Recovery Resources

Note: This is a guest post: Dylan Wallace from PreventionConnect, a group of recovering addicts supporting one another contacted me and asked me to share some addiction recovery resources. Please note - I have not vetted these resources, I just think it is helpful to encourage people to seek help.


 From Dylan: 
"As someone in substance abuse recovery, I’ve learned there are a lot of ways to get and stay sober. I personally use yoga and meditation to supplement my counseling appointments, but I have friends who swear by inpatient treatment programs, CBT, running… There is really no wrong way to do it as long as you and your doctor approve your chosen method.

Since your site has so much great information already to help encourage people to get and stay sober, I thought you may want to use some of the additional information I’ve found that I think may be helpful, no matter what is included in a recovering addict’s sobriety plan:"

What are the Treatment Options?
https://drugfree.org/article/what-are-the-treatment-options/

Types of Therapy
https://www.rehabspot.com/treatment/clinical/types-of-therapy/

12-Step Programs for Alcohol and Drug Addiction
https://www.lifeworks.com/blog/12-step-programs-for-alcohol-and-drug-addiction/

Medication-Assisted Treatment for Drug Abuse
https://drugabuse.com/treatment/medication-assisted-treatment/

How to Design the Perfect Meditation Room
https://www.homeadvisor.com/r/meditation-room/

Addiction Recovery Through Yoga
https://www.gaia.com/article/addiction-recovery-through-yoga

Why Exercise Helps Promote Addiction Recovery
https://www.sbtandd.com/why-exercise-helps-promote-recovery/

5 Ways to Get Better Sleep in Addiction Recovery
https://www.valiantliving.com/5-ways-to-get-better-sleep-in-addiction-recovery/

What Recovery Programs Work?

If you are dealing with addiction, what sort of help should you be seeking out?

I love science. And one of the things that science has done for us is that it has shown us what addiction recovery programs work and which don’t. Check out this research from Behavior Therapy Associates: http://www.behaviortherapy.com/ResearchDiv/whatworks.aspx

One of the things you will notice is that acupuncture has a better success rate for addicts than Alcohol Anonymous does.  But what really seems to work is brief interventions and self-help of the sort geared towards helping people establish new habits through motivational enhancements.

Programs that require you to be in therapy for a really long time and basically transfer your addiction from alcohol to treatment aren’t that effective.

What you want is a targeted approach that will help you establish new ways of behaving and interacting with the addiction you no longer want to have. There are several resources listed at the website and the do have online programs of the sort that seem to work best.  So if you are struggling with addiction, check them out.

https://humanistlearning.com/overcoming-addiction/

Secular Recovery Resources

Why recovering from addiction without religion is so important.

Not everyone who is addicted to drugs, alcohol or whatever is religious. And this turns out to be a problem because the most common addiction program is faith based.  The other kind of rather important problem with AA formatted faith based groups is that they don’t really work.

It turns out they are faith based, not science based. This isn't to say that people don’t get sober after joining these groups, they do. It’s just that the efficacy of this groups hasn't been proven. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16856072?ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum) 

No treatment seems to be as effective as treatment.  According to Harvard – lots of people just “get over it” and stop being addicted – or self treat. (see: http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html - for a run down of all this research).  The real problem is that people who go through AA are more likely to binge drink when they fall off the wagon – and the rate they do so is higher than people who have no treatment at all, which means, these faith based programs aren't just not effective, they are counterproductive.

So, what’s a good science minded addict to do? Self treat?  Well, sure, you can and most people do – successfully. But if you are looking for help – go with Rational Behavior Therapy – or RBT for short.  It has better outcomes than no treatment.

Here are some secular RBT type recovery groups to choose from. This list is taken from:  http://www.addictionrecoveryguide.org/resources/recovery/rational_and_secular

• ·         Addiction Alternatives  (www.addictionalternatives.com)
• ·         Exposure Response Prevention  (www.killthecraving.com)
• ·         LifeRing Secular Recovery  (http://unhooked.com)
• ·         Rational Recovery  (http://rational.org)
• ·         Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS)  (http://secularsobriety.org)
• ·         SMART Recovery (Self Management and Recovery Training)  (http://smartrecovery.org)
• ·         Sober24  (http://sober24.com)