You try to do your best to minimize your exposure to those things, locations and persons that prompt chemical cravings, but you will never ever eliminate urges/yearnings/desires totally. Mastering how you can triumph over and address substance or alcohol cravings is and thus an critical ability in any process of healing.
Addiction/dependency recovery strategies train those in restoration/recovery competencies that once practiced and implemented in real life circumstances of enticement, can extend restorative healing for yet one more day; which is the way we tend to survive, day to day.
Following is a quick outline of a handful of of the techniques taught and practiced to help cope with drug or alcohol cravings, as counseled courtesy of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Distraction
Leaving a circumstance of craving and mentally/emotionally diverting yourself with another task is a wonderful strategy to protect against surrendering to the attraction of drugs.
Experts advocate that you make a shortlist of actions that may distract you from a craving should the need present themselves (going to a friend’s hourse, taking your pet for a walk, buying the groceries, playing a game, look at a magazine, attending a group meeting, write, etc.).
A lot of folks try to handle cravings for a certain substance by consuming some other drug, for example, a cocaine addict/abuse may begin using cannabis to help manage cocaine cravings. This is a remarkably poor method and frequently leads to full relapse; for that reason developing a list of better alternatives available can help to prevent chemical replacement actions.
Recalling Why You Ought Not Abuse
While in an severe craving, individuals focus on a remembrance of the pleasures of drug abuse, overlooking momentarily why they stopped using the chemical to begin with. Telling yourself why you chose to quit using the chemical while in a moment of craving could bolster your resolve to stay sober.
Some therapists recommend that you in fact put in writing a number of solid reasons for staying substance free on an index card and keep this list on your person all the time. Then, while in a challenging moment of temptation, you could check your checklist and remember at that instant precisely why you have to remain strong.
For Example
Deteriorating renal illness If I begin using, forfeit custody of my kids
My partner might walk out on me
If I test positive another time, I will lose my career
Speaking Through The Craving
Speaking through an occurrence of craving as it occurs could help you to address the intensity of it. Revealing to another person you trust about what you are going through at the instant of a craving can empower you and decrease a little of the anxiety symptoms connected with fighting against temptation by yourself. Conversing through the craving as it place could also help you to better understand the things that triggered the feelings of temptation.
Letting Go — Feeling The Craving
Allowing oneself suffer from a chemical or alcohol craving in a rather abstract and removed fashion can appreciably minimize the endured severity of the occurrence.
Practitioners counsel you to picture the craving as a wave of water that is about to wash over you, beginning small, developing in strength, peaking and subsequently receding. Rather than combating the craving, as you ordinarily would, while submitting yourself you attempt to feel the craving as thoroughly as is possible.
Find yourself a cozy and secure location, relax and allow yourself to feel fully the craving.
Realize:
Just what does it genuinely feel like?
What do my feet feel like? My legs, my stomach area, my throat, my teeth, etc.
How strong is the craving right at this moment? Is it becoming more powerful or is it declining?
Can you talk about the feeling of the craving in sentences?
In a paradoxical way, in focusing on suffering through the craving completely you disconnect yourself from its impact. A lot of individuals have found that this indifferent experiential method significantly reduces the intensity as well as incidence of cravings.
Suppressing The Strength Of The Internal Voice
In nearly all of us, inner thoughts of craving release an inner voice that persuades us of the certainty of use.
A craving may result in internal communications like:
I absolutely need a cocktail
I am unable to struggle with this another second
Interestingly, when we take an objective look at craving induced internal vocal comments, we can certainly realize that they aren’t fundamentally accurate; and consequently we can learn to disprove these claims with more accurate reflections of reality.
“I need a cocktail” becomes, “I may well desire a drink, but I do not need a drink, and virtually all feelings of craving will pass.”.
“I just can’t deal with this any more” becomes, “Cravings may be problematic and uncomfortable , but they are just temporary, I will truly feel improved in a moment, as long as I don’t use or drink .”.
drinking problem