4 actions each day
I posted some time ago about 4 actions to take each day for those just starting in treatment. In the long-term residential therapeutic community (TC) program where I worked, we would teach this to newer patients.
What were the four actions? Reading the literature. Talking with someone who has what we want. An action that produces spiritual connection. And checking on self before the end of the day, and seeing if we need to adjust our plan for tomorrow.
We would teach the newer patients to always do all 4 of these each day. And to keep doing these daily throughout their stay. It wasn’t a requirement, but was a strong suggestion. The main focus of these four daily actions was working on our self.
Inside and doing the Traditions
I’ve posted more recently about some therapeutic benefits of the Traditions.
One set of benefits comes from living inside the Traditions as an ecosystem. And another benefit of the Traditions are the effects they have on us as we “do” our living in accordance with them.
It seems to me that overall, the Traditions have helpful impacts in our character development and personality over time. How so? Well, the Traditions benefit us in at least two particular ways. One is the Traditions as a place of habitation – an ecosystem that we live within. This brings a beneficial influence from outside of self. And the benefit is from the Traditions as a set of practices that we in fact do in fact practice. The main focus of this dual role of the Traditions is in our relation to self and to others.
Checking the “we”
Not too long ago I posted about checking the “we” of the community that we recover in.
My post about that had to do with a group that I ran in the TC for years. The focus of that particular group was how the house was doing as a whole. The group met every week on Friday.
We would ask, “What’s the vibe of the place?” And, “Are we moving in the right direction?” And toward the end it would turn to “What do I need to do as an individual to contribute to the health and direction of the house/the group as a whole?”
When we as counselors led patients in this process, we made sure that no individual was ever named. And nothing was allowed to be said that made it clear who was being talked about, even if they weren’t named.
It was about the group as a whole – not about any one specific person.
Every Friday we got together as a house and checked the “we”. And what individual responsibility each could take to make it better. In this way, the focus was about others (or the collective “we”) primarily, and the self secondarily.
“Recovery Surfing”
I invented this concept and term, and have posted about it previously.
I took inspiration from the term “Urge Surfing”, which is a well-known relapse prevention technique for the management of cravings.
Did you know that the primary problem in healthcare is not so much what needs to be done (like we haven’t invented antibiotics yet). But rather, at this stage in history, the main problem is “patient adherence to the plan.”
In trying to solve the problem of “patient adherence to the plan” across all disorders (primary health, mental health, substance use), the one factor loading toward more non-adherence than any other is feeling better. Yes, feeling better is the biggest single factor in bringing about non-compliance with what was working and still works.
Specifically, for addiction recovery, recovery surfing would have to do with noticing what it’s like to be doing so well for so long. And staying mindful of our stance and method of doing our recovery. This is important. Afterall, for example, riding our recovery 3 miles from shore in our 14th year of recovery carries its own specific risks.
Given that Recovery Surfing refers to “the combination of the basic stance toward, and the content and quality of, one’s mindful consideration of the space between, one’s self and their recovery”, the major focus returns to self. But from quite a different perspective, and toward quite a different territory.
In summary
Yes, it’s true that from day one we are doing all four of these. They are not a sequence of activities in an order that’s artificially imposed by a theory. But with the severe, chronic, complex addiction population I’m used to, there’s a different emphasis in these four practices over time. And the relevant and differing emphases seem to be relatively stable in form across decades of people I’ve seen – thus the diagram and the grid.
The diagram and the grid both show the same pattern, but each in a different way. For example, the main emphasis of self or other, or the two in a shifting order of primacy, is shown in the grid. While the main activities and direction of the average individual being described are shown in the diagram of their trajectory over time.
Suggested Reading
If you’re still here and reading, you might be interested some previous posts of mine:
Who calls themselves a “former alumi” and what exactly does that mean?
“Throw flour on the invisible man”: toward locating recovery function and assessing recovery quality
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Laurie Buckley for her comments and encouragement concerning a previous version of this work.
