Overcome Addiction with Sound Strategies

Most recovery programs focus on tactics to help people stay clean and sober. For example, the 12 step program has a whole slew of suggestions that are really just tactics such as "avoid people, places, and things that triggered you to use drugs or alcohol."

But tactics in recovery are of limited value because there is no way you could come up with enough tactics to fully cover any given situation. Strategies are more powerful than tactics because they are more flexible in their application to your daily life.

There are a lot of tactics out there for overcoming addiction but I also want to point out a few strategies as well.

Most recovery programs are based on a handful of core strategies that dictate your actions. For example, the 12 step program could be summarized as the following the 3 strategies:

1) Find God

2) Clean house (work on your self)

3) Help others (carry the message to other struggling addicts and alcoholics)

Now those are sound strategies if you practice them. The problem that many people have is in figuring out exactly how to apply those strategies in their lives with meaningful action. But I found another core set of strategies that helped me to recover as well:

1) Care for yourself (in every way).

2) Network with others in recovery

3) Push yourself to grow holistically

Those 3 strategies have served me equally well and in many cases have pushed me to grow beyond the boundaries of traditional recovery. For example, in attempting to "care for self," I eventually started exercising and also gave up smoking. These are not things that I see being promoted in traditional recovery circles, such as the 12 step program.

Note too that the 3 strategies listed above are fundamental strategies. This means that they cannot be reduced further and thus are pillars of your recovery. You could derive more complex approaches to recovery based on these but the 3 strategies will sill lay at the core of the program you create.

They are also universal strategies. People who are successfully recovering are doing so by using these fundamental strategies whether they realize it or not. For example, people who are working a 12 step program are naturally trying to "care for self" just as much as someone who uses that strategy deliberately. They are also actively networking with others in recovery, simply by going to meetings and involvement with the fellowship. And most of them who are serious about recovering are also pushing themselves to grow in some way. So the 3 strategies are universal; people use them whether they realize it or not.