Foundations of Recovery Pathway
Problem Solving (Part 3)
Week 4: Sunday
Problem Solving
Introduction
Welcome to the Problem Solving session of the Living in Balance
program. This session will help you deal with daily life problems
that accumulated while you were using, as well as new problems
that might come up in sobriety. Importantly, this session will
provide you with a simple six-step plan for problem solving.
What is in this session?
This session has three major parts: (1) Life Problems, (2) Problem
Solving, and (3) Tips and Techniques.
1. Life Problems
✔ After participating in part 1, you will be able to 2. Problem Solving
• understand why you were unable to deal well with 3. Tips and Techniques
problems when you were using.
• recognize the difficulties you may have in dealing
with problems in early sobriety.
• understand the importance of “willingness” in finding
solutions to your problems.
✔ After participating in part 2, you will be able to
• understand a basic set of steps for problem solving.
• practice the basic steps for problem solving that
you learned.
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LIVING IN BALANCE
✔ After participating in part 3, you will be able to
• prioritize problems.
• break big problems into manageable pieces.
• ask for help.
• brainstorm when stuck.
• weigh the benefits and risks of potential solutions.
What will be asked of you?
You will be asked to consider how you dealt with the problems
of daily life when you were using, and the difficulties you may
face in doing so when newly sober. You will also be asked to use
a simple technique to solve a current problem.
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PROBLEM SOLVING
Part 3: Tips and Techniques
This section provides a few very practical tips and techniques to
LEARNER OBJECTIVES
help you solve problems. These include easy and practical tips
FOR PART 3:
about how to prioritize, break big problems into manageable You will
pieces, ask for help, brainstorm when stuck, and weigh the • prioritize problems.
benefits and risks of potential solutions. • break big problems into
manageable pieces.
• ask for help.
Prioritize!
• brainstorm when stuck.
While drinking alcohol or using drugs, many people feel over- • weigh the benefits and
whelmed with problems. They become so overwhelmed that they risks of potential solutions.
just give up. Those problems don’t just go away when you begin
your recovery. Many of those problems are still waiting to be
solved. With so many problems, what do you do?
Prioritize! When you have a lot of problems to deal with, a
simple but very important technique is to prioritize them. Think
of it this way: If you only have an hour to run an errand, and you
have to pay a police ticket that costs fifty dollars and a library
fine that costs fifty cents, what do you do? Most people would pay
the police ticket.
Well, problems are sometimes like having a big pile of tickets.
Some are expensive and some are cheap. Some need to be paid
now. Some can wait until later. All need to be paid. In the past,
you may have looked away because you were overwhelmed. Now,
your job is to take a look at the problems and start figuring out
which ones need to be addressed first and which ones can wait.
EXERCISE 13
Please answer the following questions:
1. What are three problems you have that need to be
addressed very soon?
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LIVING IN BALANCE
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2. Name three problems that can wait a little while, although
they still need to be addressed.
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Break It Down!
Even after you prioritize your problems and know which ones
you need to address soon, you might still feel overwhelmed.
When faced with a fairly complex problem, many people feel
overwhelmed. Where to start? What to do?
Break it down! If a problem is complex, break it into several
parts. You know the old proverb “A thousand-mile journey begins
If a problem is complex, with a single step”? There’s a lot of wisdom there. Breaking a
break it into several parts. problem into manageable steps is smart, and it works.
Think of it this way: A big problem is really a bunch of small
problems. If you try to solve the big problem, you might feel over-
whelmed. If you try to solve small problems, one at a time, you’ll
have solved the big problem before you know it.
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PROBLEM SOLVING
For example, your drinking or drug use may have led to a
legal problem. It may feel overwhelming. You may feel that you
don’t have the time, money, knowledge, or skills to handle the
problem. But if you break it into small steps, you can solve the
problem. In this case, it might include (1) getting a referral for a
lawyer, (2) making an appointment with the lawyer, (3) asking
questions, (4) learning what you need to do, and so on.
EXERCISE 14
Please answer the following questions:
1. Identify and describe a current problem that feels over-
whelming. Why does it feel overwhelming?
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2. Even if the problem seems overwhelming and you don’t
know where to start, break the big problem into smaller
problems and list those here.
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LIVING IN BALANCE
3. When you look at your list of small problems, are there
any that you need to break down into smaller problems?
If so, describe them.
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Ask for Help
Three simple words: “I need help.” Sometimes they can be the
hardest three words to say. Some people feel that asking for
help is a sign of weakness. Actually, the reverse is true. Asking
for help is a sign of strength and maturity. When you ask for
help, you are taking advantage of the intelligence, creativity,
and knowledge of those around you.
All too often, people feel that they “don’t want to bother”
someone else with their problems. But the fact is that most people
really enjoy helping others. In fact, the Twelve Step programs are
based on the idea that people get better by helping others. So don’t
be shy. Turn to others for help when you need it.
Asking for help is a sign
Remember, everyone has had problems at one point or another.
of strength and maturity.
The trick is to identify people who have had problems and then
successfully solved them. You can learn from their successes. At
the same time, someone may have had a problem similar to yours
and did not solve it so well. The truth is, you may learn a lot from
that person’s mistakes.
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PROBLEM SOLVING
EXERCISE 15
Please answer the following questions:
1. Describe a problem that you have with which you could
use some help. This might be a problem where you could
benefit from someone’s experience or “expert” advice.
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2. Identify someone who “has been there before.” This person
might have solved a similar problem or might be knowledge-
able about the topic. Why did you choose this person?
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3. You can ask people for different kinds of help: for brain-
storming, identifying solutions, or just listening. What kind
of help could another person provide?
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LIVING IN BALANCE
When You Are Stuck: Brainstorm!
When trying to find solutions to a problem, you can get stuck.
You may be following the strategies described earlier in this
session, but you just can’t find a good solution. You are stuck. You
may feel like giving up. What to do? Brainstorm!
Brainstorming can be a useful way to get unstuck. Brainstorm-
ing is a tool that can help you explore ideas that you might not
otherwise think about. It’s also a good way to get some help from
others.
Brainstorming is based on two ideas. First, the more potential
Brainstorming is a tool solutions developed, the better. A greater variety of potential
that can help you explore solutions increases the likelihood of finding a good solution.
ideas that you might not Second, temporarily putting aside any judgment about the quality
otherwise think about. of the solutions encourages more ideas to flow.
A good way to brainstorm is to identify an individual whom
you trust and who is willing to help you solve your problem. Set a
fifteen-minute period of time to brainstorm. Start the brainstorm-
ing session by stating the problem aloud. Begin stating potential
solutions, even if they are a little offbeat. The idea is that one
idea can spark another idea, and so on. Write these ideas on
paper. After fifteen minutes, look at what you wrote. Some
solutions may be good, and some may be poor. See if there are
any ideas that might be good solutions.
EXERCISE 16
Please answer the following questions:
1. Describe a problem or issue about which you have
gotten stuck.
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PROBLEM SOLVING
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2. In our day-to-day life, we sometimes engage in events that
involve brainstorming or are somewhat like brainstorming.
What are a few examples from your life?
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3. Brainstorming is a good way to ask someone for help with
a problem. What kind of problem might best be addressed
with brainstorming? Who might be a good candidate to
help you brainstorm?
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LIVING IN BALANCE
Weigh the Benefits and Risks
Sometimes you may have more than one solution to a problem,
and you’re having trouble deciding which one to try. That’s not
a bad problem to have. But it’s still a problem. Luckily, there’s an
easy solution. Using the example that follows, make a list of your
potential solutions. Then, describe the primary benefits that each
solution may have. In addition, describe the main risks that each
solution may have.
If you want, you can assign numbers to the benefits and
risks. You can assign a number from
0 to +10 for benefits
(with 0 = no benefit and +10 = great benefit),
and
from 0 to –10 for risks
(with 0 = no risk and –10 = great risk).
This can help you weigh some of the benefits and risks of
Sometimes you may
certain solutions to your problem.
have more than one
solution to a problem.
EXERCISE 17
Please answer the following questions:
1. Do you have a problem for which you can’t decide among
the potential solutions?
■ Yes ■ No ( If yes, please explain why.)
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PROBLEM SOLVING
2. We all do informal benefit-risk analyses in our daily lives.
Describe a few situations in which you have done this
informally.
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3. In what ways can a benefit-risk analysis help you solve
problems?
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LIVING IN BALANCE
Session 19 Summary
This session has dealt with finding solutions for the
problems of daily life. You have looked at the difficulties
you had in solving problems when you were
drinking alcohol or using drugs and the difficulties
you may continue to have in early sobriety. You have
been given a six-step plan for problem solving and
asked to use it to solve a current problem. You have
also reviewed practical tips about how to prioritize,
break big problems into manageable pieces, ask for
help, brainstorm when stuck, and weigh the benefits
and risks of potential solutions. To maintain your
sobriety, you will need to deal with daily problems, not
ignore them as you may have done in the past. By
using some simple techniques, you will find that
every problem has a solution.
© Hazelden Foundation.
All rights reserved.
RECOVERY CENTERS OF AMERICA - KING OF PRUSSIA, PA
