 I'd be lying to your face if I told you that 12 step programs were the only way to stay sober. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And I try to be as open and honest as possible. One thing that I hated when I first got clean, although 12 step programs saved my life, I didn't like the fact that people said this is the only way to stay sober because it's simply not true. If I could find one person who stayed clean without a 12 step program, then your logic is wrong. So in this video I'm going to present three 12 step alternatives that might be able to help you or someone you know. So please do me a favor and share this video. One of the sayings I always tell my clients is this, I literally do not care what program you work, just work a program. The highest instances of relapse that I personally see are people who try to get clean or they get clean and they literally do nothing to improve their life, overcome certain obstacles and it's a quick path to relapse if you're not doing something. So if you're not down with 12 step programs or if the person you know isn't down with 12 step programs, here's three alternatives. Let's get started. So the first 12 step alternative I want to talk about is my personal favorite alternative which is Refuge Recovery. So this is a program that started not too long ago maybe within the last decade or so by a man by the name of Noah Levine. He's written a couple books, the first one being Dharma punks. He talks about you know growing up in the punk scene, his addiction, going to prison and finding this path of recovery based on Buddhist philosophy which then turned into Refuge Recovery. Now I have to make it very clear, this is a program based around Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist psychology, the Buddhist teachings okay, has nothing to do with Buddhist religion. And this is my favorite because those of you who know me, I'm huge on meditation as well as Buddhist philosophy, all right. So rather than the 12 steps, this program is based on the four noble truths as well as the eightfold path. And what you need to understand and this is something that really attracted me to Buddhist philosophy is that Buddhism as a whole was based on addiction. Buddhist philosophy is based on our human nature for attraction, this intense attraction and with drugs and alcohol is this attraction to this feeling or to this escape, all right. So let's go over the four noble truths and the eightfold path. One, life means suffering. Two, the origin of suffering is attachment. Three, the cessation of suffering is attainable. Four, the path to the cessation of suffering. And this is the eightfold path, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. So Refuge Recovery, it's big on the West Coast like their facility is actually in Southern California, the one where it got started. But there are meetings all over the country. I know here in Las Vegas, we have I think three and we just started a fourth one, but I will provide information down below. You can check it out and see if there are meetings anywhere else in the country for you. But I will also link to the Refuge Recovery book that explains the entire program. So a lot of it is about meditation, right. This is a main part of the practice, but it's also a bunch of different principles that will help guide you on the path of recovery. This is my number one favorite 12 step alternative. Number two on this list is smart recovery, all right. So smart recovery is probably the biggest 12 step alternative and I want to talk to you about it a little bit. Basically, smart recovery is based on cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is an evidence-based recovery treatment method, all right. This means science has proven that cognitive behavioral therapy helps addicts recover from addiction. But I do want to give a few disclaimers. So although the program is based around CBT and you'll hear a lot of people say, I like smart recovery because it's science-based, you must remember that although it's based on CBT, the people running the meetings are not licensed in CBT and I hope that makes sense. So for example, I am not a licensed clinician. When I teach you about different therapeutic techniques, different philosophies, different things to help you with your mental health, like I hope you realize like I am not a licensed professional. I am merely educating you on things that I have learned as well as things that have helped me in my life. So CBT and those methods do help, but just realize it's not a licensed professional. Now, the one main gripe I have with smart recovery and I want to make it clear it is not all smart recovery programs, but there are some and they promote harm reduction. And in this form of harm reduction is I'm going to teach you how to drink or use drugs in a more manageable way. Like listen very carefully. If I knew how to drink or use drugs in a manageable way, I would not be sitting here right now with overdose rates and deaths the way they are. Heck, we just talked about alcoholic suicide. So to teach people how to keep using these substances that help them escape from the stresses and the suffering of everyday life, like it's not a true path of recovery. So if you're going to do smart recovery, I highly recommend abstinence and not harm reduction. Okay, but it can work for you. I know plenty of people who work the smart recovery program. And lastly, the number three 12 step alternative is therapy addiction therapy. So something that happened to me personally in 12 step programs and I want to make it clear it was not the 12 step programs fault. It was my fault. Okay, but they talk a lot about addict thinking alcoholic thinking. I started to believe that every thought that once through my head everything that I do is because I'm an addict or alcoholic. But there's also a human element. There's things that humans suffer with. And that's why working with a therapist is so important. So for example, what's addict thinking and alcoholic thinking and the type of guy where even in recovery, when I go out to a restaurant or something like that, I see somebody like nursing a drink or they leave their table and they're done with their meal. And they still have like half a beer or half a mixed drink. And I'm sitting there. I'm like, what are they doing? Right? Or I remember going to my friend's wedding with an open bar and people weren't just living at the bar drinking everything they could. That's alcoholic thinking. I don't understand how people can moderate this stuff. My old roommate, you know, she was prescribed pain medications for her surgery. I don't understand how she's not guzzling those things down. And she's like, nah, I don't want to take those. Those don't make me feel good. Right? And like, I don't get those things. That's addict thinking. That's alcoholic thinking. But there's other things that are just human. They're part of being a person. Okay? So the other benefit of working with a therapist aside from just working through the human aspect of things is that these are licensed professionals. These are people who are trained in things like cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy. DBT is highly based around mindfulness, which is a practice that you get from refuge recovery. Right? So working with a therapist can greatly help you. So better help actually helps my channel out and helps all of you by providing affordable online therapy. All right? I'll provide their link down in the description below. So not only do you get affordable therapy, but it also helps to support the channel when you sign up. And one of the great aspects of therapy is that you can also do group therapy. Like I am a true believer in any type of program where you get peer support. It's so important to realize that you're not alone in your struggles and better help actually offers group therapy sessions online. So you go in there and there is a licensed professional who is kind of running the group, but you're also there with your peers and you get this kind of back and forth and group support system. So it's very great. So as you could see right here, here's some of the examples of it. They do them throughout the week. So I highly recommend that you check out better help if you're already sober and looking for a new way or a better way to help start managing your life. Again, like I said, if you know somebody who was struggling to stay clean, they don't know of any alternatives to 12 step programs and they're being really resistant, please do me a favor and share this video with them. Let them know that there are alternatives to 12 step programs. And I didn't even list all of them. All right. But if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you are new here, I'm always making videos to help you out not only with addiction recovery, but also your mental health as a whole. Click that little round subscribe button and to check out my entire addiction playlist. Boom. You can click right there. All right. Thanks so much for watching. Do some research and I'll see you next time.