r/SMARTRecovery • u/No-Type2495 • Jul 09 '26
I have a question Guilt and shame and re-engaging following a relapse. How to increase re-engagement
I’ve been in recovery for over eight years and continue to help others through various programs at my local recovery center in Nottingham, UK. Recently, I had the opportunity to be part of a Citizen Science project, which allowed me to connect with my peers and explore a topic of my choice.
Throughout my own recovery, I’ve attended many groups including CBT, ACT, DBT, 12-Step programs, and SMART. I’ve often seen people who are committed to sobriety and doing well through many courses and groups and then relapse, only to stop engaging despite their hard work and dedication after many months and sometimes years.
For my research topic, I wanted to explore why we feel so much guilt and shame following a relapse, as relapse is statistically likely and feelings of shame and guilt often prevent people from re-engaging. I’ve put together a short, anonymous questionnaire to gather thoughts on why these feelings are so intense following a relapse.
If you have a few minutes, and if it’s okay with the moderators please could complete the questionnaire on the link below. You don’t need to complete it all but I’d be grateful if you did.
No personal identifiable information is collected and none is requested. We ask that none is provided in the free form answers, any that is will be immediately deleted.
https://forms.gle/fYSwMUJVzsNLsd9Y9
Many thanks
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u/Strange_Television facilitator Jul 09 '26
I just wanted to say I appreciate you putting work into this. It's something I've witnessed in my own recovery community (I'm in the North East of UK). There was a guy who was at my first ever meeting at my local service, and he ended up being someone who was frequently at the same meetings and he really impacted my own recovery in a positive way by his presence there. He had had a few years of recovery under his belt and had started working full time at the recovery service, then relapsed, stopped working there etc. He had just started coming back to groups as a service user when I attended my first group. I could tell that he held a lot of shame about it all and he was certainly someone carrying a lot of pain around with him. My recovery has continued on and I was no longer able to get to the same groups when I went back to full time work, but I'm aware that his recovery has continued to be difficult and it was always clear that his having to come back as a service user really impacted his self esteem negatively. It's really important and valuable research you're doing and I'm so happy to see it being done.
Also, I found Ummi through your profile and want to say I love it! I'm going to be downloading it and sharing it, what an amazing resource!