The face-to-face meeting at the Southbury UCC gets its first weather-related cancellation in just it’s second week! Since there is a winter weather advisory and the forecast is for snow and freezing rain, we thought we should cancel the December 22 meeting.
Items of interest to SMART Recovery participants, volunteers, facilitators, etc.
Yoga is both a useful tool to help in recovery, and an enjoyable way to spend your time.
Yoga instructor Wendy McLeod will be offering three yoga classes at the Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James, 57 Olive Street, New Haven, CT from 1:30 PM to 6:00 PM on Saturday, December 16. One class is $10, two for $15, or all three for $25. Funds raised will be used to support legal fees and community advocacy for those hiring a lawyer for the first time through a donation to New Haven Legal Assistance Association.
For more information and to book, see the Eventbrite listing.
I happened to be at the Woodbridge, Connecticut, Police Department and noticed that they have a drop bin for unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Many police departments participate in the annual DEA national prescription drug take-back day, but you don’t have to wait for this. Not only do many pharmacies take unused prescription meds, you may well be able to drop them off at your local police department.
TriCircle, Inc., a new treatment program, will be holding its first “Walk the Walk for Recovery” at Community Lake Park, 291 Avenue, Wallingford, CT 06 from 9 AM to 4 PM on Saturday, May 6, 2017. (Rain date is Saturday, May 13.)
SMART Recovery will have a mile marker during the walk.
Walker registration costs $10. If you raise $25 in donations you’ll receive a free t-shirt. More information at https://www.tricircleinc.com/2017WalktheWalkforRecovery.en.html
The video on Choice in Recovery’s web site provides a brief overview of several alternative support groups, including SMART Recovery: http://choiceinrecovery.net/
Many of these programs are also listed in SMART Recovery’s EAP flyer.
The annual DEA National Take-Back Initiative will happen from 10 AM to 2 PM on Saturday, April 29.
You can find more information and a link to search for a local collection site at https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html. Many local police departments participate.
A recent paper (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161115111659.htm) found that collections such as this don’t do much to reduce the availability of diverted prescription drugs, probably because of low participation, so encourage your friends and family to clean out their medicine cabinets. Interestingly, these collections do act as an effective way of recycling over-the-counter medication.
If you want to run your own collection in Connecticut, you’ll need a one-day hazardous waste disposal permit (http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2718&q=437868
http://www.ct.gov/dcp/cwp/view.asp?a=1620&q=438170).
I mentioned at today’s meeting that I’d had trouble finding the recommended reading list on the SMART Recovery web site. It’s at http://www.smartrecovery.org/resources/readlist.htm
Some of the authors have been guests at the (more or less) monthly webinars SMART Recovery holds.
One of our attendees took this course when it ran before and recommends it: “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction” with Beth Robins Roth at the Fresh Yoga Erector Square studio in New Haven. The course runs from March 8 to April 26. Full details, including the dates, cost and the instructor’s qualifications are at http://freshyoga.com/workshops_mbsr
Here are several free online courses you may find useful:
- “Understanding Drugs & Addiction” has just started on March 7 and runs for 6 weeks.
- “Understanding Anxiety, Depression and CBT” starts on May 9
- Another run of Monash University’s “Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance” is more than half over. The course is likely to run again.
The online mindfulness course mentioned in an earlier post is being offered again, starting on February 8, 2016. It’s a good way of trying out mindfulness from the comfort of your home computer.