The SMART Recovery 4-Point Program®

Bringing Science and Reason to Self-help with Addictive Behaviors Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 A. Thomas Horvath, PhD, President Christi Farmer, Assistant-Executive Director

That organization was Artists Helping helped me so much in my own recovery! Inspirations the Homeless (AHH). AHH is a small But I only had a passing knowledge of organization started by Kar Woo, a those tools. When I began studying former art gallery owner, to provide SMART, it all became much more resources for the homeless as well for focused in my mind, easier to grasp, and the organizations that deal with the I could easily see how it would work for homeless, such as hospitals, police, others. I was hooked! and shelters. Their work has been so Realizing that there was an opportu- extensive that it’s been estimated that nity to start SMART Recovery at the they have saved the city about $10 treatment facility, I first got trained as a million in services since they started, and facilitator. Then I pitched the idea to Woo was recently named by the Kansas I admit it, I’m a lucky guy! the administration, and they liked it so City Star as one of its “Citizens of 2015” by Phil Rogers much that we started a weekly meeting finalists. almost immediately! The clients love About 14 years ago, I was offered the the concept, and while there is a regular chance to bring a recovery meeting into turnover of participants due to it being a one of the best treatment facilities in closed meeting, the seeds are being Inside: the KC area. My experience (and also Inspirations planted for them to seek out SMART the facility’s) had been with 12-step I admit it, I’m a lucky guy! ...... 1 after discharge. ® meetings, so I led a meeting. Eventually 4-Point Program ...... 1 Not long after that, I received a Check-out SMART Recovery’s new there were meetings with a different Family & Friends Facebook page at: ...... 3 phone call from a young woman who leader each night. People Power had been an intern at the treatment Then I started hearing about Evidence Founding SMART board member center but was now working at a social fondly remembered by many ...... 3 Based Treatment, and started researching services agency. She said she knew of an SMART Recovery Online (SROL) community all of the various recovery programs that suffers loss of long-time volunteer ...... 4 organization that could really use a were available; that is what led me to Fundraising Alert ...... 4 regular SMART Recovery meeting, and SMART Recovery. What I soon realized, Recovery Month T-shirts ...... 4 asked if I was interested. I told you, I’m a was that it was actually the tools and SMART Ideas lucky guy! Weekly volunteer support ...... 5 principles of SMART Recovery that had Exciting adventures ...... 5 SMART Recovery® Tools & Techniques ...... 6 Happy birthday to the online meeting on Sexual The SMART Recovery The program offers specific tools and Maladaptive Behaviors! ...... 6 ® SMART Progress 4-Point Program techniques for each of the program points: What does happiness have to do with recovery? . . . 7 Regional Coordinator information ...... 8 ® Point #1: Building and Maintaining he SMART Recovery SMART special events updates ...... 9 (Self-Management And Motivation President’s Letter Recovery Training) T Point #2: Coping with Urges What is self-empowerment? ...... 10 program helps individuals Book Review gain independence from Point #3: Managing Thoughts, Feelings, Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary addictive behavior. New Way of Understanding Addiction ...... 12 and Behaviors Our efforts are based on International Development scientific knowledge and evolve Point #4: Living a Balanced Life SMART Recovery Alberta update ...... 15 as scientific knowledge evolves. Inspirations Continued

I was connected to the house manager midtown where they will house at-risk as a facilitator so that they can take at Bodhi House, a residence operated by men for an extended period of time. over, allowing me to look for other AHH. Bodhi House is located in mid- When the project receives all the proper opportunities! (I’ve already been asked town Kansas City, and offers temporary approval, SMART will be there as well, to start a group in the northern Kansas shelter and support for up to nine adult providing some more tools to help them City area!) men so that they don’t fall through the live the lives that they envision. So, how do I feel with all this cracks once they get out of jail or detox. In the meantime, a church facility potential in front of me to try and As Woo likes to say, AHH is “the safety (CSL-Crossroads) located in a suburb help others? Like I said, I’m a really net for the safety nets”. So far, Bodhi had also heard about SMART Recovery, lucky guy! has housed about 140 different men, and wanted to offer a meeting as Below is a picture of Kar Woo and and provides more than just housing; community outreach. So after some some of the guys from Bodhi House, at education, employment, and community initial promotion, we were able to start a their shoe and clothing giveaway for service are all emphasized. They now new open meeting there in July, with the homeless, at Mill Creek Park. also have weekly SMART Recovery attendance starting at 7-10 each week. meetings to help out, and I’m told every And best of all, at each one of these week how much they look forward to it! meeting locations, people have That’s because most of these men expressed an interest in getting trained have tried recovery with 12-step meetings but have not had continued success. Most of them, when they hear about the tools of SMART and how they work, can all of a sudden sense a glimmer of hope again! They can feel that they have finally found something that, with work, will help them change their addictive behaviors. Many of these men are finding a huge reward for themselves in the SMART program, along with all the other guidance provided by AHH. As for me, I am ALWAYS getting a huge reward whenever I visit the guys at Bodhi and see their enthusiasm sparked! And since the Bodhi meeting is an open meeting, the guys there also have the chance to spread the word through all of AHH’s other efforts and invite others to join in! The next step for AHH (and SMART) will be a 40 bed facility that Woo is working on called Finnegan Place, which is an apartment complex in

Published by the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Self-Help Network, Inc. dba SMART Recovery® 7304 Mentor Avenue, Suite F, Mentor, OH 44060 • Phone: 440/951-5357 • Fax: 440/951-5358 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.smartrecovery.org

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 2 Check-out SMART Recovery’s new Family & Friends Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/SMARTFamilyandFriends/

credentials including a Master Personal Achievement. There he People Power Addictions Counselor (MAC), Licensed offered counseling based on REBT, Professional Counselor (LPC), and specializing in working with clients who completed courses as an Advanced were dealing with substance abuse issues. Hypnotherapist. He became interested He became intrigued with finding personally and professionally in Rational options to the 12-Step model, and his Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) explorations led him to a group of and completed training as an Associate like-minded professionals whom he Fellow and Supervisor at the Albert Ellis joined in becoming one of SMART’s Institute, New York City. As we know, founding board members. REBT plays an important role in Rich had a passion for seeing more SMART Recovery. smiles and laughs in the world. A few In 1996, after working in social years ago, he created business cards on Founding SMART board member services and college counseling offices which he declared that “2007 is the Year fondly remembered by many for several years, Rich decided to open of the Smile and the Laugh.” Each year his own private practice called The thereafter he created the same cards and SMART is saddened to report the Thought Exchange, LLC: Center for declarations for handing out to family, passing of Rich Dowling, who died on August 6th following a long battle with prostate cancer. He and his wife, Susan Akers, were married for 29 years and lived in Denville, NJ. After graduating from Bayley-Ellard High School, Rich obtained an associate’s degree at County College of Morris, and a bachelor’s degree from Ramapo College of NJ. He continued his education with a master’s degree in counseling from Montclair State University. He then pursued additional SMART Recovery Online (SROL) community suffers loss of long-time volunteer

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 3 People Power Continued friends, and strangers. For this practice, he became known locally as the “smile FUNDRAISING ALERT guy” and was continually delighted with the universal results of presenting those 1. Are you planning to make a cash gift to SMART? cards. His premise to the end was that a 2. Do you have common stock you have owned over one year on smile is a smile in any language and which you have a gain? always good medicine. Rich (standing on left in 1994 Board If you answered “yes” to both of the above questions then consider transferring shares of photo) and his contributions to founding stock directly to our new brokerage account. You will get credit for the value of the stock on and maintaining SMART will long be the date of transfer and avoid paying capital gains tax. Consult your tax advisor to see if this remembered. is right for you. SMART Recovery Online (SROL) community Information about the SMART brokerage account provided upon request. suffers loss of long-time volunteer Contact the Central Office at [email protected] for additional details. SROL is very saddened at the loss of long-time volunteer, TwoPutts. His contributions over the years had been many and varied, from being the driving force behind the Quick Start Manual, to co-founding our well received Family & Friends program. TwoPutts could be found on Monday and Tuesday nights online where he facilitated a meeting for Family & Friends as well as the popular Tuesday Night Tool Time meetings. He also served on our SROL FUNdraising team and participated in our online fundraising drives for many years. The volunteer work he performed will be long remembered and he helped to build the strong community we enjoy today. Recovery Month T-shirts A big THANK YOU! to all who jumped at the chance to order a SMART t-shirt. Designed to help you stand out in a crowd at your favorite Recovery Month event, these colorful shirts were available for one week only in August. Thanks to your enthusiastic support of the t-shirt sale, we raised over $1,700 to fund SMART’s programs. We’d love to showcase “SMART pride” in the next issue of News & Views. If you attended a Recovery Month event, send us a photo along with a little blurb telling us about the event! Please send to [email protected] by November 15th.

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 4 is to provide a SMART Recovery of an “adventure.” Indeed, that’s why we meeting for our facilitators and say, “it’s just a walk in the park.” volunteers who may or may not have In short, going on an adventure another support system available. It is a means knowingly taking a risk. If you time to discuss your own personal issues don’t know what you are doing when, in and life struggles. fact, you are doing something dangerous, SMART Ideas you won’t have a sense of being on an adventure. And, when you go on an Exciting adventures adventure, i.e. take a risk, you are going by Hank Robb, PhD, ABPP to “feel the risk,” and the name of that Going on an “adventure” means you feeling is “afraid” – NOTHING’S Weekly volunteer support can’t know for sure how things are going WRONG! That is simply how it is to be to turn out and there has to be some on an adventure. A suggestion I’ve been FAST Forward: SMART Meeting sense of danger. If you know for sure hearing a lot recently is, “Courage is not Management (SMM) meetings take the absence of fear. Courage is choosing place every Monday at 10:00 p.m. how things are going to turn out, that’s a theme park. Part of Disneyland in to make something more important than Eastern Time*, every Wednesday at 8:00 being afraid.” Thus, while you can’t p.m. Eastern Time, and on the last Southern California is called “Adventureland” but there are no real knowingly go on an adventure without Saturday of every month at 3:00 p.m. being afraid, you can choose to make Eastern Time. If you are interested in adventures there. You actually see people getting off the very seats you are going on the adventure more important furthering your skills in managing your going to sit on – you know how it ends. than avoiding the fear or trying to make meetings or smoothly handling any Granted, some of the recent accidents at that fear go away – drugs anyone?! challenges you might encounter, these What about the “exciting” part? So discussion meetings are for you. amusement parks show that people were far, “going on an adventure” turns out to Discussion topics include difficult and doing things that turned out to be be that you get through it alive and with sensitive issues that may arise in meet- dangerous even when they thought they all your fingers and toes! An “exciting ings, best practices and techniques in weren’t. Even so, that isn’t really the adventure” is something more. The using the SMART tools, following experience of adventure because the excitement comes when you recognize meeting guidelines, creating an folks had no idea what they were doing. that you not only could get out of the accepting and non-judgmental meeting The seventeen-year-old response to a situation alive and with all your body environment, and how to “Do SMART parent’s concern, “What could go parts but you also recognize that, in Recovery”. It’s also a place to brainstorm wrong?” prevents those youngsters from addition, something COOL might come ideas and share information and experiencing what they are up to as out of you having taken the risk that resources. Meeting leaders include being an adventure because they are constitutes the adventure. SMART Recovery President Tom already sure how things will turn out, Horvath, Mike Massey, Bill Abbott, and it’s not only teenagers who have the If you try giving up your addictive and others. issue! This is why jumping off a one- behavior and building a life on more story building is an adventure. Maybe long-term fulfillments you might fail *NOTE: The Monday 10:00 p.m. you walk away but maybe you break your and go right back to your addictive SMM meeting is open only to ACTIVE leg. Jumping off a ten-story building is behavior. And, you might just succeed face-to-face and online facilitators, online not an adventure. We all know how at effectively pursuing the kinds of facilitators in training, and meeting hosts. that ends! things that make up the “big picture” FAST Forward: Fresh Start However, an adventure also requires of what you would like your life to be meetings are held every Monday at 8:00 a sense of danger. If you go for the about rather than only the “little picture” p.m. Eastern Time. Fresh Start is a one proverbial “walk in the park” you may of the moment. There’s no guarantee hour support meeting exclusively for not know how it will all turn out. but it COULD happen. Now you SMART Facilitators and Volunteers, Maybe you will leave the park the same have something that is more than an facilitated by SMART Recovery way you came in but maybe you will go “adventure”; something more than just President Tom Horvath and others. out a different way. Even so, no one is getting through alive and unharmed. The purpose of the Fresh Start meetings going to call that uncertainty the basis You have the possibility of something

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 5 SMART Ideas Continued

COOL happening as well. That’s important than the fact that you are meeting where we talk about things like: what turns an “adventure” into an also afraid. –– What is my cost-benefit analysis on “exciting adventure.” SMART Recovery encourages the my use of porn? An exciting adventure is still, at power of choice. You have the ability –– What triggered my lapse with bottom, an adventure. And, if you go on to pick whether you go on an adventure alcohol and acting out sexually an adventure, you are going to feel or not. You also have the ability to pick afterwards? What can I do to avoid afraid. That’s simply how it works. an exciting adventure. You will find that this in the future? Thus, if you go on an exciting adventure, if you choose to go on an exciting –– How can I talk with my partner adventure that you feel afraid. So you are still going to feel afraid. Once about the sexual behaviors that I’m again – NOTHING’S WRONG! remember, NOTHING’S WRONG! working to overcome? However, you also feel the excitement SMART Recovery works not to help that comes with the possibility of you avoid fear but to help you make We’ve found that lots of SMARTies something COOL coming out of the something more important than being want to talk about their sexual issues, adventure. Now, where do you think afraid. Keep your Eyes On The Prize. and appreciate a meeting where this is would be the best place to put your focus Exert your Power of Choice. Choose on-topic. Even in an environment – on your fear or the possibility of the exciting adventures! where people feel comfortable COOL thing? An old spiritual is titled discussing their struggles with alcohol Eyes on the Prize. What are you going to or drugs, some people do not feel make the “prize” – the fear or the Happy birthday to the online comfortable discussing their struggles possible COOL stuff? If you make fear meeting on Sexual Maladaptive with masturbation or sex outside their avoidance “the prize,” you can’t go on relationship. And some people who can the adventure in the first place. I Behaviors! sympathize easily with others’ struggles on substances would rather not hear encourage putting your focus on the by Matt Frank, SMART Facilitator exciting part; not as a way to distract about their struggles around sex. The This August, the online meeting focused yourself from the fear, but as the thing SMB meeting provides a space to discuss on Sexual Maladaptive Behaviors you have chosen to make more sexual maladaptive behaviors in a (SMB) turned one year old. This is a SMART way.

SMART Recovery® Tools & Techniques

SMART’s 4-Point Program® uses many tools and tech- We encourage you to niques that may help you gain independence from learn how to use addictive behavior. each tool and to • Change Plan Worksheet • Cost-Benefit Analysis practice the tools These • ABCs of REBT for urge coping and techniques • ABCs of REBT for emotional upsets to help you tools • DISARM (Destructive Images Self-talk Awareness and Refusal Method) progress toward Point include: • Brainstorming • Role-playing and Rehearsing 4: Living • Hierarchy of Values a Balanced Life.

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 6 attention on the negative, and much SMART Ideas Continued less time on the positive. Consequently, in the field of addiction, leading scholars called for a greater focus on recovery More than at most meetings, people discuss those issues outside of this and sobriety1, and this shift in thinking often show up not knowing if their meeting also. The more we can talk has led to what we know today as the behaviors are maladaptive – i.e. whether about our sexual issues, the easier it is to recovery movement. In psychology more their sexual behaviors are interfering overcome them. generally, attention was brought to the with their goals or otherwise causing The meeting is unusual in being fact that we know a lot more about problems. For example, after doing a focused on SMBs but is typical of pathology than we do about human CBA, some participants may find SMART meetings in being open to flourishing, and thus the subspecialty masturbation to be helpful as a means of everyone. It’s held on SROL on Sunday of “positive psychology” was born2. sexual release, while others may find evenings at 6pm Eastern. Happy Fast forward to the present day, and you that it increases their sexual thinking in Birthday to the meeting! And if it would think that these two movements a distracting way. sounds like the meeting might be good would be intricately intertwined, and We hear a lot at these meetings about for you, you’re welcome to join us! informing and supporting each other. the damaging effects of SMBs, and their In reality, however, these two fields similarities with alcohol issues and have grown side-by-side with very little substance abuse. They can destroy cross-pollination 3. My question is: why relationships and finances and sleep is that? Is it because advances made in schedules, and are often bound up with positive psychology are simply not social isolation. So we use the SMART relevant to supporting persons tools as in any other SMART meeting, navigating the challenges of recovery? with ABC’s for diagnosis, group efforts Or is it simply because we have not to find effective new beliefs, and had the presence of mind to bring the working through change plans to figure findings of other subspecialties to bear out how to reach goals. When people on the issue of recovery? have a mix of sexual issues and The topic I am particularly interested substance issues, or when they have SMART Progress in is happiness. Positive psychology urgent substance issues, we’ll deal with encompasses all kinds of positive those too. What does happiness have to do experiences and traits that contribute The meeting came about in response with recovery? to human flourishing, such as courage, to requests for such a meeting on the by Bettina Hoeppner, PhD, M.S. hope, spirituality, creativity and flow. SMB forum at SMART Recovery online Harvard Medical School Happiness, in and of itself, has also (SROL). As a face-to-face facilitator been studied. In fact, since the field’s Dear SMART Participants, and a participant in that forum, I inception in 2000, numerous researchers volunteered to facilitate, and then I am writing to you today, because I have designed and tested interventions Mabb (Bill Abbott), Kalar, and the rest would like to ask for your help and that were hoped to improve overall of the SMART team helped to train insight. I am an addiction scientist. well-being and happiness. And what me as an online facilitator and set things Much of my time is spent thinking was the grand total of these various up. After a year, we’re going strong, about ways in which we can better approaches? To answer that question, a using the new SROL meeting system, support recovery. In the last 1-2 decades, meta-analysis was conducted, which and with a good mix of regular and a shift in thinking has occurred that combined data from 51 positive new participants. has inspired me greatly. This shift has psychology interventions based on 4,266 Participants can also discuss their occurred both within the field of participants. The results showed that yes, SMBs at other SMART meetings, either addiction and, more generally, within these positive psychology exercises – as specifically or in general terms of acting the field of psychology. In both fields, diverse as they were – overall led to out. I hope that this SMB meeting has it was recognized that we spent a consistent improvements in well-being4. made it easier for some participants to disproportionate amount of our time and Moreover, the increases in well-being

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 7 SMART Progress Continued were sizable. In the social sciences, we about acute improvements in happiness. real-world tools and evidence-based use commonly agreed upon metrics to In taking this survey, you would be meetings helping to overcome maladap- determine the size of observed effects5. randomized to receive one of seven short tive habits. Essential to the continued In this case, the effects were of medium exercises, and we would ask you to smooth running of SMART Recovery size, which is actually quite impressive provide us feedback on this exercise. are the Regional Coordinators (RCs). within the social sciences, given that we More generally, we would also ask about Our volunteer Regional Coordinators research humans, who tend to be pretty your views on how happiness figures into maintain contact with facilitators complex and unique. But now we get to recovery: is it the goal of recovery? Is it a throughout their region and encourage the really impressive and inspiring part: pathway towards recovery? Is it not or mentor new facilitators within their many of these interventions were very even relevant until more immediate region. Regional Coordinators have the brief, self-administered positive activities concerns are dealt with? Your insights breadth of knowledge and experience to rather than clinician-administered and feedback would be incredibly assist with most questions SMART facil- treatment. In other words, these helpful to us, as it would tell us whether itators bring to them. When additional activities could potentially function as or not this is an area of intervention information is needed facilitators can self-management tools that can be used development worth pursuing. To this turn to their fellow facilitators, their RC at one’s own discretion in everyday life, end, I would like to ask you: could Chair, and the Central Office as without loss of effectiveness. you kindly take this online survey: resources. To become an RC, a facili- One of the limitations of this work is https://redcap.partners.org/redcap/ tator first volunteers with SMART for that most of the research was conducted surveys/?s=MPPF3XFC3T? It would one year. Then they will need to submit within the general population, where it take you about 15 minutes to complete, a brief background of experiences, is not clear if these findings hold true in and would be incredibly useful to us! including their desire to become an RC. specific groups of people, such as persons 1. White WL. Recovery: Old Wine, Flavor of the This information is sent to the RC in recovery. Clearly, recovery presents Month or New Organizing Paradigm? Substance Chair, David Weidman, who forwards Use & Misuse. 2008;43(12-13):1987-2000. doi: the information on to the rest of the unique and substantial challenges. 10.1080/10826080802297518 Thus, even though persons without a 2. Seligman ME, Csikszentmihalyi M. Positive RCs for their input and approval. The history of addiction may benefit from psychology. An introduction. Am Psychol. appointment letter is then sent to the 2000;55(1):5-14. individual from SMART’s president, engaging in positive psychological 3. Krentzman AR. Review of the application of positive exercises, persons with a history of psychology to substance use, addiction, and recovery Dr. Tom Horvath. addiction may not. On the other hand, research. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. The U.S. currently has 14 regions, the very existence of the recovery 2013;27(1):151-165. doi: 10.1037/a0029897 4. Sin NL, Lyubomirsky S. Enhancing well-being although some larger regions are divided movement seems to suggest that there and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive up amongst multiple RCs. is a yearning to focus more on the psychology interventions: a practice-friendly meta- Each Quarter the RCs meet to share analysis. J Clin Psychol. 2009;65(5):467-487. doi: positive experiences to be gained than information about their regions which on the obstacles to overcome in the 10.1002/jclp.20593 5. Cohen J. Statistical power analysis for the includes, news from the region and the process of recovery. That is why I would behavioral sciences. 2nd ed. Hillsdale, NJ: sharing of ideas for meeting growth. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.; 1988. like to test if positive psychological Each RC is responsible for preparing a activities can be effective in persons in detailed, quarterly report encompassing recovery, and that is way I am writing Regional Coordinator information information on the meetings held in to you today. by David Weidman, Regional Coordinator Chair their region, as well as ideas for the Together with Dr. John Kelly, whom future. SMART Recovery is proud of you may know through his role as the It is an honor to serve as chair of the the work and dedication accomplished Volunteer Research Director here at Regional Coordinator Committee at this by these individuals. time of sustained growth for SMART SMART Recovery, and my sister, Dr. Our sincere appreciation goes to: Susanne Hoeppner, I have designed an Recovery and SMART Family & online survey to test the ability of short Friends. From my vantage point, there is • Central East – Delaware, DC, positive psychology exercises to bring a marked shift towards our program of Maryland, Virginia - Bill Greer

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 8 SMART Progress Continued

• Great Lakes – Illinois, Indiana, The regions below are vacant, and we peer support/mutual-help organizations Michigan, Ohio and Western/ need qualified facilitators to help fill including SMART! We are especially Northern these roles! honored that Dr. Kelly has served as • NY/PA. Prairielands – Iowa, Minnesota, North SMART’s Research Director for the last 5 years. • Dick Bozian – (OH) Below Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin Columbus, Southeast – Georgia, North Carolina Earlier in the summer, we were privileged to host an amazing private • Paul Rose – (IN) and South Carolina event for professionals with Carlo C. Northwest Frontier – Alaska, Hawaii, • Rod Allwood – (western PA - DiClemente, PhD, ABPP, co-creator Oregon, Washington and Pacific Islands including State College and west of the “Stages of Change,” or the and western and northern NY and Mountain West – Idaho, Montana, Transtheoretical Model of behavior northern OH), Utah, and Wyoming areas and Northern change (TTM), which is foundational • Peggy Darrah – (MI) NV area to SMART’s approach to support people • Gulf Coast – New Mexico, Texas Mountain West – Northern Nevada in changing their addictive behavior. and Louisiana-Demian Rubalcaba Pacific Southwest – Northern CA area Dr. DiClemente is most widely known for his co-authorship of the self-help • Mid-America – Nebraska, Kansas, and San Diego area book Changing For Good. During the Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas- Please contact David Weidman and event Dr. DiClemente emphasized Ginger Frank (MO) Christi Farmer if you are interested in that the locus of change lies within • Mountain West – Colorado, Idaho, becoming a Regional Coordinator. the individual’s personal processes, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and even while counselors, therapists, and Wyoming SMART special events updates facilitators may offer a variety of helpful • Doug Hanshaw (CO) by Dee (Dolores) Cloward, Special Events Coordinator methods and choices for healthy change. Although the live event was limited in • Rosemarie Leong (Southern NV) We have had some tremendous special attendees, we are pleased to be allowed • New England – Bill Abbott – events this year. We are immensely to present the talk as part of our Rhode Island, Connecticut, excited about our most recent webinar: Massachusetts and Maine podcast library. John Kelly, PhD, Associate Professor Also, Dr. Nicole Kosanke is certainly • Chuck Novak – (Vermont, New at Harvard, discussed research on the one of my new favorites. From the Hampshire) vastly expanding support options avail- Center for Motivation and Change, she able emphasizing the need for addiction • Northeast – New Jersey, Southern is co-author of the book Beyond recovery support programs based on New York (Albany/Binghamton and Addiction, which we recommend to all science, such as SMART, as well as the South) and Eastern Pennsylvania – our new Family & Friends participants. science on traditional and other Michael Abbate, Rod Allwood We had a wonderful, informal, fast- has western recovery support services. paced, question-filled discussion. • Pacific Southwest – Arizona and In recent years, the models for addiction We look forward to hearing California-Susan Ireland (Riverside, treatment and support have seen Joe Gerstein, M.D., speak about his Imperial, San Bernadino Counties) innovation and expansion beyond traditional options. Dr. Kelly shared personal experiences as he has helped • Guy Lamunyon – (Arizona) what the research says about some of the create and grow SMART Recovery, • David Weidman and Marc Kern options becoming more available, such on December 3rd. Dr. Gerstein is – (Greater L.A.) as recovery community centers, sober Founding President of SMART • Southern Coast – Alabama, Florida housing models, recovery high schools/ Recovery, and to an enormous number and Mississippi - Darryl Mizer collegiate recovery programs, recovery of people, he is the personal face, force management check-ups, recovery and heart behind SMART. He is so community organizations, and of course, much fun to listen to and speak with;

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 9 might know, bartending appears to have help (such as a higher power, a group SMART Progress Continued the highest prevalence of alcohol use or a sponsor). The powerlessness disorders of any occupation. It is hard to approach works for many, and we do not imagine a higher risk alcohol situation. disparage it, but our approach goes in we can’t wait to share that during the Suppose that this bartender got the the opposite direction. holiday season. Your life will be standard advice, to avoid this high-risk enriched! He is truly an extraordinary Whether entering self-empowered or situation by changing jobs. Suppose also person. Watch for registration powerlessness recovery, the situation that the bartender, with a high-paying information on the website, message appears to be the same: we are not in position, a family to support, and no boards and internal mailing list. All our sufficient control of ourselves. What we other comparably marketable skills, webinar events are available, free, as mean by being “in control” is the thinks that he needs to make bartending podcasts at: www.smartrecovery.libsyn. capacity to consider the long-term work, rather than running away from it. com! Please come, browse, and enjoy. consequences of a behavior as well as If in your recovery you needed to avoid the short-term satisfactions, and to act one or more high-risk situations, of on the long-term consequences often course the easy advice to give this enough that our lives are productive bartender is “change jobs!” and meaningful. President’s Letter However, in SMART we “Discover In SMART we suggest that you can, the Power of Choice.” We would help to whatever degree necessary, increase this bartender clarify his own thinking. your capacity to act on long-term We might use Cost-Benefit Analysis or a interests. We all have this capacity, even Change Plan Worksheet to help him the seemingly hopeless drunk. This decide about employment, and Urge capacity may be harder to find in such What is self-empowerment? Coping to help him manage this an individual, and there may not appear As an introduction to this important situation if he decides to stay in his to be much evidence of its current question, let us consider the limits of our position. For much of the recovery existence, but it’s still there. Everyone personal knowledge about recovery. world — which would simply tell him to controls his or her substance use under Specifically, how does my personal change jobs — SMART Recovery’s the right circumstances. Of course, experience apply to others? How is approach is truly radical. those circumstances may not come up my experience of others in recovery As background then, we are very often for someone with severe limited by the sample of humanity I reminding ourselves that we have reason problems. However, when they do have experienced? to be humble about what we know, and self-control emerges. We are often in danger of speaking that in SMART Recovery we allow our Another way to state this idea is more broadly about others than we have participants to make their own decisions. that there is always something more the data for. Persons, situations, and Let us turn to our primary question: important than problematic addictive cultures can vary far more than we what is self-empowerment? Let’s break behavior. Once the higher value has realize. Therefore, we need to be humble this question into two parts: been re-discovered (because it has often about what we know. 1) Is self-empowerment also solitary been overlooked or forgotten) recovery empowerment? and 2) Would the When we have struggled to overcome begins to occur. Our Hierarchy of Values self-empowered person moderate rather tool, developed by Joe Gerstein, is our problematic addictive behavior, however, than abstain? we might become overly enthusiastic primary approach to helping people about what worked for us. Nevertheless, Self-empowerment is not solitary recall what is more important than what might have been a disastrous empowerment addictive behavior. This project of re-discovering mistake for me, could be a decisive In SMART we say that the self- pre-existing values is a major part of positive stop for someone else. For this empowering approach views the the self-empowerment process. In some reason, in SMART Recovery, we solution as residing within you, or that cases, because of changes in lives, we “Discover the Power of Choice.” it can be developed within you. You do re-connect with our pre-existing values To take an example, imagine a not need to see yourself as powerless on our own. If the process is truly bartender in early recovery. As you and in permanent need of outside

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 10 President's Letter Continued self-empowering, should the person prior coursework, calculus is the next don’t require it, or advocate it, or always complete this process on his or step, or quite out of reach at the recommend it. her own? Should self-empowerment be moment. The process of recovery can What we do require, in a well-run solitary empowerment? work the same way. If I have the meeting, is that the discussion focus I suggest not. Let us consider that all prerequisites, the course is appropriately on how to stop, and how to stay human education occurs in community. but not excessively challenging. stopped. During check-in and checkout One summary of this idea is: “One Unfortunately, specifying recovery participants are free to say what they person is no person” which is to say that pre-requisites has not been accomplished wish (and they often do!), but the without others we literally would die. nearly as well as it has for studying math. discussion has a clear focus on Another summary is: “It takes a village.” What looks like solitary empowerment abstinence, and should be guided back None of us develop without community. is actually the result of prior work, and to abstinence if it strays. Recovery is no different. perhaps an advantageous situation. That The facilitator might say, in response Even though the goal of prior work involved connection with to someone who has raised the self-empowering recovery is complete community, although not necessarily a moderation issue. “If you are thinking self-management of recovery, the recovery community. These advantages about moderating, you will still need process of getting to that goal involves may not be available to someone who to stop, just at a different place. For community. In time, I can manage my needs an explicit recovery path. There is instance, you might stop after the 3rd addiction problems on my own, rather no solitary empowerment, even it if drink rather than before the first. than never being able to manage them. looks that way on the surface. Stopping is stopping. We focus on But for now, I may need education. SMART Recovery fits into the stopping in this discussion. What you Once I have managed recovery, I can curriculum of recovery in a very helpful do outside the meeting is up to you. turn my energy to learning other tasks. and straightforward way for many people, Discover the Power of Choice. Let’s The process of increasing my capacities but for others it will be unnecessary or return to our discussion about how to can be ongoing. even counterproductive. We need to stay use this tool to support stopping.“ You may wonder, given that natural alert to mismatches, and not directly or As I stated above, anyone can abstain recovery is so prominent, how to make indirectly shame someone who finds when sufficiently motivated, and can sense of it given the importance of SMART Recovery not a good fit. arrange the environment to maintain community. By natural recovery we Perhaps they are mistaken of course, sufficient reminders of motivation. mean that many people, perhaps most, but that learning process is theirs, not Similarly, anyone, I suggest, can overcome problematic addictive ours. For those who need a community moderate, but the task has complications behavior without a mutual help group or in which to move forward with self- that the abstinence task does not have. empowerment, we provide an excellent treatment. What this fact overlooks, By comparison, I suggest that anyone one. Let us turn to the second question I however, is that these individuals rely can learn to dance, but it may not be posed about self-empowerment. on community in other ways. They may worth the effort. Fortunately, for dancing, have internalized and situational Would a self-empowered person moderate there are usually no major problems advantages that individuals on rather than abstain? associated with being a slow learner. explicit recovery paths do not have. For substance use, problems as a slow In summary: possibly, but not They may also rely on their pre-existing learner can be fatal. non-recovering community in ways that necessarily. If I am using the Power of Choice, I are not available to someone needing an To remind you, in SMART Recovery face a critical practical decision. I could explicit recovery path. we say: “I choose to abstain. I don’t have choose to abstain, rather than endure to abstain. I choose to quit. I don’t have For example, if I attempt a calculus the possibly disastrous trial and error to quit.” About SMART Recovery we class, have I already taken the process of learning how to moderate. say that we support abstinence, but we pre-requisite math, including arithmetic, What do I choose to do? I might geometry and algebra? Depending on my also keep in mind that even if I did

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 11 President's Letter Continued Book Review accomplish moderation relatively easily, Abstinence is easier to accomplish, I might be facing substantial risk in and the lower effort frees up resources return for a limited or non-existent that can be devoted to pursuing vitally benefit. absorbing creative interests. Simply put, To limit our discussion to alcohol, is on your deathbed would you prefer to life better with alcohol? If I think life is say “I pursued my passions” or “I drank dramatically better with alcohol, I’m not a lot?” thinking accurately. There is no clinical To summarize, we need to be humble or scientific reason to believe that life is about how our experience applies to Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary dramatically better with alcohol. In fact, others. Therefore we give little advice if someone has reached the point of about recovery, and encourage our New Way of Understanding considering abstinence, probably an participants to make their own decisions. Addiction accurate conclusion is: I have already They will determine for themselves how by Maia Szalavitz (St. Martin’s Press, 2016) achieved the benefits of drinking, and to balance long-term and short-term Reviewed by David Koss, SMART Recovery Facilitator what mostly lies ahead is pain and satisfactions, and, if they are using a (DC – DE – MD – VA Region) problems. Whatever helpful role alcohol self-empowering approach, do so in had in my life is over. time relying primarily on internal Veteran science writer and friend of SMART Recovery Maia Szalavitz As another organization suggests, if resources rather than outside assistance. publishes the most significant book of someone achieves moderation “our But not entirely by themselves, because the year on what addiction is, what it is hats are off to them” and we indeed we all learn in community, whether not, and how treatment professionals, wish them well. However, for many that community is SMART Recovery support groups and the criminal justice individuals, the risks of attempting that or some other community. Therefore, system should behave – if they want to outcome, and the small benefit typically self-empowerment is not solitary achieve success. to be gained from it, suggest that for empowerment. Although self-empower- many the self-empowered decision is to ment might lead some to moderate Early on in my recovery, when I first pursue abstinence. consumption, for many the realization began attending SMART Recovery that there are far more meaningful ways meetings, one of the veteran facilitators I use the same reasoning when I to live will lead to abstinence from told a meeting, that at SMART decide not to swim in a rough ocean, problematic substances, and full Recovery, “if someone believed not to climb without a rope, and not to engagement with passions far more addiction was a disease, he should drive fast on a curving road. Perhaps the important than experiencing substances. stop using, and if he believed addiction activity will work out safely, but I’m not Self-empowerment is the process of was not a disease, he should stop willing to take the chance because there connecting with relevant communities using, so whatever your view on that is much to lose. I lose little by this to build the internal capacity to subject, the goal of this SMART choice, and gain safety and substantial overcome problematic addictive meeting is abstinence.” peace of mind. behavior, and having accomplished As I have moved from being an that goal, moving one’s focus on to attendee at multiple meetings a week, leading an even more meaningful and and became a facilitator for two and Articles are welcome! purposeful life. co-facilitator for a third, I have since If you have a story or information Author’s note: This article is based learned that the facilitator’s comment you would like to see published in on a presentation at the UK SMART dated back to the old Rational Recovery News & Views, please submit it Recovery annual conference on September days, and may be the only famous line to Christi Farmer, 14, 2016, in Stoke-on-Trent, England. from the old days that has survived into [email protected] SMART Recovery and into the official Unsolicited material is most welcome! opening at many SMART Recovery meetings. I personally find that

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 12 Book Review Continued observation helpful, because underlying tion treatment field, are increasingly But SMART Recovery has never it is the point that SMART meetings arguing that addiction is a learned made any effort to disparage any other are open and welcoming, wherever behavior (like falling in love) or by support program, nor any particular someone is on the road to recovery, and Szalavitz, in Unbroken Brain, a learning treatment program for that matter. however they may feel about some of disorder, like OCD, or like Asperger Szalavitz began her recovery journey the intellectual debates surrounding Syndrome, a form of autism so benign in the 1980s, before there was a SMART recovery. that the transformational DSM-5 no Recovery, so she unquestioningly longer even lists it as a diagnosis, or like attended both AA and NA meetings ADHD, a diagnosis so new that Szalavitz mandated by the courts (her recovery feels it would have been given to her, began when she was subject to a 15 had the psychology community used the years-to-life sentence for selling cocaine acronym when she was a child. and using heroin under the punitive As Szalavitz argues, “understanding “Rockefeller laws” then in effect in her addiction as a learning disorder native New York) and by the in-patient means creating individualized rehab program the judge with jurisdic- approaches to address it – on the tion over her criminal case sent her to. biological, psychological, social and And, Szalavitz took what she could, cultural levels.” To be accurate, Szalavitz and left behind what she couldn’t, from is not saying that substance abuse or the her 12 step meetings and feels that at other types of maladaptive behavior we the least the social interaction helped. face every day in SMART Recovery In Unbroken Brain, she refers to the face-to-face and online meetings do not famous “Rat Park” research so familiar affect brain function or brain chemistry to those of us who have seen the TED But, Szalavitz contributes to the growing Talk “Everything You Think You Know body of literature that convincingly About Addiction is Wrong,” which argues that a medically-based disease demonstrates that a social network is model that considers biology the critical to having one’s addiction Maia Szalavitz is a longtime friend of absolute cause of addiction is not only narrative end well. In Unbroken Brain, SMART Recovery and onetime speaker wrong, based on the ever-growing Szalavitz asks her readers whether they at a recent SMART Recovery confer- peer-reviewed research, it is also think that someone with a substance ence She has a long and informative counter-productive in the effort to make abuse problem, who has a stimulating recovery story (I prefer the more recent recovery from addiction successful. career, a loving family, and money in term “addiction narrative”), and she SMART Recovery, often in the the bank would have a better chance does not rest on the whatever-you- official openings that facilitators read at of succeeding than a homeless person, believe side of the spectrum. Joining a the beginning of meetings, also, in the who last lost his family and several long list of great books and scholarly spirit of the time-honored belief that jobs, and no funds to secure even articles, dating back to another friend of “everybody’s recovery is their own,” low-quality housing? The question is SMART Recovery, Stanton Peele, in his welcomes meeting attendees to sample almost rhetorical. book Love and Addiction (written with other programs if they find doing so Archie Brodsky in 1975) and moving Now that she is years away from 12 helpful in their recovery. This forward with ever-increasing speed, step meetings and from rehab programs pronouncement may date from the Szalavitz demonstrates convincingly that that combined a medically-based day years when SMART Recovery had far addiction is not a disease at all. Some program with mandated support fewer meetings than the 2,200 it has individuals with addiction narratives meetings that emphasized that addiction now world-wide, with over 50 in some who have moved on to science writing is a moral failing (and following years regions, including the one from which or even academic positions in the addic- of research about the effectiveness of I am writing.

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 13 Book Review Continued that mandated-combination) – she has choice (thereby making stopping to use stop using. Even The Betty Ford Center criticisms of 12 step programs unrelated a personal affirmative choice, too). So, opposed the treatment-first measure, to the potential social benefits. as much as she likes SMART Recovery even though it would receive substantial While many SMART Recovery for its scientific foundation, she probably California state government funding as a meetings are on the way toward wouldn’t endorse the “Power of Choice” result of a law that mandated multiple affirmatively becoming warm, signs some of us hang on the entrance to efforts at treatment before any jail or comfortable, and non-judgmental places the meetings we facilitate either. prison time could be considered. to share, 12 step meetings have been Of course, this goes back to Szalavitz’s What Szalavitz is clearly saying is that seen as such by many for a long time. analysis of addiction as a learning the notion of addiction as a crime first, Szalavitz’s principal criticism of 12 step disorder. The causes for the learning and a crime that demonstrates moral meetings is that, in her view, at many of disorder are multiple and individual to failings, while inconsistently also them, particularly those physically almost everyone who has abused drugs or regarding it as a disease, is pervasive and housed at high-cost medically-based alcohol, or gambled or ate too much. research demonstrates that such a belief in-patient treatment programs, there has This brings the reader to two of the system is bad policy, inconsistent policy, been abusive treatment by counselors, book’s most interesting observations. and as a matter of science, wrong. who believe that their meeting attendees Criminalization for the use and the According to Szalavitz, the model should be forced, through bullying, into distribution of drugs (not including that governs the view of the majority recognizing that they have hit bottom, alcohol, except during Prohibition, of policy makers and treatment and need a higher power (however during which alcohol addiction actually professionals in America is the internally defined) to rescue them from the moral went up) date back notoriously to the inconsistent view that addiction is a failing of addiction. (As alternatives, Jim Crow era in southern states, when serious crime that requires serious Szalavitz recommends SMART politicians there wanted heavy sentences criminal sanctions (whether the Recovery, as well as Women for Sobriety for the use and sale of addictive drugs as sanctions are racist or not), while at the and some other, lesser-known support part of an argument that African- same time is a medical disease, not based programs that emphasize science rather Americans (obviously, not the term the on other, psychological, factors, and is at than spirituality.) Southern politicians used back then) the same time a moral failing that Therefore, Szalavitz does not have an would, on drugs, attack white women, requires spiritual healing to overcome. all-encompassing prejudice against 12 and that white women on drugs would Not only does public policy and step programs. She freely admits that find African-American men irresistible. substance abuse treatment not work, when she began her recovery, 12 steps The upshot of all of this, to Szalavitz, is when weighted down by all of that – meetings were the only game in town, that in America the criminalization of success can come by thinking of and she found them valuable. drug use is and has always been racist. addiction as a learning disability, a learning disability that can be developed But today, after years of recovery and But, we need to pay attention to her by different people for entirely different years as a science writer (for Time.com second point here. Criminalization of reasons. among other places), Szalavitz has drug use doesn’t reduce the use of drugs. concluded that meetings that make it Back in 2000, Szalavitz writes, there was Suffice it to say the limited space of clear that only recognition of addiction a proposed measure in California that this article does not allow me to as a moral failing, that one “hitting would force courts to require not one, expound upon on all of the significant bottom” is engaged in an activity over not two, but three attempts at rehab, points in this remarkable book. Modern which one is powerless without reliance before the courts would be allowed to thinking about addiction, addiction on a Higher Power, has been analyzed in consider a criminal sentence of an treatment, and related public policy peer-reviewed research, as a mindset that individual arrested on a drug charge. dates back at least to Stanton Peele and is counter-productive to recovery. Some celebrities opposed the measure, Archie Brodsky in 1975, but the pace for Szalavitz is not thrilled by labeling believing that unless drug users fear swift books like Unbroken Brain has acceler- addiction as a personal affirmative criminal sanctions, they would never ated in recent years. The scientific basis

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 14 of SMART Recovery has contributed to Corporate Development, and Director this dialogue. Grant Proposals and Funding Requests. Just because Maia Szalavitz is a friend Our first strategic planning session was a of SMART Recovery, and goes so far as huge success, and the board plans to to recommend SMART Recovery in this meet quarterly going forward. As the book, she is under no obligation to agree Executive Director, I will take direction with every observation in the SMART from the board and take care of the day- “Life is like Recovery Handbook or on www.smart- to-day operations. riding a recovery.org. A high note from the last quarter However this is a book that should included attending a community aware- bicycle. To ness meeting in Aidrie hosted by the not be missed. It will help every reader’s keep your understanding of this overwhelmingly Airdrie Health Foundation and the critical topic, from a variety of Thumbs Up Foundation. The meeting balance you perspectives. And, if this book helps the was wonderful, and I had the pleasure of readers, it cannot but help the men and meeting the Airdrie MLA (Members of must keep the Legislative Assembly) and raising women who walk into our meetings for moving. openness, caring and understanding. awareness of what SMART Recovery ” brings to the health care community in Airdrie. — Albert Einstein Good news is that Airdrie is now holding its weekly meeting on Tuesday nights. This will allow our members to attend their weekly SMART meeting while also attending the 8-week Relapse Prevention program which is hosted by Alberta Health Services – Mental Health and Addictions. International Development The province of Alberta currently hosts meetings in five cities; Calgary has six weekly meetings, Edmonton has two SMART Recovery Alberta update weekly meetings, Red Deer, Airdrie, and October News & Views Stettler each have one weekly meeting. Hello to the SMART world from I am hoping that our next Alberta Calgary, Alberta, Canada update will include announcing I have to apologize for missing the Calgary’s first Family & Friends meeting last couple of updates. Our last update and Strathmore, Alberta’s first SMART was December, 2015. Since then a lot Recovery Meeting. of good things have been happening Stay tuned and I look forward to our in Alberta. next update in January, 2017! SMART Recovery Alberta (SRA) Sincerely, is excited to announce that four new Curtis Boudreau directors were added to our board in May, 2016, and we had our first strategic Executive Director planning session in August, 2016. SMART Recovery Alberta We now have six directors, consisting of; a President, Secretary of the Board, Director of Operations, Director of Information Technology, Director of

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©2016 ADASHN, Inc., 7304 Mentor Avenue, Suite F, Mentor, OH 44060, all rights reserved. All statements regarding self-help in this newsletter are the views of the author and are not an official endorsement of the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Self-Help Network, Inc.

SMART Recovery® News & Views Volume 22, Issue 4 • October 2016 Page 15