PERSONAL VIEWS ON RECOVERY

PERSONAL VIEWS ON RECOVERY Personal Views Page

(This page will carry from time to time the personal views of some of our members on issues which they believe are important in the recovery process. Our present policy is that these authors will remain anonymous and will be limited to members of the Washington, D.C. Area SMART groups. They do not necessarily reflect positions either of the Washington, D.C. Area SMART groups, nor its National Headquarters. Comments are welcomed.)

Discussion of Other Roads to Recovery in SMART Meetings

The question recently arose in our meetings about our attitude toward those interested in solving their addiction problems and helping others to do so, but not fully committed to abstinence and interested in discussing other approaches. The following is one group member's response:

I am an unabashed advocate of working toward abstinence through reason, scientific method, and other techniques for myself and others who choose to continue to attend SMART Recovery meetings on a regular basis. This does NOT mean I think:

1. Other abstinence programs, including SOS, WFS, RR, and 12-step programs, don't or

can't work.

2. Other people can't use other programs, i.e., MM, to achieve the goal of sensible use of

alcohol, and possibly some other drugs as well.

3. People can't use our meetings to reach abstinence in one area (say, cocaine), and still be

using non-addictively in another (say, alcohol or marijuana).

4. People who have not yet made up their minds about abstinence cannot attend our

meetings.

5. Only abstinent people can coordinate SMART meetings, and maybe, more generally,

6. The solution to society's problems is getting everyone to stop using alcohol and other

drugs.

Sorry for all the double negatives there. The point I'm trying to make is that I just fight my little corner, based on my own experience and the attractiveness of the SMART Recovery program, trying to create a special space where people who have decided to abstain, or who wish to consider making a decision to abstain, can come and learn the tools we believe are useful to achieve this goal. I consider our SMART Recovery meetings to be that special place.

There is a subsidiary issue here which has come up from time to time about how much we in our meetings should be advocating abstinence as a goal, when we recognize that there are these other paths and that those who come to our meetings, as part of our emphasis on self-help, should be deciding that issue for themselves. One extreme view suggests that since we admit the validity of other approaches, we should be open to discussing all in our meetings. I don't agree with this. SMART Recovery meetings are clearly identified as abstinence discussions. Persons interested in discussing other approaches should seek out one of the other groups mentioned above or some other forum. One more moderate view is that we should remain neutral while our participants are sorting out their own views about what they want to do. I don't particularly like that one, either, although I can see its usefulness in underlining the need for personal responsibility and self-actuating decisions.

Rather, I think it is possible, indeed necessary given the limited time available in our meetings, to concentrate our resources on our main focus, which is abstinence. We can make some very sensible arguments about why abstinence should be seriously considered by people attending our meetings, the chief among them being that it makes the whole decision-making process so much easier by eliminating countless debates about what and how much to use. Furthermore, while self-help is the focus of the group, it is inevitably tied up with support for fellow members in making rational decisions, and I think that we need to give positive encouragement when someone announces he/she is going to try the abstinent approach (all the while making clear that this is her/his decision alone). We can then get on to the real business of the meeting, which is to work on the techniques to achieve abstinence---coping with urges, etc.

This is Essay No. 7, issued November, 1998.

Previous Essays

September, 1998--How I Re-Thought My Beliefs on My "Alcoholism"

July, 1998--Why Do People Join SMART Recovery?

May, 1998--A Critique of PBS' Bill Moyers on Addiction

March, 1998--Should People With Gambling or Overeating Disorders Be Welcome At SMART Meetings?

January, 1998--Differences Between SMART and AA

November, 1997--Fifty Ways to Recover

Return to Main Page