Alcohol & Health
Treatment
Helping Alcoholics
Medically Reviewed by Annamarie Coy, BA, ICPR, MATS
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SMART Recovery is a secular non-profit organization that supports people with addiction. SMART stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training.
Like AA, the goal of SMART Recovery is to support people in their recovery. They do this by promoting healthy life choices, self-reliance, and self-empowerment.
SMART Recovery helps individuals, family members, and friends learn how to move forward after rehab. They teach tools and techniques to help people maintain sobriety.
The programs are available in many cities worldwide. It is also offered in treatment centers and correctional facilities.
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The SMART Recovery model is based on current scientific knowledge of addiction. It teaches people how to move forward after addiction treatment by encouraging self-empowerment.
Some of the main topics covered in the SMART Recovery include:
The 4-Point Program is the foundation of SMART Recovery. It’s used to help people gain independence from addiction.
The four points are:
When a person decides to enter detox and recovery, they do so with a motivation for change. This step aims to focus on ways to motivate oneself to maintain sobriety.
SMART Recovery understands that urges and triggers are a natural part of recovery. This step is to help people recognize urges and learn healthy coping mechanisms.
This includes:
How you feel about addiction, and yourself, plays a significant role in your recovery. This step focuses on helping people identify negative beliefs and shifting to a more positive outlook. It also works with members to better deal with negative emotions and increase self-acceptance.
Long-term sobriety requires life changes. While this includes abstinence from alcohol, it also means:
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SMART Recovery is a secular, not-for-profit organization for people struggling with addiction. This sets SMART Recovery apart from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a faith-based program.
The program is focused on self-empowerment and self-reliance. They also avoid certain labels such as “alcoholic” or addict.”
Their meetings encourage participants to talk with each other rather than to each other. Overall, this program focuses on recovery and making self-directed positive changes.
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SMART Recovery offers many different recovery techniques and tools to help people through the recovery process. These tools help them work through the four points of the program.
SMART Recovery meetings are free and open to the public (a hat is passed around for donations). There are also online SMART meetings.
They usually run for 90 minutes and follow this outline:
The program focuses on the present day. Meetings help people understand self-destructive behavior, how to address it positively, and move forward.
Additionally, the SMART Recovery website offers various worksheets and homework assignments designed to help throughout every stage of recovery.
Aside from face-to-face and daily online meetings, SMART Recovery uses other tools and techniques. These include:
The hierarchy of values helps people determine what things are important to them. Reconnecting to what is important helps them visualize what they want their future to look like.
Knowing what to focus on can give people the motivation needed to recover. These values are deeply personal, and there are no right or wrong answers.
This technique involves understanding the five stages of change and how to make these changes. The five stages include:
The ABCs of recovery is an exercise from Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). It is a simple and effective cognitive therapy focused on evaluating yourself and your problems.
This exercise helps people analyze specific situations and modify negative thinking and behavioral patterns.
DISARM is a tool that helps you become aware of destructive or harmful self-talk. This program helps people recognize negative self-talk and how to change that way of thinking.
An assessment tool designed to help people see how far they have come in their recovery process. The SRAS can be a helpful tool for you to track your progress and how you’ve improved throughout your recovery.
This tool is focused on helping you understand your self-worth and value. It helps you understand that you are not your addiction or behavior.
Unconditional self-acceptance is a great way to accept your flaws and your actions. Accepting yourself can help you focus on recovery and how you want to see yourself in the future.
You can sign up for SMART Recovery by attending a meeting. Meetings are held at a variety of times, both in-person and online.
There are also rehab facilities that use the SMART Recovery program. These places include non-profit organizations and luxury rehab facilities.
These facilities use SMART Recovery as their main support group program. It is also used as an alternative to AA’s 12-step program.
SMART Recovery is a secular, not-for-profit organization that supports recovery after treatment. The program has a heavy emphasis on self-empowerment and improvement.
The program is based on current scientific knowledge of addiction and teaches people how to move forward. SMART Recovery uses a 4-point strategy to help you understand your behavior and cravings.
The program uses a variety of tools to help with your recovery. They also have meetings that are held both in-person and online.
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