What Program/Method of Recovery Did/Do You Use?
 

I'm looking at SMART and am impressed by the...positivism. However, I hear a lot of folks referencing AA, as well, and a couple talking about AVRT.

I hope I'm not duplicating a previous poll, but I'm very interested to know which program folks have used and how well it worked (e.g. how long sober/clean, how many slips).

I looked online for statistics for AA and found some references of 5-10 percent, which isn't very good (but don't know the reliability of the source, either).

I couldn't find anything with regard to SMART or other methods.

Thanks in advance.

I think there is little to be gained in focusing on the success or failure of recovery--on the whole or for a specific recovery program--because the numbers aren't encouraging. I think you should look at individual successes (there are so many positive ones here on SR) and strive, with all your might and whatever resources are available to you, to be in that number.

No one recovery program works for everyone. But don't limit your options by predetermining what you think won't work.

Good luck.

I wasted my time with AA for 6 of the 15yrs I drank, getting a lot worse until I did all the suggested stuff. I've now been sober about twice as long as I drank, no slips or drugs.

I wouldn't say I failed at AA for those 6 years. It took some time to believe that the actions that other members said helped them might help me too, were I to do them. Doing zero those earlier years paid off in zero. If you go, avoid staying on the fringe for too long.

Dylan, I used them all except AVRT as I was trained in RET as a counselor years ago and use it and reality therapy principles in my thinking naturally from habit. I read a bit of it and decided that it was RET thinly disguised. So I guess I used it as well.

But I could not take your poll because there is no choice for all of them. I dropped several and pretty much use only here. Well actually I don't need here anymore either. I don't get cravings or think about it except here anymore. I hang out to try to offer moral support and help others to repay what I got from here. My life back. (Sure it wasn't just SR, but SR was a 50% part for most of it)

I also am dealing with some permanent damage from my years of drinking that can be very serious. My sobriety more than a year after quitting is now medically necessary. Do I feel the urge to drink over it? Naaah. I sure wish I knew what I know now, when I was younger and starting to drink in my 30s heavier than before and 15 years before it progressed to being alcoholism. When we talk about sobriety we are talking about life, but the unspoken is that it is about death as well. Good for you for taking the bull by the horns and doing something, anything, if it works for you.

I don't think the method or program is nearly as important as your motivation.

If you have a lot of motivation, you'll make it.

I think we tend to compare ourselves to others, and that isn't always a good thing. I remember when I first went to AA, I looked around and thought to myself "I'm not as bad as some of these people, so I still have time." Well, with that attitude, you can probably guess what happened. In my case, it helped to finally think of myself as the first person to ever get sober in history, without concern for recovery statistics. This made it so that other people's successes or failures had no bearing on my own.

Weekly counseling and daily SR.:)

Without failure, success is difficult to define or measure.

That said, it is the personal sense of success and failure that really matters. Like TU, I had to stop comparing myself to others, continually deciding I wasn't "as bad" as those other guys were, and committed myself to a new self-identification as a non-drinker.

FT

Yes, for me it got to a point of I don't care how old YOU were when you quit, I don't care how bad YOU had to get, I don't really care how great you think YOUR program is either...none of that was relevant to me helping myself determine what I needed to do. I always got irked by people with grand stories of how miserable they got and how much damage they had to do before they quit...as if I needed to work to get to that level of misery in order to quit. The truth is, you can quit drinking whenever and however you choose.

So how did you do it?....AA was the last stop for me...The simplicity of the program is what I love....You get out of it what you put into it. I wanted to quit drinking for good...And that was only a minor part out of what I get out of AA. It's life changing...And that's exactly what I needed.

I did it with 8 months of intense AA, then 7 months of return to active addiction and then finally I threw both out the window and went with AVRT. :)

I used one called RYCWYKO -

Roll your car with your kids onboard: Worked like a charm. When you roll the car you love, your hobby, your past time, but roll it like 5 times with your kids in it, then by the grace of God, they both walk out if it "UNSCRATCHED" while you're leaking blood all over the place.... well, this program works well.

It's called F@*K IT, I QUIT!

You deal with the DUI, which ends up costing over 20K in losses including attorney, fines, license fees, lost car (no comprehensive) etc..... but despite ALL these sorrows, the greatest joy in your life becomes a reality. Your children have not left you, even though you abandoned them for alcohol. The other joy is, you make a cross on your lips and promise to yourself, your kids, your God and mankind that going forward, you no longer allow alcohol to cross your lips.

You fill your frdge with bottled drinking water ($5.00) per 24 pack and you commit to yourself that going forward, every night, this will be your sipping replacement... it will replace the manual and oral habit of the past by simply changing the fluid to a cleansing one.

You do this program and before you know it... you are 16 months without letting alcohol cross your lips....

I would urge all to try this program minus having anything to do with the car, the kids or injuries.

I started using a method called "fear" - after falling really ill with dyspepsia and panic attacks. The fear of illness has made me to scared to take any drugs, as my panic attacks lead me to believe that I was having a heart attack and I have never been so scared in my life!

I am also attending CA and visiting a treatement center 3 mornings a week but without fear I would still be using cocaine.

I mostly used WFS, LifeRing, and individual counseling.

I'm starting SMART, and doing their pilot on-line trial (it's a clinical trial at this point). That and hanging around here.

I started with AA, LifeRing, and working with a therapist every other week and they have worked well for me so far. Other people mentioned motivation and fear, which I strongly agree are two huge factors that have helped me remain clean. I recently attended a relapse prevention meeting at an outpatient clinic, and the director there talked about forming an intense hatred for your drug of choice. He is a guy who grew up in a gang atmosphere, and drugs nearly ruined his life. He explained it like this:

"I picture my drug of choice like Mike Tyson. Every time I've stepped into the ring with this guy, he's beaten the crap out of me, taken my money, and pissed all over me. The last time I called this guy up thinking we could just 'hang out', he tied me to the back of his car naked, dragged me through the streets, threw me down a flight of stairs, beat me over the head with a rock, robbed me, then told me to call him the next day. I HATE this guy. There has never been a time when I've hung out with him that he hasn't beaten me senseless, so why on Earth would I ever think that I could just hang out with him and have a pleasant time?"

I had never visualized drugs like that, but it stirred some strong emotions within me. I realized that I too had never been able to successfully used drugs. They had always, at one point or another, destroyed me (I had many drugs of choice). By remembering that, it's easier in my head to find them repulsive and disgusting. I truthfully haven't experienced any cravings or romanticized my use at all since I got clean 6 months ago. Hopefully this helps.

Hey DylanS. interesting poll! Haven't voted for anything like that yet lol. As myself, I go to AA, I didn't even know there were other options. But I find AA suitable for me. Although I've had plenty of slips, I can't even come close to believe that I would be okay today if it weren't for AA. I'd be dead by now, we'd all be dead sadly. Thats why I am so grateful for being sober today and being sober for the past 4 months with no cravings and am I worried about Christmas partying? nope. my family drinks normally and no one ever drinks in excess.

Yes AA has a 5 to 7 percent drop out rate after one year rate. After that time it is unknown what becomes of those that leave AA. Some for the better or the worse...unknown.

So here this is. At what recovery rate is profound statistical the best according to method is debatable. One study suggest that a 'best fit' program works when the subject agrees to the recovery method used 'best fits their beliefs'. or as I see it honorers their expectations of recovery success. The recovery rate is high.

Identification to a particular method of recovery that uses indoctrination can force one to compliance when indecision is deemed a hindrance by the 'in groups' evidence of inclusion. Such restriction limits the new member to conformation or questionable acceptance.

Its a mind f#uck to be 'in classed' at times when simple abstinence or not is at hand. For the real deal is to 'stop the madness' and reach out for help is key.

Reach out to me...I'll keep it very simple' I care, you need care.
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Personally, I don't feel that it's the program that works or doesn't work, it's the addict that works or doesn't work, chooses or doesn't choose to remain sober.

One of my issues as an addict is that I am often confused when it comes to who and what is responsible for my life. I assign both blame and kudos to all sorts of things that are often NOT accurate.

I use a wide variety of methods in my recovery. The key is that I use them. I. Me, and Use, they don't work in my life, I work them. They don't succeed or fail, I succeed or fail. There is no magic in any method or program.

That is a good summary of my opinion, too, Threshold!