values (HoV)
A lot of people ask the question "What is the meaning of life?"
What if you are the answer?
That answer might be found in you and what you hold dear.
In your HoV.

Optimism:
"The expectation that the future will be socially desirable, good and pleasurable."
E.g. "In uncertain times I normally expect good outcomes."

Flow:
"An intrinsically rewarding or optimal state that results from intense engagement with an activity."
Critical to this are the right balance between challenge and skill.

What really works for me?

Form a ten word sentence that makes complete sense and each word only has two letters:
"If it is to be, it is up to me!"

"Acceptance rather than resignation - means that I understand that something is what it is, but there just might be a way through it." - Michael J Fox

Focus on what I do want.
Critical information is how to stand up again once I have fallen.
My thoughts about myself and my circumstances are not truths.

"Peace, rather than being in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work, means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in my heart." - Rita Ghatourey

Slow Down
Develop Awareness
Cultivate the belief that change is possible.
Decide what matters.
When go astray, accept, repair, centre.

All behaviour is an attempt to meet a need.

Tenderness and weakness are companions of life - hardness and stiffness are companions of death.

Happiness has been indicated to be 50% Genes - 10% Life Circumstances - 40% Intentional Activity
What I do makes a difference!! Gene expression and my circumstances are also able over time to be changed.

What does it take to be happy and content?
"Bring the good of others to completion" - Confucius
"When you want others to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama

Drugs change the shape, structure, function of neurons.
The Brain is perhaps the "organ of behaviour."
I am a very active participant in how I feel.
My brain has no mechanism to remove drugs from receptors.

Drugs reduce dopamine receptors.
Brain and the body are one.

Conditioned Place Preference
Rats injected with an addictive substance tend to stay in the "room" in that part of the box they are put in. Conditioning. Pavlov's Dogs.

Break Point
A rat self injecting an addictive substance by pressing a lever.
Raise the number of lever presses before the drug is administered.
At a certain number the rat will lose interest. Break Point.

Self-Empowerment / Motivation to lower the break point.

Healthier Options / Healthier Thinking / Healthier Choices.

The brain becomes a co-conspirator in addictive behaviour.
- Learning and reinforcement areas activated after chronic drug use.

Neuroplasticity - Brain capable of changing Structure, Signalling, Gene Expression.

Brain takes time to heal - it DOES heal
4 months almost fully from cocaine.

Recurring Themes

SMART discourages the use of labels.

You are free to call yourself whatever you like, however the use of a label would indicate that I AM something rather than I am DOING something.

SMART has heaps of PEOPLE struggling with addictive behaviour but we don't have alcoholics and addicts - unless they wish to call themselves that.

It may be that this willingness to acknowledge this addictive behaviour, by calling oneself this, is an important step at some level - but I called myself that for years, without taking any steps at all to alter the situation.

The journey of sobriety is the roller coaster ride of all time - and I don't like roller coaster rides!! More a Ferris Wheel kind of person.

The fact that I found early sobriety incredibly difficult is a testament to how entrenched the habits were.

Yet I was able to break free using SMART tools and techniques - along with the support of those people on the site and the information on other recovery websites.

It was tough - however it was possible.

SMART is about Self-Empowerment - Recovery is still challenging.

The vast majority of people who enter SMART or AA seem to be struggle staying there and getting free of their addictive behaviour.

The bottom line still appears to be "whatever works, use it!"

The "use it" being the most important thing.

SMART is all about the use of tools and the managing of one's own recovery. ACTIVE processes that require commitment and some goal planning.

SMART works the best for me and I love the empowered, educated nature of it.

I still love some of the people in AA and I admire their compassion and humanity.

"Whatever works, use it!" - I sincerely hope it is used and will, therefore, work.

2 years and one month sober using mainly SMART.

Tools in a toolbox, unused, do not do much. ACTIVE recovery is what works.

It isn't so much what I KNOW that helps me to move forward in my recovery/discovery of self.

It is what I DO that makes the ONLY difference.

I prefer the empowered method of SMART and the use of tools to alter behaviours.

However, if you are looking at recovery, look for what WORKS for you!

It will only work, when I DO.

Do something different - get a different result!

I see a lot of people who talk to themselves in thoroughly inappropriate ways.

Please consider being kind to yourself and allowing recovery to take place, as you work towards it :)

Recovery/Discovery is about developing a constructive auto-pilot!

When does it alter from something that is a constant struggle to something that is automatic?

 

Probably an urge log would have helped me in this, however it got easier and easier until now I would have to DECIDE to use a substance in order to get started again - I have some things I would really like to get sorted, that are relatively IMPOSSIBLE in conjunction with substance use, before I get started down that path again.

 

I go to one AA meeting a week - a spiritual concepts meeting - and the rest of the week my recovery is SMART based.

 

I facilitate one on-line meeting a week and do one face to face - although may alter that to two a week.

 

Just came back from a conference where alcohol flowed like water and it was 10 times harder to get a soft-drink. Drinking was only a passing thought a few times - I can choose to let those thoughts pass right by, and I did.

 

Four paragraphs on Addiction Recovery from an email I received:

 

"I do not know how it works in the States but I know where I live (province of Quebec) things have changed in the last two years.  Our provincial government intervened and instilled strict regulations to in-patient treatment centres. Treatment centres are not allowed to boast or post success rates on their materials or websites.  The provincial government probably came to their senses that most centres were fabricating success rates with no concrete evidence. Our accreditation body was not only responsible to scratch out these fabricated success rates but also to make sure that rehab centres use therapies that are approved by our association of psychologist and addiction medicine.  12 steps is not therapy and cannot take place over psycho-educational groups.  When the accreditation process started a few centres did shut down.    

 

I work at an in-patient facility that solely uses CBT and other clinically proven treatment modalities. If we calculated our success rates based on abstinence when residents leave it would be low. Let's be honest, it is nearly impossible for someone to change a 25 year addiction in as little as 30 days in treatment. Most assume (esp. family members) who think that they are paying out of their pocket and sending their loved one away for 30 or more days that we have this magic wand and poof they are cured!  This is further from the truth. Even rehabs that offer proven methods like CBT are bound to have slips. It all comes to one thing; it is the nature of recovery.  Addiction recovery is a process not an event.   

 

I think the issue with rehabs is that it is not regulated.  I think it can be a dirty business as it preys on the weak and vulnerable.  I know there are rehabs that do good work and use scientifically proven therapies but it is up to the individual when they go home to continue to use the tools and support systems they learned in rehab. Often times they do not.

 

People would call us back after they used or relapsed and admitted they did not continue with therapy and support when they completed residential treatment.  They thought they were fine when they finished and were cured. Or some admitted that they were testing personal control and thought they could use (in moderation) again.  It takes some people slips and relapses to discover that recovery is a lifestyle change and long term commitment. Complacency is a huge problem and most at my meetings outside in-patient admit that it is their biggest fear."

Science has studied Addiction Recovery but it has never studied ME!

That is my job - to work out what works best for me and to establish ways to effectively use these things and build on them.