Combating Cravings

Although triggers (like stressful situations or former addict friends) pose a threat to a person’s recovery, cravings are perhaps the biggest challenge that a recovering addict will face.  Many (but not all) triggers can be avoided; cravings can’t.  A craving is most easily defined as a person’s psychological and/or physical need for something; often, this “something” is a substance but addicts can also crave the dopamine that is released when they engage in certain behaviors.  In this way, we are biologically programmed to seek pleasurable activities or substances that create this feeling of pleasure.  We may also crave something when we have only been given a small taste of it (your local grocery store is tapping into this when its employees distribute samples of certain foods) or when we are under stress of negative emotions and want to counter it with a calming feeling that past experience has told us is possible with whatever we are craving (i.e., as a form of coping). 

How to Keep Your Cravings Under Control

1. Be conscious of it.  Saying to yourself, “Ok, I am really craving x right now,” is much better than pretending that the craving doesn’t exist.  If you have not mentally accepted the reality of the craving, you will have more difficulty resisting the instinct to use through a conscious effort when you feel the craving even more intensely because you have not taken steps to remedy it.
2. Get to the root of the problem. After you have acknowledged the craving, evaluate your physical and emotional state at that moment.  Are you feeling anxious, stressed, or depressed?  Achy or fatigued?  Did you encounter one of your triggers (a person, place, thing, or situation that you might associate with past use or behaviors)?
3. Enlist help. Remember how your family and friends promised to support you throughout your recovery when they confronted you at an intervention or persuaded you to go to rehab?  Now is the time to take them up on their offer. Or, if you were part of Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous, call your sponsor.  Either way, having another person to hold you accountable and keep you from thinking about the craving can be the key to getting through it.  Don’t hang up the phone until it passes.
4. Check the time.  If you can’t find anyone to talk to or find yourself having multiple cravings in the same day, set a timer and tell yourself that you will reevaluate the situation after 15 minutes.  Although there is a good chance that the craving will have passed, try other steps if you still find yourself wanting the substance.
5. Distract yourself.  Any distraction is better than nothing, but, if possible, do something that requires you to be physically active or that cannot be accomplished successfully without concentration. 
6. Schedule an appointment with your therapist or psychiatrist.  Some substances may lead to regular cravings, which can make it extremely difficult for a person to avoid relapse.  A psychiatrist may be able to prescribe a medication as a non- or less-addictive substitute for the former substance; a psychologist can teach you additional, personalized skills for resisting the urge to go back to the addiction.