What Is Disordered Eating
Disordered eating: Isnt everyone doing it? Well, most of us are doing it. We are skipping breakfast, eating too much fast food, eating bags of chocolate then starving the whole next day, trying to figure out what to eat every day and what size body is right for us. We eat the wrong foods or dont follow the plan we set out for ourselves, then feel bad about ourselves and vow not to do it again. It used to just be women who do this, now men do it too. It feels like a vicious addictive cycle.
Disordered eating is complicated and difficult to overcome, mostly because high calorie and less nutritious foods tend to taste better to us. However, this is not an eating disorder. Poor eating is unhealthy and can get us frustrated and down, and it can develop into an eating disorder, but in itself, it is not an actual disorder.
Maladaptive Behavior Vs Chronic Disease
SMART Recovery characterizes alcoholism and addiction as maladaptive behaviors which can be changed. Rather than conceptualize alcoholism and addiction as a chronic disease, SMART recovery encourages people struggling with addiction to not see themselves as powerless and at the mercy of a condition, but rather to see themselves as empowered to overcome the problematic behaviors.2
Therefore, programs such as AA and NA that characterize addiction as a chronic disease rather than a maladaptive behavior, understand the need for ongoing treatment throughout a persons life, similar to other chronic conditions such as diabetes. Addiction is a progressive, relapsing disease that requires intensive treatments, continuing aftercare, and family or peer support to maintain sobriety over the course of a persons lifetime.9 Within this type of view then, relapse is common and expected.
However, within the medical community, alcohol use disorder is considered a chronic relapsing brain disease.8,10 The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism characterizes AUD as compulsive alcohol use, loss of control over alcohol intake, and a negative emotional state when not using. Addiction is caused by a combination of environmental, biological, and behavioral, and genetic factors.9
We Work In Partnership
The core of SMART Recovery is the meeting led by a trained peer Facilitator in the community, but this is not the only way of introducing people to SMART. This involves us training some of their staff to kick start meetings within their services, build links to the peer-led meetings in the community and encourage service users to train as peer Facilitators themselves. The Partnership does not reduce our commitment to peer led meetings, indeed the approach is helping us grow the peer led meetings very quickly..
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Find A Smart Recovery Meeting
SMART sponsors local meetings and daily online meetingsdaily online meetings. Also, our online message board and 24/7 chat room are excellent forums to learn about SMART and obtain support.
Please note that registration for a free confidential account is required for accessing any of these SMART Recovery Online community resources.
What Is Samhsa’s National Helpline
SAMHSAs National Helpline, , or TTY: is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations.
Also visit the online treatment locator, or send your zip code via text message: 435748 to find help near you. Read more about the HELP4U text messaging service.
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Developing A Personal Action Plan For Addiction Recovery: Useful Tips
Remember, natural recovery has taught us there are four key ingredients to achieving recovery. These are humility, motivation, sustained effort, and the restoration of meaning and purpose to life. With these four key ingredients in mind you can build a personal recovery program.
1) Prepare for a personal marathon . You have solved many other problems in your life. With sufficient effort, you can solve this one. The first big milestone is 90 days, followed by one year. You don’t need to be perfect, or re-set the clock every time you slip. You do need to stay focused. The only way to lose this fight is to give up.
2) Determine whether you just need to work on an addiction problem, or whether you also need to address other life problems. You don’t need to solve these all at one time. However, you may need additional resources and help . Do not let this discourage you.
4) Keep records. Remember risky drinking includes both how much and how often. If you plan to moderate, record how much and how often, or record big fat zeros if you plan to abstain. You might record the number of days you worked out, the time you spent with your kids, or random acts of kindness. Find something truly meaningful and count it or measure it. Then, record it. A calendar devoted to this purpose is one place to keep the record. Keep it up for at least 90 days.
If these first nine actions have not been enough, consider some additional ones:
Mutual Support Groups And Self
Mutual support groups and self-help programs can be implemented online or in a community setting. These interventions include structured programs that have behavioral, spiritual, and cognitive components, such as 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous .
Community-based self-help groups have been associated with higher rates of abstinence from alcohol and other substances, particularly for weekly or more frequent programs. In 2020, a Cochrane Systematic Review found that peerled AA and professionallydelivered TwelveStep Facilitation were more effective than other established treatments at increasing abstinence from alcohol.
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The Basic Principles Of Addiction Recovery
Formal treatment focuses its approach on following the basic principles of addiction recovery. Even if they include different strategies and treatments, they all address basic needs. The basic principles of addiction recovery are laid out by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and include:
- Physical well-being: addiction treatment should start to address the physical damage caused by addiction while treating withdrawal symptoms simultaneously.
- Mental health: most addiction cases also experience co-occurring disorders. The right rehab program will address mental illness and substance abuse together.
- Social skills: its easier for addicts to withdraw from social situations, but working on social skills in treatment is paramount for long-lasting recovery.
- Triggers: every person with a drug or alcohol addiction experiences specific triggers that prompt them to use again. Receiving treatment helps patients not only identify these triggers but also find ways to cope and control them.
How To Get Help
If youre looking for substance abuse help for yourself or a loved one, it can be intimidating to start looking. The problem with addiction is that its such a delicate subject most people will not discuss it with other family members or friends. It isnt as if you would ask a co-worker for recommendations on treatment. This often leaves people feeling lost and hopeless.At Lighthouse Recovery Institute, you can always contact us to speak with an addiction specialist confidentially. Our team will explore your case and listen to all your concerns and questions. We know you feel scared, tired, and hopeless. This is why we focus on listening to your needs to offer a personalized treatment program that adapts to you and only you.Yes, picking up the phone and calling is scary, but the possibility of dying of an overdose is even more terrifying. Start your recovery journey today. Kelly, John F. Humphreys, Keith Ferri, Marica . Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs for alcohol use disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 3: CD012880. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2. PMC 7065341. PMID 32159228. Dawson DA, Grant BF, Stinson FS, Chou PS. Estimating the effect of help-seeking on achieving recovery from alcohol dependence. Addiction. 2006 Jun 101:824-34. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01433.x. PMID: 16696626.
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Introducing Smart Recovery Addiction Programs
SMART Recovery stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training. Self-management in relation to the work of sobriety and recovery is honed on self-responsibility. By providing exercises, methods, and online support it provides individuals an alternative self-help program of recovery than the more common Alcoholic Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Narcotic Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous or Gambling Anonymous programming.
We understand the 12-step program is not for everyone. We know it can be daunting based on an individuals religious beliefs, non-religious positions, and/or spiritual values. This is why a client-centred approach to addiction and substance abuse treatment is important. We work with individuals within their own sober journey to create a plan that allows individuals to discover alternative self-help groups.
To find out more about our SMART Recovery Program, give us a call at 558-8461. We are available 24/7 to answer your calls.
Variations Of The 12 Steps
Since its origin with AA, the 12-Step model has been adopted and altered by many groups to fit other programs for addiction treatment and otherwise. Many groups, like Narcotics Anonymous, use the steps exactly as they were conceived by AA. Others have modified the steps to fit their own needs and cultures. For example, a Native American group has combined the 12 Steps with the Native American concept of the Medicine Wheel to create a program designed specifically to help indigenous Americans who struggle with alcoholism and addiction, the Medicine Wheel and 12 Steps program. Others have come up with similar ideas to integrate the basic ideas of the 12 Steps into a cultural framework that makes sense for members of that culture.
Another variation comes from the fact that some people are uncomfortable with the specific, religious aspects of the 12-Step program. As stated above, and as evident by the steps themselves, the 12-Step model originated from a Christian point of view. Those who are not Christian have modified the steps to refer to their specific religious or spiritual practice as a way to connect more with the structure of the 12-Step program. In addition, a number of non-religious 12-Step groups have modified the steps to fit a secular model that can help those who are agnostic or atheist practice the program without feeling forced to adhere to a religion they dont believe in.
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Whats Formal Treatment For Substance Abuse
Formal treatment is the one offered by trained professionals. Think traditional drug and alcohol rehab centers. Most formal treat settings will use evidence-based treatments to address substance abuse meaning their efforts will be backed by reliable and substantial research. Formal treatment aims to base the program on addiction recovery principles and tried-and-tested approaches that are believed to be more effective than guesswork.Examples of formal treatment for substance abuse include:
- Addiction therapy
- Group therapy or therapeutic communities
How Can Smart Recovery Help Me Stop My Eating Disorder
SMART Recovery provides its members with tools and support that they can use to help them recover from addictions be it alcohol, or other drugs or negative behaviors. SMART Recoverys 4-Point Program® is designed to help you overcome your problems:
1. Building & Maintaining Motivation Helps you identify and keep up with your reasons for positive change. Why do you want to change what will keep you focused on that goal?
2. Coping with Urges Dealing with urges and cravings is part of recovery. SMART has tools designed to help our members cope with urges and cravings.
3. Managing Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviors We frequently turn to using drugs to either escape from or avoid addressing problems. SMART Recovery participants learn problem-solving tools to help them manage challenges along the way.
4. Living a Balanced Life Addiction can put your life out of balance you may find yourself opting to engage in your addiction rather than go to work or school. You may find that things you once enjoyed arent fun anymore. SMART give members skills to help balance both short and long-term goals, pleasures and needs that were once out of balance.
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Goals And Effectiveness Of Treatment
While each individual in treatment will have specific long- and short-term goals, allspecialized substance abuse treatment programs have three similar generalized goals
- Reducing substance abuse or achieving a substance-free life
- Maximizing multiple aspects of life functioning
- Preventing or reducing the frequency and severity of relapse
For most patients, the primary goal of treatment is attainment and maintenance ofabstinence , but this may takenumerous attempts and failures at “controlled” use before sufficient motivation ismobilized. Until the patient accepts that abstinence is necessary, the treatmentprogram usually tries to minimize the effects of continuing use and abuse througheducation, counseling, and self-help groups that stress reducing risky behavior,building new relationships with drug-free friends, changing recreational activitiesand lifestyle patterns, substituting substances used with less risky ones, andreducing the amount and frequency of consumption, with a goal of convincing thepatient of her individual responsibility for becoming abstinent Total abstinence isstrongly associated with a positive long-term prognosis.
Why Choose A 12
The 12-step program is not a one-size-fits-all solution to addiction. There are varying reasons some individuals may desire a 12-step alternative, including:
- Wanting to focus on a less spiritual or religious route to treatment.
- Believing that addiction is within your control and not wanting to submit to a higher power in that aspect.
- Having been unsuccessful using a 12-step program in the past.
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The 12 Steps With Other Treatments
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuses Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide, short-term residential programs developed the idea of using a modified 12-Step approach to provide a shorter stay in treatment that included follow-up through a 12-Step fellowship.9 This is seen as a way to provide the important post-treatment structure that helps people maintain long-term recovery. Other programs have also incorporated the 12 Steps, both by encouraging clients to attend 12-Step fellowship meetings, and by incorporating 12-Step ideas into their practices.
While 12-Step facilitation programs dont necessarily follow the steps, they promote the use of a 12-Step methodology, in the hope that clients will move to a 12-Step program after rehab to help maintain sobriety. In addition, certain treatment centers base their model for service around some of the ideas promoted through the 12-Step program. These centers can offer research-based services and promote a more scientific understanding of addiction treatment, but they incorporate some of the spiritual, psychological, and practical practices that the 12-Step program promotes. This results in an encompassing model of care designed to support clients through rehab and to give tools that they can use after treatment to maintain their recovery for the long-term.
What Is Smart Recovery
Self-Management and Recovery Training, commonly referred to as SMART, is a support group for individuals recovering from alcoholism and other addictions. It helps individuals, family members and friends learn how to move forward in a life after rehab. The tools and techniques taught in SMART Recovery meetings are based on scientific research that can help people make healthy life choices. The organization has programs available in many cities worldwide, as well as treatment centers, correctional facilities and online group meetings.
is based on cognitive behavioral therapy and rational emotional behavior therapySMART recovery is a program of choice. I believe I have the choice to use or not to use, to drink or not to drink. Im in my power when I choose not to drink.
Dennis Hofmaier
Some types of addiction that SMART Recovery programs help treat include:
- Alcoholism
- Drug addiction
- Behavioral disorders or process addictions
While 12 step programs, like Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon, have long been used to treat alcoholism, SMART Recovery has grown substantially over the last decade. In the United States alone, SMART reached a milestone of 1,500 meetings in 2015. The United Kingdom and Australia have also seen an uptick in SMART Recovery programs in recent years.
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How Smart Recovery Meetings Help Family Members And Friends
There are no requirements for attending SMART Recovery meetings. Many SMART Recovery programs open their doors to the family members and friends who are affected by a loved ones alcoholism. Some individuals who take part in meetings have loved ones who are currently seeking treatment at an alcohol rehab facility. Others may go to SMART Recovery programs to receive advice on coping with a loved ones drinking problem.
Alcoholism can affect a loved ones professional and personal life, as well as their overall well-being. SMART Recovery programs teach these loved ones how to communicate and support someone suffering from a drinking problem. They will also learn how to provide encouragement and motivation without enabling the persons drinking behaviors.
Family members and friends can attend SMART Recovery meetings for as long as they see fit. Even if its been several months or years, loved ones are always welcome to check back in with the group, give updates and find assistance for challenges that arise.
What Services Are Not Included In The Day Rate
Ancillary services such as:
- Ambulance services, emergency room visits
- Specialized pain management
- Additional specialized medical services and consultation
- Physical therapy
- Transportation services
- Offsite meals
- Personal laundry and cleaning
- Therapeutic services
These optional ancillary clinical and medical services may or may not be covered by the patients insurance.
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Principles Of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research
Self-help groups can complement and extend the effects of professional treatment. The most prominent self-help groups are those affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous , Narcotics Anonymous , and Cocaine Anonymous , all of which are based on the 12-step model. Most drug addiction treatment programs encourage patients to participate in self-help group therapy during and after formal treatment. These groups can be particularly helpful during recovery, offering an added layer of community-level social support to help people achieve and maintain abstinence and other healthy lifestyle behaviors over the course of a lifetime.
