Book of D: SMART Recovery Facilitator

I am so freaking excited: our University is getting prepped to start SMART Recovery meetings for our student population. For those who are not familiar with SMART Recovery, it is similar yet strongly dissimilar to the 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). SMART, which stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training is a recovery program that was founded in 1994. The three significant variances between SMART Recovery and 12-step programs: 1) SMART Recovery is not religious or spiritual based like AA and other 12-step programs 2) SMART Recovery does not have sponsors or a buddy-system like AA and other 12-step programs 3) SMART Recovery focuses on a locus of control unlike AA and other 12-step programs. 

I became a SMART Recovery facilitator last April (2021); our U paid for several of us to get certified; however, I believe I was the only one who completed it. This semester, three more staff members were given the opportunity to become facilitators; one has completed it. The training is lengthy and arduous but so worth it. I am a strong proponent of SMART Recovery over the other 12-step programs for a myriad of reasons. I have written about SMART before and explained how it is evidence-based and scientifically proven, but I have not fully revealed why I prefer SMART to the others. For one, I am a recovering addict. My drug of choice was cocaine. When I started using, I was twenty three years old, newly married to someone I was not in love with, living in a big city, making friends with people who were rich and spoiled; clearly, I was lonely and easy prey. I remember leaving my marriage (for reasons I will talk about at a later time) and the many wonderful friends who helped me out during that ominous time in my life. One friend in particular helped me realize how bad my habit was, and I was fortunate to kick-the-habit, per se, cold-turkey. But it would have been great if I had had a program like SMART to help me understand why I was using coke and such. I would have benefitted so much from SMART in that it does not make a person admit that his addiction is due to a loss of power over the drug. I would have especially benefitted by the fact that SMART does not make members seek help from a higher power through prayer or meditation. I was brought up a catholic, so my guilt was raw and ripe for being convinced that praying to a higher power would bring resolve. A program like NA would have walked all over my ignorant self because back then, I did not question the damn dogma as much as older, mature, and educated moi does these days. My ultimate love of SMART is that it gives the person the power to change things and the ability to decide if addicition is a disease and how moderate it is - to him/her. 

Locus of control: whether a person sees his recovery as one that should be guided from within, or by an external higher power.  Further, locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces, have control over the outcome of events in their lives. The concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and has since become an aspect of personality psychology.