Addiction Recovery Basics

Having a drug and alcohol craving can be a grave danger to your addiction recovery; do you know what to do when they strike? Read on for tips and tools that may save your recovery.

Drug and alcohol cravings will occur even when working a solid addiction recovery program, sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Having stopped drug and alcohol use, the frequency, intensity and duration of cravings differ from person to person. The bad news is they occur; the good news is that over time they generally lessen in frequency and duration.

The trick is to stay safe while riding out the wave. One way to view abstinence and sobriety is simply preparing for that moment when a craving occurs, nobody is watching, and nobody would know if you used, except you. What do you do? That is the moment of truth.

What follows are some tips and tools that may get you through that moment of danger. Not all tips work for all people, the trick is to find one that will work for you.
That being said, here are the tips:

1. Buy yourself some time, distract yourself, with exercise, work or cleaning, get busy. Put yourself in a safe place where drugs and alcohol are not available. Cravings pass with time.

2. Play the movie forward. Remember that we are never talking about ‘just one’. Once you pick up, control goes out the window.

3. Talk to someone. This is the purpose of building a social support network, utilize it. Go to a meeting, call your sponsor, best friend, relative or counselor. Talking it out with someone who really understands helps prevent a return to active addiction.

4. Pray or meditate. Ask for help in just getting through this. Use the Serenity Prayer. The point is to ask for help outside yourself.

5. Remember the pain and bad times, and the fact that you would be risking everything good that you have worked so hard for. Try focusing in the positive, not drinking or drugging and all the reasons you should not do it.

6. Go to a 12 step meeting, even if you have never gone before. They will listen, that’s what they do. Call information and ask for AA .

7. H.A.L.T. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired: if you are in any of these states, fix it. Eat, sleep, chill out, go visit someone.

8. Remember a craving will pass with time and when it is through, you come out the other side even stronger.

This was not, by any means, a complete list of relapse prevention strategies. There are many more detailed resources available:

Buprenorphine Drug Treatments: Trading One Bad Habit for Another - These “treatment” methods call for heroin addicts to be placed on a prescription drug of Methadone or OxyContin in order to lessen withdrawal and craving effects associated with abruptly stopping drug usage. …

Health, Questions About Alcohol Or Drug Addiction And Some Answers … - Drug addiction is a physical and mental condition characterized by habitual and uncontrollable drug intake, involving craving and seeking, even despite the negative consequences associated with drug use. Alcohol or drug addiction is …

Drug Addiction Medication May Erase Drug Cravings - When the rats pushed down on a lever, a small amount of the drug was dispensed. The more they pushed, the more the drug was given. After a few weeks of withdrawal (simulating detox and rehab), some of the rats were injected with the …

Addiction Brain Science - so We Can All Understand It! - Their need to satisfy the cravings becomes dominant in all behavior. It does not matter what drug they choose. Nothing will satisfy the overwhelming craving except their drug-of-choice. Meth users will not settle for heroin. …

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