Old 01-28-2015, 09:17 PM
  # 464 (permalink)  
courage2
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 19,075
Be patient, don't expect a new reward system to feel properly rewarding from Day 1. It's a matter of training and untraining. Think of how long it took you to develop into the perfect case of caffeine/alcohol cross-addicted cow that you are! Basic behavioral psychology says that the best way to switch motivation systems is ZERO reinforcement on the old system. And, by the way, the worst possible way to extinguish the old motivation system is variable reinforcement -- some days clean, some using.

So, total and prolonged suffocation of the using-reward system.

Then you need to dangle some carrots. As you are more and more deprived of the using-rewards, the carrots -- which seem pretty worthless now -- will start to look more attractive. And you can upgrade rewards when the ones you train on lose interest, if ever.

My early rewards were pretty basic. Cigarettes. I also became a really avid user of a corporate use-based reward system, I won't tell you what corporation because it might trigger you, it has a * and a $ in the name, I bet there's some great SoCal juice bars that have similar systems. Talking to my sponsor -- that felt like the worst kind of shriveled old raw carrot at first, but I learned to look forward to it, especially at cocktail hour. Eventually, over 2 years, I've filled most of my trigger times (read all my waking hours) with "things to do besides drink".

Most of my self-rewards don't impact me emotionally. Some make minor changes in my brain chemistry, like food or meditation. Some are just distractions. Drinking didn't affect my emotions, either, except to depress them and add guilt to them. I didn't look for the habits I developed to substitute for booze in the early days to be emotionally rich -- that's a much longer game that I'm just beginning.
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