AnthonyV

Not trying to make you envious, but I'm lucky enough to have four SMART meetings a week in my area. I am really grateful there is a vibrant SMART Recovery community where I live. I have a week and a half left to the outpatient program and SMART is already an important part of my recovery.


Zen, yes, having a plan is an important part of my recovery which was missing in the past. As I see it now, for the immediate months after IOP is done I will fill my after work nights with SMART at least three nights a week, hit the gym three nights a week. I already have the weekend activities planned out for the next two weeks and will try to make sure I have the upcoming weekends planned out at least a week ahead of time. I'm also getting involved with a community gardening committee, which I'm excited about. Of course I cannot plan out every minute of every day but I need to at least have a strategy to avoid falling into the boredom trap. I do feel like I'm building a new vision for my life, which is exciting.

Finally, I don't plan on retaining my IOP counselor once I'm done with the outpatient program as that counselor is too heavily invested in that other program that I don't plan on working. So my plan is to contact a therapist I used to see a few years back (she is a certified substance abuse counselor as well as a licensed therapist). I'm going to email her tomorrow to see if she is accepting new/returning patients for my aftercare.