Adapted from Pages 32 and 34 of the SMART Recovery Handbook, 3rd Edition This post has been updated from the original version that first ran in 2015. With so many people on day two of their 2018 New Year’s resolutions, it seems appropriate to offer some basic strategies for coping with urges that tempt us to give into habits. If you're changing habits, such as trying to stop drinking, quit smoking, eat better, spend less, or change any other unwanted behavior, here are 14 basic strategies designed to help you with changing habits so you can cope with the urges in the days, weeks, months (and sometimes even years) ahead! Avoid – Learn what triggers your desire to act on your habit, and avoid the triggers that lead to urges. Escape – If you are presented with a trigger, esca...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Defects of Character: Helpful or Hurtful? This week’s article explores the widely accepted, rarely contemplated idea that identifying defects of character is helpful in recovery.  Fault, failing, weakness, flaw, shortcoming, and inadequacy are all synonyms for the word defect.  Character refers to the mental and moral qualities of an individual.  Thus, the ubiquitous phrase in the recovery world defects of character implies moral and psychological flaws and failings in an individual.  I will assume, perhaps incorrectly, that the idea of emphasizing defects of character arose as a method of advocating for personal growth through self-reflection.  Indeed, looking at the imperfections we all have is a valuable tool for self-growth.  However, the problem with th...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week’s topic is the sixth and final installment in a series exploring lies that have permeated the recovery culture.  Thus far, lies about success, failure, everyone in recovery being the same, shaming, and labeling have been challenged.  While there are many more lies than six that have infiltrated the consciousness of recovery, I am forcing myself to stop here.  This final article may have saved the most controversial topic for last.  This article challenges the lie that we know “addiction” is a disease. There is no consensus amongst professionals or conclusive research that puts an end to the lively debate over whether or not “addiction” is a disease.  What research does show, however, is that believing “addiction” is a disease combined with a la...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Labels Can Actually Hurt the Recovery Process This week’s topic is the fifth installment in a series exploring lies that have permeated the recovery culture.  Thus far, lies about success, failure, everyone in recovery being the same, and shaming have been challenged.  This week’s article challenges the lie of labeling addiction, or that people have to label themselves as an addict or alcoholic to successfully recover. There is no research that indicates people are more likely to recover from a substance use disorder if they label themselves as anything.  However, there is research that shows forcing people to identify as an addict or alcoholic can actually be detrimental to their efforts to change.  The latest diagnostic manual for professionals (DSM-5) ...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week’s topic is the fourth installment in a series exploring lies that have permeated the recovery culture.  Thus far, lies about success, failure, and everyone in recovery being the same have been challenged.  This week’s article challenges the lie that shaming people helps them change a problematic pattern of substance use. There is a fundamental logical fallacy to the concept that shaming people helps them change.  The reality is that people change all the time, not just when they feel down on themselves.  In fact, substances are an excellent way to achieve a temporary break from shame!  Helping people feel better about themselves is much more useful than making them feel worse. Beyond the logical fallacy of shaming people to help them change,...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week’s topic is the third installment in a series exploring lies that have permeated the recovery culture.  The first article challenged the lie that perfect abstinence is the only way to succeed in recovery.  Last week’s article challenged the lie that most people in recovery fail.  This week’s article challenges the lie that all addicts are the same, which is often perpetuated by the phrase ‘terminal uniqueness.' Universal statements about any group of humans other than those who struggle with substance use are generally quickly dismissed.  Consider the absurdity of statements like, all mothers are the same, all children are the same, all men are the same, all politicians are the same, all criminals are the same, etc.  To dehumanize is to divest o...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The Biggest Lies in Recovery, pt. II - Recovery Failure This week’s topic is the second installment in a series exploring lies that have permeated the recovery culture.  Last week’s article challenged the lie that success in recovery is perfect abstinence.  This week’s article challenges the closely related lie of recovery failure, or that most people in recovery fail. I often hear people toss around arbitrary and unfounded statistics in recovery like, “only 10% of people succeed,” and that deviations from perfect abstinence inevitably lead to “jails, institutions, and death.”  The bad news is that “professionals” sometimes contribute to the spread of these unhelpful lies.  The good news is that the lie that most people in recovery fail is unequivocally f...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week’s topic is the first installment in a series that will explore lies that have permeated the recovery culture.  Lies selected for critique will share a common theme of being detrimental to progress.  The first lie on the chopping block is the lie of perfection. How strange would it be if a therapist treating depression told a client to never be sad again?  It would not be at all helpful to tell someone with a phobia of spiders to never encounter a spider again.  Substance use is the only area of mental health in which those being treated are burdened with demands of perfection.  Lifelong abstinence, or perfection, is the unjust measure of success in substance use.  Not only is basing success on perfection unreasonable, it is unethical. Someon...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Much is being said about changing the nomenclature in the treatment of problematic substance use.  The latest diagnostic manual (DSM-5) no longer uses the term ‘addiction.’  Anne Fletcher wrote about the value of cleaning up the language of addiction using powerful comparisons to other avenues of treatment.  She astutely pointed out that no therapist would tell people trying to lose weight that no progress would be made until they labeled themselves in a pejorative way.  Can you imagine a therapist telling someone who is overweight that before work can begin she or he must identify as a fat pig?  To do so would be unconscionable.  Yet, it is all but universal in the treatment of problematic substance use that an individual is told that no progress will be m...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. We all deal with people who bug us every day. Sometimes the people who annoy us are our neighbors, our co-workers, or our family members. Improving our ways of dealing with difficult people can help us enrich our own lives and decrease urges to use substances to cope with uncomfortable feelings. A common precursor to substance use is emotional discomfort. A common source of emotional discomfort is conflict in relationships. Many people go to great lengths to avoid conflict in relationships. However, it is often much more useful to focus our energy on managing conflict in relationships rather than avoiding conflict altogether. When conflict arises in a relationship it is important to discuss the conflict when emotions are manageable and not extreme. Below...