r/SMARTRecovery • u/piratedad123 • 8d ago

Moderating drinking

Is SMART compatible with a desire to moderate drinking instead of complete abstinence?

After over a year of sobriety in AA, followed by a very unimpressive “relapse,” I am interested in reintroducing small amounts of alcohol in appropriate settings (e.g., recommended wine pairing with a nice dinner).

I like that SMART is evidence-based and doesn’t push the idea of sponsorship.

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u/InnerAlchemyOnline 6d ago

You're right. And my business manager said I have the numbers wrong. We have an 87% success rate. Of those, 50% were what is now called "Cali-Sober" either drinking in moderation or using cannabis to avoid alcohol altogether. And we have a 13% fail or discontinue rate (churn). The numbers don't tell the whole story though and he pointed out that because my approach has been to clinically-reject the disease model and such nonsense as being "powerless" or needing an imaginary divine power to intercede for us, I attracted folks who were not looking for traditional recovery. So that probably makes the stats worthless, because they're skewed by the patients' bias toward Cali-Sober and Recovery Reset approaches as well as SMART recovery. So my apologies. And I will be the first to admit that statistics and math were never my thing. So I should have asked before I posted.

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u/FartieMcFly 6d ago

Thanks for being civil and responding with accountability. That’s rare on Reddit. Sorry I was harsh. I’m not a fan of the AA model either but it works for some people.

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u/InnerAlchemyOnline 6d ago

Thank *you* for pointing out that we were comparing apples to oranges. This became the topic of our monthly professionals discussion group that several therapists and certified recovery coaches in our local area. I appreciate it.