Hi - I have been reading a lot lately and thought I would share something I read in Charlotte Kasl's Many Journey's, One Path book...it's a bit long, but I thought there might be others out there like me who are helped by understanding how our thoughts are working sometimes. I read so many posts that start with "I don't understand why I couldn't just stop...". This mentions abstinence, but I think it applies to modding as well.
"AA describes addiction as ?cunning and baffling.? What is really cunning and baffling are the ways our minds can get sneaky and lead us to relapse. Very often someone is committed to abstinence but doesn?t understand the signs of the addictive mind trying to get them to use again, and are caught off guard. In many ways an addictive episode is parallel to going into a hypnotic trance; the addictive side that stems from the old survivor induces the trance so it can have it?s way.
To prevent relapse, we need to understand the thought processes that often lead to addiction. Thoughts enter the mind as if from some alien force, seeming to take over. Learning to recognize the early stages of an addictive episode can help dramatically in preventing the addictive urge from overwhelming a person. Essentially, the new survivor / wise person learns to recognize the symptoms of addiction and get help before the old survivor reflexes take over.
An addictive episode can be broken down into five parts:
fleeting idea,
mental attention (inviting the fantasy in,
planning / obsession,
acting it out,
and the hangover involving shame, guilt, remorse, or physical withdrawal
1. Fleeting idea. A thought or image of the addictive behaviour pops into the mind. It is in the hypnotic cue. It could be a thought such as ?wouldn?t a drink/sex/hot fudge sundae feel good?? It seems as if the thought or desire enters from outside oneself. This fleeting thought can be triggered from either physical withdrawal ? headaches, cravings, restlessness, and so on ? or psychological withdrawal ? emptiness, sadness, or anger the person may want to avoid getting close to consciousness. In terms of relapse prevention, it is important to know one?s personal cues ? those things that are likely to trigger the addiction ? and either avoid them or eventually break the associations."
?she goes on to describe the mental attention and planning stages as being akin to a hypnotic trance.
For me, this was especially interesting because of the mention of hypnosis. I am planning to use this information with my hypno CDs. Give myself suggestions to combat the AL "Hypnosis"...and concentrate not on switching 'cravings' but stress that when a fleeting thought enters the mind, I immediately muffle the fleeting idea and my mind will then switch to a positve subject...my mind will find postive activities as rewards and I will work through my insecurities without numbing myself with alcohol. (Those are my triggers - rewards and insecurity).
I hope someone else will find this helpful as well. I have not been to AA or had therapy, so the insight may be very obvious, but it is new and helpful to me...
Take good care of yourselves today,
H4O
"AA describes addiction as ?cunning and baffling.? What is really cunning and baffling are the ways our minds can get sneaky and lead us to relapse. Very often someone is committed to abstinence but doesn?t understand the signs of the addictive mind trying to get them to use again, and are caught off guard. In many ways an addictive episode is parallel to going into a hypnotic trance; the addictive side that stems from the old survivor induces the trance so it can have it?s way.
To prevent relapse, we need to understand the thought processes that often lead to addiction. Thoughts enter the mind as if from some alien force, seeming to take over. Learning to recognize the early stages of an addictive episode can help dramatically in preventing the addictive urge from overwhelming a person. Essentially, the new survivor / wise person learns to recognize the symptoms of addiction and get help before the old survivor reflexes take over.
An addictive episode can be broken down into five parts:
fleeting idea,
mental attention (inviting the fantasy in,
planning / obsession,
acting it out,
and the hangover involving shame, guilt, remorse, or physical withdrawal
1. Fleeting idea. A thought or image of the addictive behaviour pops into the mind. It is in the hypnotic cue. It could be a thought such as ?wouldn?t a drink/sex/hot fudge sundae feel good?? It seems as if the thought or desire enters from outside oneself. This fleeting thought can be triggered from either physical withdrawal ? headaches, cravings, restlessness, and so on ? or psychological withdrawal ? emptiness, sadness, or anger the person may want to avoid getting close to consciousness. In terms of relapse prevention, it is important to know one?s personal cues ? those things that are likely to trigger the addiction ? and either avoid them or eventually break the associations."
?she goes on to describe the mental attention and planning stages as being akin to a hypnotic trance.
For me, this was especially interesting because of the mention of hypnosis. I am planning to use this information with my hypno CDs. Give myself suggestions to combat the AL "Hypnosis"...and concentrate not on switching 'cravings' but stress that when a fleeting thought enters the mind, I immediately muffle the fleeting idea and my mind will then switch to a positve subject...my mind will find postive activities as rewards and I will work through my insecurities without numbing myself with alcohol. (Those are my triggers - rewards and insecurity).
I hope someone else will find this helpful as well. I have not been to AA or had therapy, so the insight may be very obvious, but it is new and helpful to me...
Take good care of yourselves today,
H4O
and then go listen to the CDs. Hopefully I'll make it.
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