I'm about 4 days sober now and today I joined my first meeting. It was over zoom. I've been to NA and AA in the past but never really liked it. I feel like this could work for me. I feel optimistic. I'm doing another zoom meeting tomorrow and maybe a in-person meeting on Thursday. I'm excited.
You get something out of every behavior—even the ones you’re thinking of changing. Otherwise, you wouldn’t engage in them.
What do you get from your addictive behavior?
At one point, you decided these benefits outweighed the costs. Do they still? The Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) tool can help you take a look at both the positives and negatives of a behavior.
To use this tool, simply consider the costs and benefits of your addictive behavior. Then consider the costs and benefits of abstaining. You don’t have to change anything today. Just start by being curious and honest with yourself.
An example of a completed CBA is shown below:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Benefits of engaging in my addictive behavior
Costs of engaging in my addictive behavior
Benefits of abstaining from my addictive behavior
Costs of abstaining from my addictive behavior
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After completing your own CBA, take a step back and look at what you’ve written. Does anything surprise you about your answers? You might notice that the rewards of the behavior tend to be short-lived, while the costs build up over time. And often, the benefits of stopping take time to feel—but they’re worth it.
This tool and others like it can be found on the SMART Recovery website and in the handbook.
Because the SMART Recovery site doesn't index their tools by category, I'm going to take the liberty of listing the SMART Tools that are marked "Build and Maintain Motivation" below. I'm hoping this can serve as a resource for those who ask "I know I have a problem but I'm not ready to stop drinking yet" type questions (which come up rather often).
I have been using smart for a long time. Luckily I have the meetings I attend saved in my calander. Today the meeting I usually attended doesn't appear to be on. It happens sometimes. I went on the smart recovery website and check(usually it will say cancelled this week or something). To my dismay I have found the new redesigned website to be unusable.
Meetings I know exist I can no longer find. I have noticed numbers dropping in meetings recently and I am starting to think that people just don't know where to find them. It is already hard to find support for many people and really think that smart should not be making it even more difficult for people.
I don't know who the redesign was for but it was not done with the user or the userexperience in mind.
I really need to destroy my YouTube habit because my alcoholism is heavily tied to watching short form garbage while drunk.
I am looking for VACI help that isnt a list of random unrelated hobby ideas. I need some kind of a process to go through. I read the handbook, and it was so much more useful than a random list of hobbies. But i just wanted to ask the community in hopes of getting novel advice (or inspiration)
Hello all! I’m going to try to keep this short as possible. As a teenager I struggled a lot with addiction. I was kicked out at 18 and struggled to stay off the streets. My drug of choice was air duster, as funny as that sounds. I have been to 7 treatment centers, all very AA focused. Nothing really worked for me. Nothing ever really clicked.
When I was 21, roughly a year and a half since my previous treatment center I attempted suicide. I had a very poor job at the time and no friends or anything like that. I survived the attempt obviously. After that I decided to try mushrooms. I’d never done psychedelics and they changed my life. My outlook on life changed and I started repairing relationships. I stopped all drugs completely other than weed and the occasional drink. Things have been amazing and I stuck with this routine for a long time.
Once I turned 24 I started experimenting with new drugs. Mainly Ketamine, MDMA, Cocaine, and Nitrous. I never felt like I was addicted, as I would only use any of these once a month at most.
Fast forward to today. I’m 26 now, married, and expecting a baby early next year. I also have an incredibly good job running a dispensary. I love my job and I love the people I work with. However, I want to get sober. I have thought about going back to AA or NA, but I know how anti everything they can be and am just looking for support thats more “meet me where I am.” If that makes any sense. I want to drop the alcohol and all other drugs. Cannabis I want to stop eventually, but it is so difficult with my job.
At the end of the day this is my question… Can Smart Recovery help me? I’m looking for the support and connection I found in AA. I just never felt like AA was right for me, and am looking for support from someone/somewhere.
I, unfortunately, let a slip turn into a relapse. I've been tapering alcohol and scheduled with my doctor to quit again. But is it appropriate to start attending SMART meetings, even though I'm still drinking. I ordered some of the books and align with SMART more than other programs.
Background: I've had two sober stints. My most recent one lasted nearly a year and I went to a virtual SMART meeting once. Figured a support group would help it stick. But, I got busy with life, had a celebratory event (why I slipped), and it led to this relapse. I'm tapering until my appointment, but want to begin rebuilding my tools. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Additionally, does the virtual program work well? Or are in-person meetings more helpful?
Edit: thanks to all for the advice! I'll definitely go to a virtual meeting this week. And hopefully get in-person the following.
As the title says, are there any decent podcasts cbt-esque that can help with alcohol use disorder?
Hi everyone, I'm recovering from a pretty brutal gambling addiction (all on apps, never have been to a casino, but just as tough for recovery since the online apps are everywhere). I've found SMART recovery meetings to be so helpful for me; currently at almost 100 days of not betting. One thing I am working on though (and I mentioned this in another comment too) is trying to adjust to when GA alums or members join SMART meetings and introduce themselves as "I'm a compulsive gambler" (I don't intro myself like that) and talk about 12-step-type tendencies that have helped them. Does anyone else dealing with gambling problems (or any addiction tbh) feel thrown off by 12-step culture and phrases like "I'm a compulsive this-or-that?" I completely support the individuals in their recovery process and want them to make the choices that work for them; I just sometimes feel a little thrown off by recovery culture in general and am unsure if I'm using the right lingo at meetings (or what the right lingo is for people new to recovery). Sorry if this is a dumb question...
Hello!! 11 months sober here. Was just curious if there was any good discord groups that you guys recommend? I can really only find AA focused discord channels and would prefer one that wasn’t AA focused.
Thank you!!