Home treatment for addiction

Can you treat alcoholism, drug addiction or behavioral addictions from home? Yes. How to access a free self-help program from home here.

3
minute read

Treating addiction at home: How to access addiction support from home

By Dolores Cloward, SMART Recovery® Online Volunteer

If you are looking for help with addiction and ready for stop gambling self help or self help for alcoholism, SMART Recovery Online is a wonderful place to start.  The program is based on evidence-based, scientific best practices in psychology today. Here, you can find community. SMART Recovery also offers practical tools to help you think your way through what you want and how to go about it. And, like other addiction recovery programs, SMART Recovery is free and accessible from home. It may be the only resource you need!

The SMART Recovery 4-Point Program® offers tools and techniques for:

1. Building and maintaining motivation to address addiction related issues

2. Coping with urges

3. Managing thoughts, feelings and behaviors

4. Living a balanced life

What is SMART Recovery?

SMART Recovery is a non-profit that offers tools for addiction recovery based on the latest scientific research. The SMART Recovery website is an international community which includes free, self-empowering, science-based mutual help groups in online forums and meetings.

How do I get involved?

Inform yourself – From the main web page, you can watch a introductory video, and feel free to browse around! There are links to tools, articles, local meetings, SMART’s Blog, Podcasts, as well as SMART international and regional websites. Last but not least, please visit SMART’s vibrant online community.

Join the community – To join our online community, just click on Online Resources and follow directions to register. You must register to join because we take our members’ privacy and confidentiality seriously. Once registered you will be taken to the main page where you will see a number of different forums. There is a Welcome area, a main Discussions area, Tool areas, Specialized and Support forums, and Social forums (Opinions and Creative Endeavors), all featuring thoughtful, encouraging and lively conversation. There are no rules about where to go, but if you introduce yourself in the Welcome area, volunteers and members can easily find you and will respond with lots of useful information, links, and welcoming words to help you get started.

Attend online meetings – If you would like to attend online meetings, there is a daily list of meetings right at the top left of every page. From any message board page, you will see a blue bar called “SMART Meetings and Chat,” on the top left of the page. Once you click through, you will be presented with a list of rooms you can enter. The meeting rooms are opened shortly before each meeting starts and are not accessible at other times. The meetings follow the SMART Recovery meeting format. Attendance verification is provided upon request. The meetings are lively and informative and run by trained facilitators. There is focused practice with helpful tools as well as loads of room for discussion and feedback. We think this is peer support at its best – open yet guided.

Chat room – If you like the idea of hanging out and chatting with others who all are working toward the same goal – choosing what’s best for their lives – come make some casual friends, find camaraderie, and enjoy the benefits of readily available caring support, join us in the 24/7 Chat Room. It can be accessed from the same list as the meetings. It is at the top of the list and is called the “SMART Chat Room.”

SMART tools – There are many other resources available, but let’s not forget the most important one! All SMART Tools can be found in the cheerful Purple Toolbox on the right of every message board screen. These tools form the core of what SMART Recovery offers people so they can help themselves.

Questions about treatment support from home?

Do you have any more questions about accessing the SMART Recovery program from home? We will be glad to help. Please leave your questions below, and we will do our best to respond to them in a personal and prompt reply.

In sum, SMART Online offers a full complement of tools, venues and friendly, supportive people, all in one place. It is entirely your choice how you would like to put together these and other resources to create a solid recovery directly tailored for you. We hope you will join us. Come. Discover the power of choice.

About the author
SMART Recovery® offers free, self-empowering, science-based mutual help groups for abstaining from any substance or activity addiction. SMART stands for Self Management And Recovery Training. The SMART Recovery 4-Point Program helps people recover from all types of addictive behaviors, including alcohol, drugs, substance abuse, gambling addiction, and addiction to other substances and activities. SMART Recovery currently offers more than 650 face-to-face meetings around the world, and more than 16 online meetings per week, including a weekly online meeting for Family & Friends. Phone: 866-951-5357 OR 440-951-5357
I am ready to call
i Who Answers?