Category: General

SMART Recovery vs AA: What’s the Difference? | Inneractions

The common denominator for those living in recovery is a need for support. No matter the nature of your addiction, what you were addicted to, for how long, etc. building a support system you can rely on is critical to maintaining the sobriety you worked so hard to achieve.

To be honest, it’s right near the top of the post-rehab checklist.

Support groups help with everything from dealing with triggers to accountability to just being a place where folks truly understand you, where they just get it.

In that sense, it’s less SMART recovery vs. AA in the competitive sense and more about how each is more uniquely suited, or better suited, to the needs of various people.

What Is SMART Recovery?

The first thing you’ll notice is the all caps and that’s because SMART, like AA, is an acronym; it means Self-Management and Recovery Training.

The fast facts are that SMART was founded back in 1994 and is currently headquartered in Ohio. Their approach focuses on science and self-empowerment in the battle to overcome addiction and meetings can be found across the whole of the United States as well as a number of countries around the world.

You can find their handbook in at least 10 languages.

Their reliance on scientifically validated methods to empower change is a key differentiator from the distinctly more spiritual approach of AA, noting in their purpose and methods statement that their “efforts are based on scientific knowledge and evolve as scientific knowledge evolves”.

Rather than a 12 step program, which AA relies on, SMART is defined by their 4 point program which is:

Building and maintaining the motivation to change
Coping with urges to use
Managing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in an effective way without addictive behaviors
Living a balanced, positive and healthy life

What Is AA?

Arguably the most well-known support group on earth is AA or Alcoholics Anonymous.

AA dates back to 1935 and also has an Ohio link, having been started there. You may sometimes see AA meetings referred to as “Friends of Bill W.” in places like cruise ships with the Bill W. in question being the founder of AA.

They define themselves as “an international fellowship of men and women who have had a drinking problem. It is nonprofessional, self-supporting, multiracial, apolitical, and available almost everywhere. There are no age or education requirements. Membership is open to anyone who wants to do something about his or her drinking problem”.

AA is where the concept of the 12 step program originated and it’s these very steps that form the core of the program itself.

A clear difference between the two programs is AA’s emphasis on spirituality in the pursuit of sustained sobriety. It’s not expressly required that you believe in God to join an AA meeting but the spiritual basis of AA is something to keep in mind. For some, it’s a wonderful thing. For others, they may prefer a different approach.

NA, or Narcotics Anonymous, was founded in 1953 and operates with the same 12-step program.

As for the meetings themselves, both SMART and AA are non-profits and their meetings are free of charge. Generally, only a small donation is recommended to cover the costs of putting on the meetings.

How to Overcome Drug and Alcohol Addiction Today

Conquering your addiction to drugs and/or alcohol is doable and among the best ways to go about it is through a professional treatment program that’s customized to your needs.

At Inneractions, that’s exactly what we do.

Moreover, once you complete rehab, we can help you transition back to your day-to-day life at our San Fernando sober living facility.

To learn more about support groups or aftercare, reach out to us today.

How to Learn Coping Skills for Drug Addiction

Recovery is a process.

Or, recovery is a journey, not a destination.

You may have come across lines like these when looking into rehab options for yourself or a loved one. Perhaps you even scoffed at them, feeling like you were reading trite cliches or platitudes.

Thing is though, recovery is a journey. Why? Well, let’s look to a definition of drug addiction from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to add some color here:

“Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences. It is considered a brain disorder because it involves functional changes to brain circuits involved in reward, stress, and self-control. Those changes may last a long time after a person has stopped taking drugs”

Because addiction is thought of as a brain disorder and not as a purely physical concept, it’s something you constantly work on and nurture. Moreover, if you stop working on it, a relapse is possible at any point.

Learning coping skills for drug addiction, therefore, becomes imperative to staying on the path of sobriety.

Signs & Symptoms of Drug Addiction

Addiction to drugs manifests itself in several ways that tend to compound the longer a substance use disorder lasts.

Intense cravings
Trying to quit but unable to
Developing a tolerance and thus having to take larger and larger doses
Shifting friend groups
Secretive behavior
Financial issues related to purchasing drugs
Legal issues, i.e., theft, from getting the money to buy drugs
Work, school and home life are all suffering
Engaging in riskier behaviors like driving under the influence
Spending a lot of time either getting, using or recovering from drugs
Using despite very obvious negative effects
Having withdrawal symptoms whenever the flow of drugs stops
Changes in appetite and associated weight loss or gain
Shift in sleep patterns, either too much or too little
Lack of attention to hygiene and general neglect of appearance
Lethargic and no motivation
Relationships with family and friends become fraught
Mood swings and irritability
Paranoia and anxiety

These are just some of the signs you may encounter and if you see any of them, it’s important to take note and monitor. Ignoring symptoms only makes things worse and harder in the future.

How to Learn Coping Skills for Drug Addiction

Coping skills are what help you stay the course, they’re the little “tricks” that help overcome those cravings and inevitable tough times on the journey of sobriety.

Among the best places to learn these new skills is in treatment for addiction.

In rehab, you’re in a place where all your attention is focused squarely on healing and developing the tools necessary to cope with triggers back in the real world.

As the physical addiction to drugs dissipates after detox, working on the mental side is what rehab programs are all about. You’ll work with professional addiction specialists in both individual and group settings to dig deeper into the root causes of addiction.

This is also the time you’ll be introduced to a host of coping skills ranging from practicing mindfulness, breathing exercises as well as general exercise, journaling, the importance of keeping busy, building a support system, 12-step programs and more.

What to Do After Rehab

As mentioned at the top, the journey of recovery doesn’t end when your time in rehab does, it’s something you actively work on but shouldn’t feel like work. Your post-addiction life is meant to be more fulfilling and enjoyable than the days of addiction and developing a routine that you love is crucial to that.

That’s where aftercare planning and sober living come into play, these are important parts of cementing a sober life. Sober living homes are particularly beneficial because you live in a supportive setting with a community that’s going through the same thing and building bonds with them. It also allows you to transition slowly back into your day-to-day life in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

To learn more about the coping skills you’ll develop or what sober living is like, reach out to us at Inneractions today.

How Heroin Addiction Works

Heroin is an opioid.

The addictive nature of opioids is excruciatingly well known at this point. The lives it’s destroyed and the suffering endured by users and bystanders alike is incalculable.

In regards to heroin specifically, though, the numbers are numbing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Nearly 130,000 died from overdoses related to it from 1999 to 2019
The number of heroin-involved overdose deaths was more than 7 times higher in 2019 than in 1999
Almost 1/3^rd of all opioid deaths involved heroin

What Is Heroin?

Aside from being an opioid, an illicit one, what exactly is it?

As defined by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “heroin is an opioid drug made from morphine, a natural substance taken from the seed pod of the various opium poppy plants grown in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Mexico, and Colombia. Heroin can be a white or brown powder, or a black sticky substance known as black tar heroin”.

It can be injected, sniffed, snorted or smoked.

Since it’s an opioid, you may be wondering if there’s a link between prescription opioids and heroin use.

Unfortunately, that does look to be the case, NIDA notes that “research now suggests that misuse of these medications may actually open the door to heroin use. Some also report switching to heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids”.

A 2013 study found that “nearly 80 percent of heroin users reported using prescription opioids prior to heroin”.

Why Is Heroin Addictive and How Does Heroin Addiction Work?

As a nation, we’ve collectively come to understand the incredibly addictive nature of opioids and heroin is very much part of that mix. The same mechanisms that make prescription opioids so addictive are at play with this illegal alternative.

Heroin is extremely fast-acting, particularly when injected and binds to opioid receptors in the brain. In addition to the pain vanishing in seemingly an instant, heroin also comes with a wave of euphoria and pleasure. It’s largely this euphoric surge and the hours it can last that people crave.

As you continuously seek that “reward”, you find yourself needing to take ever larger doses of heroin because you’ve built a tolerance where the same dose just doesn’t cut it anymore.

To put it in more scientific terms we’ll defer back to the National Institute on Drug Abuse; “heroin binds to and activates specific receptors in the brain called mu-opioid receptors (MORs). Our bodies contain naturally occurring chemicals called neurotransmitters that bind to these receptors throughout the brain and body to regulate pain, hormone release, and feelings of well-being. When MORs are activated in the reward center of the brain, they stimulate the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, causing a reinforcement of drug taking behavior”.

In a nutshell, that’s how heroin addiction works.

How to Get Help With a Heroin Addiction

Deaths from overdose continue to be a widespread issue and the pandemic has only made matters with 93,000 lives lost last year – a tragic record.

Of course, this is on top of the ongoing opioid epidemic, heroin included, that the US has been trying to work through over the past couple of decades.

With respect to highly addictive drugs like heroin, it’s imperative to seek help because these drugs are frequently just too powerful to kick on your own as we’ve come to find.

Fortunately, help is never farther than a phone call away nowadays.

At Inneractions in the San Fernando Valley, our intensive outpatient program utilizes evidence-based methods to help you overcome your heroin addiction and avoid ending up a statistic.

If you or a loved one are struggling with this, don’t hesitate to reach out because as we’ve seen all too many times, opioid addiction can often end in heartbreak.