I'd be lying to your face if I told you that 12-step programs were the only way
to stay sober what is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired soul where we
talk about the problem but focus on the solution and I try to be as open and
honest as possible one thing that I hated when I first got clean
although 12-step programs saved my life I didn't like the fact that people said
this is the only way to stay sober because it's simply not true if I could
find one person who stayed clean without a 12-step program then your logic is
wrong so in this video I'm gonna present three 12-step alternatives that might be
able to help you or someone you know so please do me a favor and share this
video one of the sayings I always tell my clients is this I literally do not
care what program you work just work a program the highest instances of relapse
that I personally see are people who try to get clean or they get clean and they
literally do nothing to improve their life overcome certain obstacles and it's
a quick path to relapse if you're not doing something so if you're not down
with 12-step programs or if the person you know isn't down with 12-step
programs here's three alternatives let's get started so the first 12-step
alternative I want to talk about is my personal favorite alternative which is
refuge recovery so this is a program that started not too long ago maybe
within the last decade or so by a man by the name of Noah Levine he's written a
couple books the first one being Dharma Punk's he talks about you know growing
up in the punk scene his addiction going to prison and finding this path of
recovery based on Buddhist philosophy which then turned into Refuge recovery
now I have to make it very clear this is a program based around Buddhist
philosophy Buddhist psychology the Buddhist teachings okay has nothing to
do with Buddhist religion and this is my favorite because those of you who know
me I'm huge on meditation as well as Buddhist philosophy all right so rather
than the 12 steps this program is based on the Four Noble Truths as well as the
Eightfold Path and what you need to understand and this is
something that really attracted me to Buddhist philosophy is that Buddhism as
a whole was based on addiction Buddhist philosophy is based on our human nature
for attraction this intense attraction and with drugs and alcohol it's this
attraction to this feeling or to this escape all right
so let's go over the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path one life means
suffering to the origin of suffering is attachment three the cessation of
suffering is attainable for the path to the cessation of suffering and this is
the Eightfold Path right view right intention right speech right action
Right Livelihood right effort right mindfulness and right concentration so
refuge recovery it's big on the west coast like their facility it's actually
in Southern California the one where it got started but there are meetings all
over the country I know here in Las Vegas we have I think three and we've
just started a fourth one but I will provide information down below you can
check it out and see if there are meetings anywhere else in the country
for you but I will also link to the refuge recovery book that explains the
entire program so a lot of it is about meditation right there's a main part of
the practice but it's also a bunch of different principles that will help
guide you on the path of recovery this is my number one favorite 12-step
alternative number two on this list is smart recovery
alright so smart recovery is probably the biggest 12-step alternative I don't
want to talk to you about it a little bit
basically smart recovery is based on cognitive behavioral therapy cognitive
behavioral therapy is an evidence-based recovery treatment method all right this
means science has proven that cognitive behavioral therapy helps anik's recover
from addiction but I do want to give a few disclaimers so although the program
is based around CBT and you'll hear a lot of people say I like smart recovery
because it's science-based you must remember that although it's
based on CBT the people running the meetings are not licensed
in CBT and I hope that makes sense so for example I am NOT a licensed
clinician when I teach you about different therapeutic techniques
different philosophies different things to help you with your mental health
like I hope you realize like I am NOT a licensed professional I am merely
educating you on things that I have learned as well as things that have
helped me in my life so CBT and those methods do help but just realize it's
not a licensed professional now the one main gripe I have the smart recovery and
I want to make it clear it is not all smart recovery programs but there are
some and they promote harm reduction and in this form of harm reduction is I'm
going to teach you how to drink or use drugs in a more manageable way right
listen very carefully if I knew how to drink or use drugs in a manageable way I
would not be sitting here right now with overdose rates and deaths the way they
are heck we just talked about alcoholic suicide so to teach people how to keep
using these substances that help them escape from the stresses and the
suffering of everyday life like it's not a true path of recovery so if you're
going to do smart recovery I highly recommend abstinence and not harm
reduction okay but it can work for you I know plenty of people who work the smart
recovery program and lastly the number three 12-step alternative is therapy
addiction therapy so something that happens to me personally in 12-step
programs and I want to make it clear it was not the 12-step programs fault it
was my fault okay but they talked about about addict thinking alcoholic thinking
I started to believe that every thought that runs through my head everything
that I do is because I'm an addict or alcoholic but there's also a human
element there's things that humans suffer with and that's why working with
a therapist is so important so for example what's added thinking and
alcoholic thinking I'm the type of guy where even in recovery when I go out to
a restaurant or something like that I see somebody like nursing a drink or
they leave their table and they're done with their meal
and they still have like half a beer or half a mixed drink and I'm sitting I'm
like what are they doing right I remember going to my friend's wedding
with an open bar and people weren't just living at the bar drinking everything
they could that's coholic thinking I don't understand how
people can moderate this stuff my old roommate
you know she was prescribed pain medications for her surgery I don't
understand how she's not gusting those things down and she's like now I don't
want to take those those they don't make me feel good right like I don't get
those things that's addict thinking that's alcoholic thinking there's other
things that are just human they're part of being a person okay so the other
benefit of working with a therapist aside from just working through the
human aspect of things is that these are licensed professionals these are people
who are trained in things like cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical
behavioral therapy DBT is highly based around mindfulness which is a practice
that you get from refuge recovery right so working with a therapist can greatly
help you so better help actually helps my channel out and helps all of you by
providing affordable online therapy all right I will provide their link down in
the description below so not only do you get affordable therapy but it also helps
to support the channel when you sign up and one of the great aspects of therapy
is that you can also do group therapy like I am a true believer in any type of
program where you get peer support it's so important to realize that you're not
alone in your struggles and better help actually offers group therapy sessions
online so you go in there and there is a licensed professional who is kind of
running the group but you're also there with your peers and you get this kind of
back and forth in group support system so it's very great so as you can see
right here here's some of the examples of it they do them throughout the week
so I highly recommend that you check out better help if you're already silver and
looking for a new way or a better way to help start managing your life again like
I said if you know somebody who is struggling to stay clean they don't know
of any alternative to 12-step programs and they're being really resistant
please do me a favor and share this video with them let them know that there
are alternatives to 12-step programs and I didn't even list all of them all right
but if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you are new here
I'm always making videos to help you out not only with addiction recovery but
also your mental health as a whole click that a little brown subscribe button and
to check out my entire Addiction playlist boom you can click right there
alright thanks so much for watching do some research and I'll see you next
time