Many people struggle with addictions and self-medicating behaviours of one sort or another. If you do it or ingest it in order to make bad feelings go away, or to avoid dealing with something, then you are self-medicating. Some people take cocaine, but others get mad and rage all over others. Some people eat to feel better, while others go shopping, gamble, or have sex.

When a person goes away to a residential treatment programme for addictions, or even when they participate in a local programme, they come back having learned that programme, and it can be said that they are on top of their game, working their programme. So, what is a programme such as that? What comprises such a programme?

There are 12-step programmes built around the model of Alcoholics Anonymous. People attend groups. They are accountable to a sponsor. They read AA literature and they 'work' the steps. Here are the 12 steps (as downloaded from www.12step.org):

1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

There are also recovery and treatment programmes with a heavy dose of cognitive behavioural therapy, and for those who do not resonate with a belief in God, or for whom a spiritual answer seems particularly uncomfortable, this approach is preferable. It is known by many people as 'rational recovery'.

After working with people who are following both kinds of recovery, I have observed a few things. First, everyone who is actually working his or her programme is adhering to a set of disciplines. Disciplines are behaviours, routines, rituals, practices that one does faithfully, and the following of these behaviours and routines brings order and structure to one's days.

Second, the practices in question are of various kinds, focusing on diverse aspects of living. Most effective recovery programmes will offer disciplines within the following domains: physical/bodily; cognitive; affective/emotional processing; spiritual; relationship dynamics; and the contexts of life in which one finds him or herself. Consequently, what a person can do in order to provide a solid base upon which to stand in dealing with specific issues in recovery, are disciplines in each category.

In the physical category, a person might create an exercise routine that provided at least 30 minutes of cardio; in the cognitive category a person might learn how to challenge one's 'inner critic'; in the emotional processing category a person might establish routines for keeping the emotions flowing through expressive techniques; in the relationship category a person might learn about boundary dynamics; in the spiritual category a person might practice the disciplines that Jesus used in His daily life; in the contextual category a person might attend to creating a more tranquil feel to his or her living space.

All these kinds of things would best be worked out with an experienced therapist, if not within an established residential treatment programme. The person in recovery does best when supported by a diverse and plentiful network of people who can help, encourage, support, and nurture.

Since we are all more or less blind to our faults, the addicted person does best when he or she puts him or herself in the hands of a trusted professional. There are many psychologists and counsellors on the Island who are qualified to assist.

In each case, though, there will come a time in which the addicted person, the person in recovery, must make the recovery programme their own; that is, they must adapt it to meet their individual and specific needs and situation. This also is a finesse move that is best navigated under the care and guidance of a professional, because although self-medicating is very common, it is highly resistant to self-help approaches to dealing with it.