The key word is 'self'
The Steps to Self-Cure
Excerpted from Out of the Habit Trap: Five Stages to Freedom
By Stanton Peele
www. peele .net
How does anyone manage to kick a habit after years of living with it?
The key word is self: taking charge of your own problem.
Some psychologists call this self-mastery; others, self-efficacy; others, the belief in free will.
It translates into three components necessary for change:
• an urge to quit,
• the belief that you can quit and
• the realization that you must quit—no one can do it for you.
Once you have quit, the rewards of living without the addiction must be great enough to keep you free of it.
The stages of successful self-cure are remarkably similar, regardless of the addiction:
1. Accumulated unhappiness about the addiction. Before a change can take place, unhappiness with the addiction has to build to a point where it can't be denied or rationalized away. …
To break an addiction, you must believe the rewards you'll get … will surpass what you got from the habit.
2. A moment of truth. …. It is impossible to distinguish the real moment of truth from the addict's previous vows to quit, except in retrospect.
Epiphanies that work can be brought on by dramatic, catastrophic events….But most moments of truth seem to be inspired by trivial remarks or chance occurrences. Either way, they work because they crystallize the discrepancy between the addict's self-image and the reality.
3. Changing patterns. People successful at self-cure usually make active changes in their environment….
4. Changing the identity of addict. Once former addicts gain more from their new lives than from the old ways—feeling better, getting along with people better, working better, having more fun—the lure of the addiction pales.
5. Dealing with relapses. ….The addict who has successfully modified his or her life catches the slip, and controls it.
The steps out of addiction, therefore, are:
• to find a superior alternative to the habit you want to break;
• find people who can help you puncture your complacent defenses;
• change whatever you need to in your life to accommodate your new, healthier habits;
• celebrate your new, nonaddicted image whenever you can.
The common feature in all these steps is your action, your beliefs. Self-curers often use many of the same techniques for breaking out of an addiction that formal treatment programs do. But motivated people who have arrived at these techniques on their own are more successful than those in therapy.
Last edited by historyteach; 08-20-2006 at 12:22 AM.