6: Recovery Autopilot

Not All Mindlessness is Bad: Pro-Recovery Automaticity

The discussion of the potential benefits of mindlessness and automaticity allows clients to develop a balanced view of the pros and cons of being on an auto-pilot.  It is paramount that clients avoid the sweeping generalization that all automaticity is unhealthy.  Habits are necessary and essential for adaptation.  Clients are helped to appreciate the utility of both change-facilitating and change-maintenance recovery habits.  Clients are encouraged to recognize that by the very virtue of their participation in treatment they are choosing to “program” themselves to respond with a certain pro-recovery automaticity in the face of possible future challenges to their recovery goals.  

With this in mind, later sessions of Choice Awareness Training, aside from concluding comments about choice awareness, is also an opportunity to integrate various skills clients are learning in the Program into a kind of “recovery habit.”

Recovery Autopilot as a Maintenance Tool

While clients are encouraged to develop a Recovery Autopilot, facilitators clarify that the purpose of the autopilot is to help clients transition from a structured therapeutic environment to independent self-care.  With this in mind, the Recovery Autopilot is seen as a temporary measure to be used in the immediate post-treatment future.  The Recovery Autopilot format can, however, eventually serve as a platform for client’s general mental health hygiene and self-care. 

Recovery Autopilot Exercise

Recovery Autopilot may be presented to clients graphically as a the following equation:

Recovery Autopilot = Daily Recovery Ritual + Weekly Recovery Event(s)

Facilitators explain that a recovery autopilot consists of a daily recovery ritual (which with time may become a platform for generic self-care) and a weekly recovery event. 

Time Allotments

Let us assume that a client is willing to spend thirty minutes a day on a Daily Recovery Ritual and at least one additional hour per week on some kind of Weekly Recovery Event.

Daily Recovery Ritual Samples

It is recommended that a client spends this half-hour on a combination of Relaxation/Meditation, Self-Motivation, Social Support, Choice Awareness activity, Review of Program Materials or some Recovery-related Reading or Study.  The following are a few sample break-downs of what your Daily Recovery Ritual could be:

Recovery Autopilot Version 1:

5 min:              Cue-Conditioned Relaxation

5 min:              Practice Choice Awareness

10 min:            Analyze the Cravings you had yesterday or today

10 min:            Review your Motivation Check form

Recovery Autopilot Version 2:

5 min:              Cue-Conditioned Relaxation

5 min:              Practice Choice Awareness

10 min:            Review Lapse Prevention Plan

10 min:            Perform a Relapse Prevention Hypothetical

Recovery Autopilot Version 3:

5 min:              Cue-Conditioned Relaxation

5 min:              Practice Choice Awareness

10 min:            Listen to a portion of your Motivational Pitch Tape

10 min:            Plan your Natural Highs for the coming up weekend

It is recommended that any Daily Recovery Ritual should include a relaxation and a choice awareness practice; keeping these items constant assures that the client engages in a key use prevention skill and at least minimally “wakes” oneself up to his/her sense of freedom to change by becoming aware of choices available to him/her in a given moment.  The remaining portion of the Daily Ritual may vary and relate to the rest of the Recovery Equation.

While the Daily Recovery Ritual may vary somewhat in term of its content, it is important, however, that the Daily Recovery Ritual follows a predictable pattern or system, time- and format-wise.  After all, if it is too random, it would not be a ritual, would it?

Tips for Daily Recovery Ritual:

Clients are encouraged to keep the Daily Recovery Ritual simple but meaningful.  Clients would do well to resist the temptation to be too “recovery-greedy.”  More is not always better. Clients should keep the Daily Recovery Ritual realistic; a plan that is too tedious will feel like too much of a burden and will eventually collect dust

Furthermore, clients are encouraged to come up with at least two versions of a Daily Recovery Ritual and plan to alternate them every other day.  This way clients will be able to make use of most of what they have learned while keeping it interesting.

Weekly Recovery Events

In addition to a Daily Recovery Ritual, it would be a good idea for a client to also get in a habit of scheduling at least one hour worth of Recovery Events per week. The following is a list of potential ideas that may be provided to a client as a generic menu for them to pick and choose a Weekly Recovery Event on a regular basis.

• Volunteer or Charity event
• Natural High of client’s choice (exercise, entertainment, etc.)
• Time alone
• Review of Recovery/Program Materials
• Self-Review: analysis of one’s choices, cravings,  recovery investments over past week
• Choice-Awareness Chess Match
• Therapy/Counseling Session
• Self-Help Meeting of one’s choice
• Religious or Spiritual meeting/function