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.
