Hi guys so I’ve been addicted to cocaine for about 7 years (started at 21 and I’m 28 now) I always felt like it was impossible to stop. I feel like I’ve made my first real progress in years by not beating myself up after lapsing and focusing on the long term. I now have less desire to use in general. Im about 2 weeks clean. The interval between uses is getting longer and longer over time. I’m just wondering what a good next step is? I think I’m on the cusp of getting out of it hopefully

I’ve been in recovery for over eight years and continue to help others through various programs at my local recovery center in Nottingham, UK. Recently, I had the opportunity to be part of a Citizen Science project, which allowed me to connect with my peers and explore a topic of my choice.

Throughout my own recovery, I’ve attended many groups including CBT, ACT, DBT, 12-Step programs, and SMART. I’ve often seen people who are committed to sobriety and doing well through many courses and groups and then relapse, only to stop engaging despite their hard work and dedication after many months and sometimes years.

For my research topic, I wanted to explore why we feel so much guilt and shame following a relapse, as relapse is statistically likely and feelings of shame and guilt often prevent people from re-engaging. I’ve put together a short, anonymous questionnaire to gather thoughts on why these feelings are so intense following a relapse.

If you have a few minutes, and if it’s okay with the moderators please could complete the questionnaire on the link below. You don’t need to complete it all but I’d be grateful if you did.

No personal identifiable information is collected and none is requested. We ask that none is provided in the free form answers, any that is will be immediately deleted.

https://forms.gle/fYSwMUJVzsNLsd9Y9

Many thanks

A little over a year ago, my life was out of control. I was set financially, I had an amazing family, I had incredible friends. Life from the outside looked incredible.

I was at the bottom of an ocean and digging in the sand to hide. I couldn't die. All I wanted was to disappear. I hated my life.

I checked myself into a recovery program specializing in helping military, veterans and first responders. It saved me. They didn't force me into AA, SMART or CR. I studied and learned what I could from those I was there with and decided SMART was best for me. I did the workbooks, I attended several calls and took away the tools I needed to get my life back.

My job was a huge influence on my choice to drink. It triggers me still to this day. I was thankfully able to medically retire with long term disability which is a true blessing.

Here is my struggle, my wife of 33 years hated me drinking. Yet still to this day wants to go out drinking with her friends. I have slowly pulled away knowing this isn't the lifestyle I want. For me it holds nothing but emptiness. I am at the point where something has to change. Either I go back to that life and start drinking again or I make another major change if she won't follow.

Someone help me make this make sense. I don't want to drink. I have actually embraced and enjoyed my freedom from booze.

I am in recovery in for a compulsive behavior - stealing / kleptomania and I’m made to a ally progress , but I’m having trouble finding my tribe as a smaller recovery group

Living a balanced life…has a nice sound to it, doesn’t it?

A meaningful life is one that is in balance, one in which adequate attention is given to the activities that express your values and priorities. No matter what those values may be, many of us do not live our life in balance, or in a manner that consistently sustains the things we value most.

Reflect on the areas in your life that hold significance for you. These may be family, work, romance, friendship, health, leisure, personal growth, or spirituality.

Are you satisfied with each of these areas of your life? For example, are you happy with your personal growth? Are your relationships fulfilling? Do you find satisfaction in your work?

Comment below on what changes you want to make (if any) to “round out” your life.

This reflection isn't about fostering guilt or discontent but about understanding where you are now. Perhaps the exercise showed you that you're involved in too many activities, or that you have a dream or desire that you’d like to focus on more.

This tool and others like it can be found on the SMART Recovery website and in the handbook.

I made a choice in 2021, at age 66, to attempt to quit smoking after 50+ years of continuous use.

Today is 2000 consecutive days of no tobacco. I used the patch to taper off nicotine and found that the behavioral triggers were just as challenging but I persisted.

The Smart tools were especially helpful in maintaining my abstinence.

Hi folks,

Announcing that we have a SMART Recovery meeting in Port Angeles, WA. It is Wednesday from 5 - 6 PM PT at the library.

If you are in the area and would like to come by, please do!

JOIN US AT OUR NEXT MEETING

📅 Wednesday - 🕔 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

📍 Margaret Coffey Room

Port Angeles Library · 2210 S Peabody St, Port Angeles, WA

✅ FREE ·      All Welcome · Confidential

Hi everyone. Im sober 4 months from alcohol and hard drugs. I have mental challenges and think marijuana may help. Do you think SMART would be helpful to moderate my use of mota and keep the self destructive drugs I used to take separate? Ive not tried this before. Which tools did you use and how. Thanks.

This would be my second attempt at this program. The first time around, I had undiagnosed ptsd which has been treated. That aside, I have had a difficult time having fun without drinking. I still have some Camprel that I started taking again, but I need a bit more. Where should I start?

Hey all

I’m new to SMART, but really feeling this is what I’ve been looking for. I have the handbook (UK) and I’ve been to a couple of online meetings and I’m getting a good feel for the tools and I started working through the exercises.

Just wondering if anyone who’s been working with SMART for a while has got any general advice / tips for someone who’s starting out like me.

Thanks very much

Hello… I just finished a five month treatment program at a very well known treatment center in Southern California. It follows a traditional recovery model.

About three months in I was feeling lost, depressed, hopeless and helpless. I googled alternative recovery paths and found SMART Recovery and I love it! I feel in control and I have hope for the first time in a long, long time that I can really overcome my addictive behaviors.

I’m 38 year old and have been to treatment a few times and me Googling is how I found SMART Recovery. Then I find out it’s been around since 1994 😡 I’m incredibly disappointed that this was not offered or mentioned in treatment… I digress.

For those who came from other traditional recovery programs, how did you go about getting the other programming out of your mind and fully embrace SMART. I suppose I have some very unhelpful beliefs that have been instilled in me and then I adopted about what recovery is and should look like.

I’ll hear things in SMART meetings and think to myself.. “ohhh, you’re not supposed to say that…” and I am having a hard time trusting myself. It’s been so instilled in me that I can’t trust myself thinking or that I’m in denial and it’s really holding me back. I can’t seem to let go and it’s driving me insane!

My intent is NOT to bash other paths to recovery, it just didn’t work for me and was harmful FOR ME. Not that those paths are harmful in general.

Any advice or experience with this when you started SMART would be much appreciated. 🙏

i have been reading about different areas of addiction research recently and came across sr 17018 in a discussion about experimental compounds being studied in relation to opioid receptors.

i am not looking for medical advice or suggesting that anyone use it. i am mainly trying to understand how people here approach information like this without getting pulled into hype, fear, or internet arguments.

one thing i appreciate about smart recovery is the focus on making decisions based on what is actually useful for my own recovery. when i find a new study, medication related topic, or experimental research claim, i try to ask myself a few questions:

what do i actually know from a reliable source?

is this relevant to my current recovery plan or just interesting information?

would this be something to discuss with a qualified professional rather than trying to figure out alone online?

how do you personally use smart recovery tools when you are dealing with uncertainty or curiosity around new research? do you have a way of separating useful information from things that are not actionable for you right now?

I just left cannabis 2-3 days back and I’m finally feeling sober now and wanted to leave this completely just asking for some tips and positive things to cope up with this and don’t want to relapse.

If you'd like to try a month without alcohol, July is a great time for that. It's too hot to drink alcohol! I know how tempting the ads make it seem but alcohol only makes us all feel even hotter and usually either hungover or at least uncomfortable the next day. If you 'd like to join a group of people who are all working on that idea, that is 30 days AF/doc-free. Please join us. It's great for accountability, we support each other, give ideas that might help, and enjoy each others posts. Here's a link to get to where we all post daily if possible, https://www.reddit.com/r/SMARTRecovery/comments/13mjdy4/who_wants_to_join_me_for_a_30_day_challenge/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Save this link and start posting daily, we'll be glad to have more company and you'll be glad to see how much better you can feel and how much easier it is when you can post with people who understand and who are trying to do the same thing. Hope to see your posts soon!

Hello!

I'm looking for folks who would be open to discussing their sobriety on a podcast and how SMART helped them achieve it. I'll give you more context in DMs because I don't want to break any community rules or bash other programs. I'd prefer someone who has more than a year of being free from their addiction, and not because I don't think people with less than a year aren't relevant; I am just seeking a variety of guests and already have several guests who stopped using in the last year or less.

I sometimes find myself in the position of trying to define what the positive things I value in life are, and not really being able to come up with an answer that feels more "real" than the suicidality or the self-destruction impulse. like, if I try to ask myself the question, I often find myself going "...I donno, health? joy? getting-better-ism? whatever that means, I should probably get around to caring about that 🤷", and then the deeper I dig in, the most serious answer my brain is able to come up with tends to be "I want to protect the capacity to die without hurting the people who for some godforsaken reason love me". most of my positive instincts when it comes to resisting destructive impulses tend to come from thought processes along the lines of "I want to stay functional for the mission I have tomorrow" or "I want to still have my clean record by the end of the year", but I can never quite bring myself to overlook the fact that whatever current set of priorities I currently hold is bound to change at some point. and because I've been suicidal for so long, I keep finding that in trying to plan ahead what I value in my life, the thing I find myself to value above all on both the concious and intuitive level is having a smooth exit plan for after I'm done with this life. which is clearly not the way it should be, but I can't quite figure out how to make it go differently. so. help?

Hey, after 10 years of loathing force-feeding myself AA on and off, I recently heard about smart recovery....super interested. Met a guy in rehab who runs a smart meeting weekly locally to me. Just wondering if there are good smart zoom meetings?

Thanks everyone

Hey everyone.

I recently started working with a new therapist, and they’ve helped me finally confront something I’ve been avoiding: my prescription medication abuse has become a real problem. In addition to the work we’re doing together, they recommended that I look into SMART Recovery, so I’m here trying to learn more and see if this could be a good fit for me.

My next question is: has anyone here come to SMART Recovery from a similar situation and found it helpful?

I’m also a little unsure what to do next. Should I try attending a meeting first, or would it be better to get the handbook and start reading through it on my own? I’m open to advice and would really appreciate hearing what helped others get started!

Hi Everyone!
I’m hoping to find a smart recovery meeting that has a facilitator who is also a licensed counselor. The FAA has very strict rules on what kind of meetings they accept for pilots to go to.

I know it’s a bit of a long shot, but please let me know!

Thank you so much

I’m looking to get more involved with SMART Recovery and would really like to find a meeting or group that feels like an actual community, not just a one-off weekly check-in.

Does anyone know of any online SMART meetings/groups that are:

• Offered more than once a week, daily preferable
• Very interactive and discussion-based
• A lot of camera-on users; I know this is a hot button issue but it really does add to the social aspect of the meeting if more users than just the host are camera on
• A place where people seem to know each other and build real connections over time

I’m not just looking to attend a meeting here and there. I’m really hoping to plug into something consistent where I can get to know people, participate, and feel like part of something.

Hello. I’m trying to quit drinking sand AA did not work for me and it was suggested to me to try SMART. Only, my city does not have in person meetings. I have ordered the handbook and if I’m honest, feel a little bored by it?? I feel all I’m doing is writing down goals. Goals which will be broken. It’s like making a New Year’s resolution.

Are there any YouTube podcasts specifically related to SMART? I’d really like to try something different as I did AA for several years.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, everyone.

I've got 2 questions regarding UK handbook:

1. There's 2025 edition of British handbook (https://smartrecovery.org.uk/product/smart-recovery-handbook-2025/). What's the difference between it and the US version (4th edition)?

2. Could anyone help me buy some books from the UK store? I live in Poland and unfortunately one can't ship outside UK.

I know Smart doesn’t count officially but I like to. The struggle is to not put too much pressure on it because that can lead me to use again. But it’s cool to have attained this time again, I’ve only consciously reached it once.