SMART Recovery®

SMART Recovery® is an abstinence-based, not-for-profit organization that uses "common sense self-help procedures" designed to empower participants to abstain and to develop a more positive lifestyle.

SMART® is an acronym that stands for Self-Management and Recovery Training. The program is based on the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), developed by Psychologist Albert Ellis in the 1950's. The system is a "mental health and educational program" as it states on the web site, "We're not trying to cure an imaginary disease. We're concerned with changing human behavior."

Much of the information imparted by SMART® is drawn from the field of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and particularly from Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. According to the web site, CBT views addictive behavior more as a complex maladaptive behavior than as a disease and the purpose of the organization is to help individuals gain independence from addictive behavior.

SMART's Four-Point Program

SMART® emphasizes a Four Point Program:

• Enhancing motivation.
• Refusing to act on urges to use.
• Managing life's problems in a sensible and effective way without substances.
• Developing a positive, balanced, and healthy lifestyle.

SMART® exists at four levels:

• Individuals who attend either face to face meetings nationwide, online recovery meetings, read the publications, or participate in the Internet listserve discussion group.
• Coordinators, who are the volunteer non-professionals who run SMART® groups.
• Professional Advisors, who are the volunteer behavioral health professionals who advise and support the Coordinators.
• A volunteer Board of Directors and its Committees, which formulate our program and policies.

The SMART® Recovery web site has a list of International meeting and contact persons for its Self Management and Recovery Training meetings. There is also a recommending reading list available online.

There are now over a dozen meetings at SMART® online per week in both text and voice formats. The message board, serves as a hub of SMART® online. Links to the schedule and the message board can be found on the chat page. The meetings provide extensive peer support and training in the concepts of SMART®

SMART® Opposes Mandatory 12-Step Participation

SMART® Recovery also has a section on its web site for those who have been required to attend 12-step meetings against their will and have objected to the mandatory participation and given no other alternative.

As it says on the web site, "We believe any such requirement to be a violation of our constitutional and human rights of religious freedom (which include the right to be free from religious indoctrination). We offer our support, and hope that you experience solace by communicating with others who have had similar experiences."

SMART® offers participants alternatives to mandatory 12-step attendance and if these alternatives are not accepted by the agency that ordered attendance, SMART® offers suggestions for seeking legal counsel.

A desire to stop drinking is not a requirement for participation in the system. Drinkers whose ultimate goal is "moderated involvement with their substances or activities" may benefit from participation, the web site states. However, SMART® encourages abstinence as the easier solution.