Why Smart Recovery Is An Effective 12 Step Alternative

A 4 Point Program for recovery and sobriety

One of the most important topics that I think I can cover for not only the readers but for myself is as well, is Smart Recovery. It is a way of recovery and an alternative to the 12 steps programs that really helps a person focus on their day to day problems. The goal of Smart Recovery is to find solution-based problem solving that gets us through the many different issues that our lives can throw at us.

I always enjoy covering this topic, as I learn something new every single time I cover the Smart program. Before the pandemic, I was an avid attendee of Smart Recovery meetings every single week. And while there are meetings currently available virtually, I cannot wait for the in-person meetings and groups to return.

I have met folks from all walks of life, from all different addictions, from all different mental health spectrums, and with any type of daily problems that anybody could think of.

What holds Smart Recovery together is a foundation like philosophy that they call the 4 Point Program.

Point 1: Building and Maintaining Motivation

Motivation is the enemy and the antichrist of addiction. When we are suffering in our hells of addicted behaviors, we lose more and more motivation as our days go by. It takes everything away from our desire to go forward throughout life with strength and diligence. When we first get sober, our motivation doesn’t magically just reappear. If anything it takes a very long time to regrow our motivation, and it won’t regrow unless we put forth our best and strongest effort every single waking hour. Our minds will need training all over again.

The physical act of stopping the addictive behavior is barely even the first step. Once we stop the drug abuse or other addiction, we will not likely have a lot of success for motivation right away. Not without having a solid support network. One that encompasses regular therapy, or aids for solution-based problems, that gets us back to a life of healthy habits.

Point 2: Coping with Urges

If there is anything that sticks with us long into recovery, it is the mighty urges that will forever seem like they are never going away. The brain is a mighty and complex organ, and those urges that we once gave into every minute of the day will not disappear. They likely will never totally vanish no matter what, so if we don’t get to a place in life where we can properly cope with them, it may only be a matter of time before we do relapse.

It was the answering of those urges that lead me to countless relapses. While I can also just say that no matter, I would have relapsed anyway because of the awful sickness of withdrawal. It would force me to use drugs each and every morning. While most of addiction does turn into “getting normal” and not getting high, I can confidently say that it was the urges that probably made the sickness seem much worse. The urges made it easier to keep the terrible process going. A perfect excuse to give in. And the urges made it more and more difficult to just get my ass to a hospital or rehab, and start the detox and recovery process.

Point 3: Managing Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviors

To me, this third point is a definite extension of point # 2. Once we become able to process our urges in a healthy fashion, we have to realize that we still will have to learn to live with our thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

If we don’t seek tools and support for learning how to manage our emotions in a way that is healthy, and progressive we may still become a victim of our own mind and thoughts. I myself made it a point to learn all I could about the practice of mindfulness. Once I started to master that, I was able to stay aware of the present moment, of where I was emotionally and mentally, and I could better see the big picture. I feel like I can now better intercept those unhealthy and risky emotions and thoughts.

Mindfulness seems to be a tool that works like a burglar alarm. That goes on alert whenever my risky thinking starts. It stops me from being able to talk myself into nonsense. Learning to manage these things is something that comes with time, commitment, and feedback from peers and others in recovery.

Point 4: Living a Balanced Life

Point 4 best summarizes the goal of all these points combined. If we properly work points 1 through 3, then we should be better equipped to get a chance at a balanced life. We become more aware, accepting, and self-forgiving. We stop judging not only the things and people around us, but most importantly, we stop judging ourselves.

We stop looking at our mistakes as components of being a failure.

Smart Recovery is quite young, especially when compared to 12 steps. The 12 steps philosophy has been around for almost a century, while Smart is only around 26 years old now. While there were not many studies done to compare the two different types of recovery for Smart’s first many years, there are now multiple studies that do look at the success factor of Smart Recovery.

Practical Recovery’s website shares its review based on a scientific systematic study. When reviewing the many points to the project, the author was able to make conclusions which “supported the benefits of SMART Recovery for reducing the severity and consequences of problematic alcohol use.”

Writer Anne Fletcher covered this topic as well for American Addiction Centers. Her article was able to conclude that although Smart Recovery had a very slow takeoff at first, it picked up rather strongly over the past few years when it comes to new people becoming attendees of Smart meetings. The numbers which were once quite low for people finding success, now find a significant growth in the amount of Smart Recovery followers. It is reflective of the fact that people see that it works for helping with addictions. Smart Recovery was proven to show that new milestones were being met.

In communities like Smart Recovery, We learn to speak up, when our thinking has gone off the rails. We seek help, when we know we need it. We remain supportive of the peers we meet. We listen to the stories of others because there are countless lessons to be learned by the lives lived by others. We learn to regain trust, and we once again can start to trust ourselves.

We use our solution-based tools to get through life, and don’t have to revamp back to our old ways of numbing and blocking the things we need to face.

We can look into a mirror each day, and be proud of the person we see. Thank you for reading.