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Ken's
Story
Ken writes:
Hello. My name is Ken and I live in Tucson, Arizona. I wanted to share with you
all of the positive changes that SMART Recovery is making in people's lives in
Southern and rural Southeastern Arizona.
I began using SMART Recovery back in May of 2004 at the agency where I receive
behavioral health services. I had been involved in NA for a few months, but it
just wasn't right for me. I truly believe that spirituality plays an important
role in a person's recovery, but in my case, when I began my addiction,
spirituality was the first thing to go and one of the last things to come back.
Therefore, I wanted something more engaging that would teach me to take
responsibility for my own behavior and to provide me with the tools to make the
changes. I found that and so much more in SMART Recovery. I was so profoundly
affected by the program that I have made it my personal mission to spread the
SMART Recovery message here in Arizona. I tell people that I am the "poster
child" for SMART Recovery.
We have a program here that trains people in recovery from mental illness and/or
substance use disorders to provide peer support services within the public
behavioral health system. It is called the Recovery Support Specialist (RSS)
Institute. I graduated from the very first Institute that was offered in Arizona
and am a Certified RSS. I co-facilitated the SMART Recovery training portion of
that Institute and was invited back to be the facilitator for any future
Institutes as part of the program curriculum. To date, I have provided SMART
Recovery training to 80 individuals in five separate Institutes, with many more
to come. From the Institute, these RSSs go to work at behavioral health
providers and community service agencies in five different counties. This is how
the message begins to spread. I have been invited to various programs throughout
Southern and rural Southeastern Arizona to support and guide RSSs in developing
their own SMART meetings/groups within their agencies and communities.
Even more exciting, SMART is the most popular and consistently attended group in
a little town called Wilcox. The people there are reporting inspiring changes in
their lives since joining the group. Recently, at a conference in Phoenix, I was
invited to help develop a SMART Recovery group in Nogales. I am hopeful that
this may be the first SMART Recovery group to be offered in English and Spanish.
We had a Recovery Expo in Tucson in September in celebration of National Alcohol
and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. All of the 12-step groups were represented
and I made a point of offering SMART Recovery as another alternative for
recovery from addictive behaviors. The response was inspirational. A priest from
a local church attended my meeting because he said that he believed that even
though God plays a crucial role in some peoples' recovery, the philosophy of
"admitting powerlessness over addiction and turning it over to God",
as is taught in the 12-steps meetings, was not working for the people that were
coming to him for help. He believed that people themselves need to take
responsibility for changing their own lives. It is moments like this that
motivate me to keep on spreading the SMART Recovery message. In June of 2006,
the United States Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association is having its 31st
Annual Conference in Phoenix. I am looking very forward to presenting a SMART
Recovery workshop there because there will be people from all over the world in
attendance. What an awesome opportunity to encourage people to share SMART
Recovery in their communities.
Thank you so much SMART Recovery for helping me to change my life in more ways
than I can count. You have given me the courage to pursue the dreams that I had
before I became addicted to drugs and alcohol and guided me in changing the many
other addictive behaviors that came along with the disease. Furthermore, thank
you for allowing me to bring about positive changes in my community and my state
through educating others about the program that changed my life for ever.
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