Experiences of SMART Recovery?

SuZir

Well-Known Member
My son is recovering gambling addict. While SMART Recovery does not operate in our area, professionals he works with have very similar mindset when it comes to addictions. And they have recommended our son to take an advantage of SMART Recovery's online material. Timing of the Online meetings is unfortunately rather inconvenient because of the time difference.

Our son currently lives in rather small town and real life support groups etc. for gamblers are currently not an option. Professionals he works with are specialized to youth addictions, but more often work with teens with alcohol or drug problem. But of course all addictive behaviours are quite similar in many ways.
 

exhausted

Active Member
There is someone here who knows about Smart recovery. Can't remember who. Unfortunetly-not available in many places.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
That's me. I'm the one that posted about Smart Recovery. My difficult child goes to face-to-face and online meetings. She didn't like NA or AA meetings but likes the smart recovery meetings. They are focused on a science approach to brain recovery rather than spiritual approach with a focus on a higher power. difficult child had problems with the religious aspect of NA and AA.

You can go to their website and find the locations but as exhausted said, there are not near as many as AA/NA. We only found three days a week face-to-face meetings but there are also online meetings 1 or 2 times a day. Sometimes they are hard to get into, though. The only allow 35 people in the meeting and after that they close the meeting.

difficult child is also attending a DBT program and we find that the two work well together. I attended the first meeting with her and while I have never been to an AA meeting so I can't compare, the meeting seemed very informal with a lot of cross-talk which difficult child liked.

by the way, I don't think I've had a chance to welcome you to the CD community and the SA forum. I'm glad that you found us. Keep posting. The people here have all experienced having a loved one with addiction issues. We don't hve all the answers but will be here to listen and offer support.

~Kathy
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
Face-to-face-meetings are not a possibility here. But neither are they really possible through any organization for my son. There are some local (hospital/government) run online groups and message boards for gambling addicts here and he has used some of those resources. He also had a chance to participate in more intensive out-patient program shortly after his gambling and other things came to light. That was a good place to start. The program had one-on-one meetings with professionals, homework, online groups and few weekend 'camps.' Other than that there are less resources that deal with gambling per se. There are few some GA-groups but none are near there my son lives.

While gambling (sports betting, slot machines, mini-casinos and internet poker) is extremely common, popular and available where we live, damages problematic gambling produces are only slowly coming to the light and while gambling addiction is a topic that is currently getting more and more publicity, it has been slow to have more resources to deal with the problem. There have been some highly published cases there people in high power/very trusted positions have been committing frauds etc. to finance their gambling addiction and more gambling addicts have came out and talked about their problem so things may be changing.

To be totally honest I was almost relieved then I found out there is no GA groups in driving distance from there my son lives. If there was, he would had been probably coerced to participate and while I'm sure AA etc. approach works for some people, I had doubts for my son. Scientific approach that emphasizes the individual's ability to control their behaviour through learning certain mental systems etc. is much more approachable for him. Especially when he is very used to using some similar type of mental strategies in his sport. I also have a close friend who had a major drinking problem and was coerced to participate to AA for two years. She felt it was very dogmatic, had a real problem with the most main concepts and seemed to regress to very rebellious teen (she was in her thirties and still highly functioning despite her drinking) and her problems got much worse during that time. After she could quit going to AA, she got bit better and some years latter she quit drinking on her own. It may well be, she was not ready at the time she participated on AA but knowing her, the approach would had been problematic for her also when she was ready to quit. And considering what kind of person my son is (and that he in fact still is a rebellious teen), I anticipated same kind of outcome if he would had been coerced to GA.
 
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