smart recovery

Unfortunately unhealthy substance addiction is a worldwide epidemic.  The comforting news is that if you're in it, you are not alone. Smart recovery are  a highly recommended organisation who help with motivation, dealing with urges, thoughts, feelings and behaviours and leading a balanced life.  They do not prescribe beliefs about the nature of life, leaving these to the individual, but have a practical approach.  They are funded primarily by donation.

http://www.smartrecovery.org/

"Fortunately for me, SMART doesn’t simply say “abstain and then lean on the program” but rather offers each person a set of science-backed tools, approaches, and resources to choose from. Some of these fall into the category of mindfulness. Others derive from Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) research and themselves have additional acronyms. But don’t be scared off by the alphabet soup; most of the techniques are straightforward. A lot of them come down to what some people call “reality checking” and simply involve bringing some rational questions and ways of thinking to the unexamined assumptions and irrational conclusions that can get us into trouble. It may take some practice to implement the tools, but they are accessible and the community offers wisdom and support along the way.
Navigating an emotional and cognitive terrain landscaped across years of using drinking as an all-occasion coping mechanism was and remains crucial—not just to hanging onto my status as a nondrinker but to thriving as a happy nondrinker. And the point of changing, as well as its reward, is not abstaining for its own sake but to live a richer, better life. It’s possible I would have figured some of this out on my own—or not—but SMART made the process a lot more pleasant." Elspeth

http://blog.smartrecovery.org/2015/08/10/point-3-managing-thoughts-feelings-and-behaviors/#more-6874

This video is great introduction to Self Management And Recovery Training, highlighting the following:

• rational emotive behaviour change
• motivation
• urges - the way we deal with thoughts
• acknowledge, stop, distraction
• thoughts, feelings and behaviours, problem solving
• lifestyle balance - staying self-occupied
• dreams