Cravings advice plz
 

How long for cravings to lessen. Less often less intense. Feel like this is how it’s going to always be. Give me hope please as I’m fed up of cravings and a sense of missing out on something !!!

The average craving lasts anywhere from 15-30 minutes. They DO get less often and much less intense, but this is something we have to suffer through early on.

This part...is the hardest.

This is where most people give up.
Don't do that.

Life will be amazing again...Or for the first time...

but you have to hang in there.

Do something nice for yourself. Treat yourself to a nice dinner, a treat, go buy a book or a dvd or a new car...just do something to get your mind off of the compulsion.

It's paramount that you avoid certain things....

I had to stay away from all music...it triggerted me terribly.

Some movies too.

Dance...be silly, run...do something, anything...but this is the fight you have to win to get to the other side.


Don't give up.

Stay here and post for the next 20 hours if you have to. I'd rather you do that and so would everyone else than to find out you never made it back today.

Stay in this and get your life back. :grouphug:

If you haven't eaten, eat something. I found the cravings lessen if my stomach is full. :)

Cravings only last a few minutes. I have found that a big bowl of ice cream makes those craving disappear. The longer you deny the cravings, the fainter they become and they happen less often.

Missing out on something? What do you think you are missing out on?

I've read some of your previous posts and the only thing I think you are missing out on by not drinking is continued misery.

Iv only had them one time and it was super strong and thats when I was sober for more than month. My brother bought a beer and I really really wanted one not at the time he bought it but it was after. It comes and goes... You just gotta try to occupy your time with something else and try your hardest to not think about it. Thats what I did.

Learning about and using AVRT showed me how to acknowledge and then dismiss the desire for more booze.

Great threads on those ideas here on SR in the Secular recovery forum and sub forums.

Experiencing cravings isn’t a problem that can’t be handled, convincing yourself to put more booze down your throat probably is though, yeah?

By learning that technique I guarantee you can live comfortably with residual desire. The stronger It feels is a sign that It fears Its inherent weakness.

IT senses Your resolve, the strength of the feeling is an illusion, break the illusion, you can do it.

For me the physical cravings "only" lasted for maybe 2 weeks. The mental obsession (cravings) stuck around longer but became less frequent and less powerful over time. I started working the 12 steps at around one month sober and the mental obsession completely went away somewhere around 3-4 months sober, by the time I started making my amends (9th step).

There's lots of good suggestions above. What I found really helpful (and this was my 3rd go at sobriety) was to formulate some type of recovery plan and focus intently on sticking to it. By keeping my focus on my goal(s) the cravings/obsession seemed to be more background noise because all of my focus was on my goal(s). Interestingly enough they have found that people with chronic pain need much less opiates when they have some type of hobby or interest that they can put all of their focus into for prolonged periods.

Have you heard of HALT? Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Any of these things can make cravings harder to move past, so maybe check if any of these could be rattling you and address them immediately.

Also, playing the tape forward. We tend to imagine just the drink and not the consequences in a crave. So, if you find yourself thinking how good a drink would be, play that drinking idea right through to the end. You're here for a reason, so no doubt there will be consequences that you aren't wanting to repeat or continue.

BB

The cravings might be a good thing. At least you are aware, you can see the enemy, and your awareness of the implications indicates a certain amount of sanity is in play. You can call people, post here, play the tape, surf the urge, do all those things that work when you are consciously aware of the craving. That has to be a blessing.

In my case, these time around I remember having one slight craving early on. One sunny afternoon I thought a beer would be nice. But is was in the car of an AA member and the thought was gone before I could act on it.

What used to get me was the defenceless moment. Wrong question wrong answer kinda thing. "Would you like a drink?" Some kind person offers. "How nice" I think, "Thanks" and it's all over, out of the blue. Casual destruction. Insufficient time to consider the consequences, and actually they were no where to be found in my consciousness anyway.

So many relapses start this way. No pressure, no drama, no craving, just a careless moment. The big book has a story " it was the end of a perfect day, not a cloud on the horizon". So the guy gets drunk.... Hard to think your way out of that when your thinker isn't presenting all the information it should.

HALTS is good.
I use the imagery of a wild ocean wave crashing over a crag of rocks.
Whatever emotional or physical 'need, craving, stress' I am having is the wave. I am the rocks. The wave receeds and I am still there....

Cravings are harder when you are not sure you want sobriety.

Put it first. Tell yourself out loud "I don't drink and I'm so glad I'm sober.". Tell it to the mirror. out loud. Many times a day. Turn the tide in your head. It can be done.

And no it is not forever. That is a fact.

Be done! Best wishes and congrats on your sobriety.

Thank you all for taking time to reply. I am going to do this I have had enough. So many fails. Got a sponsor going to be more active on here. Today a friend who waited a long time to access treatment. Messaged me last week 6 months sober leaving rehab positive and determined. Today had message she has picked up again! Devestated. Scary illness. Thanks again for being here. Sobriety is what I want no matter what

This is a timely thread. I have been feeling intense cravings this evening coupled with a generalised sense of frustration, anger and irritability. I'm at 32 days and it's the first time I have felt this - I had some feelings of irritability last week but nowhere near enough to make me consider drinking. I've had this feeling for a solid two hours now. I just went and got a large KFC meal in light of the HALT advice. It would be really helpful if I got just a little bit of good news (work related ideally) to snap me out of this. If I didn't have this much sobriety behind me I would not have been able to cope - I am _barely_ able to cope as it is. But I am playing the tape forward in a way that I hadn't previously. My main motivation for not doing it is there is absolutely no chance of me "getting away" with just a hangover tomorrow and that would be it. I guess that's why people have to hit their bottom - so they know for sure it won't end anything other than terribly. Wish me luck. I am testing the "one day at a time" theory and am hoping to wake up tomorrow a new man.

These occurrences aren't uncommon, but in that terrible news, reveals certain truths...

When I was first getting clean, I was terrified of the unconscious slip. Like, no matter what I did, there would be that day I had zero control over what got me drunk. It terrified me. Would I really be defenseless?

Until an old timer pulled me aside and told me there's no such thing as being struck drunk. That I would have to take the first drink....that I have control over my arms and I choose to use those arms to take the drink. I choose to throw it all away.... Period. What a relief that was....I did have control over my choice to drink.

Every relapse is a thought out reaction to a craving. That's all it is. There is premeditation in every thought we have regarding a relapse or slip.. At some level...there is a conscious reaction to it or it wouldn't register as anything and it would be like offering us a glass of dirt.

Keep filling up that toolbox with tools of sobriety. Sassy had a great tool ...Tell yourself every day...multiple times ""I don't drink and I'm so glad I'm sober." I did a variation of that too...

I said "I do not drink under any and all circumstances" probably 50 times a day the first 18 months I was sober. Like the illness, recovery has to be programmed and become a first response reaction to every situation.

I rememeber being at Red Robin with my family and 2 other neighbors and their kids. Everybody was ordering and some of the adults were getting beer and when the waitress asked what can I get for you, I replied " I do not drink under any and all circumstances" The entire adult group fell completely silent and I had no idea why until i played the last 15 seconds over in my head. I started to laugh, my wife got it...and I was proud of myself.

But that s#it was programmed IN.

That's what I'm talking about.

This is the level of commitment I felt like I needed to fight this and protect myself with. Willing to go to any length...including making an ass of myself. :lmao:lmao

I'm going to continue to make that commitment every day or every hour...however I need to do it to keep myself alive. That's what I do.

You did a great thing by getting more help.....keep doing it. re commit every day, every hour.

YES. Brainwash yourself.

We believe what we tell ourselves.

We literally listen, at face value, to words we tell our own brains. Your subconscious listens. It listens to your mental chatter, your mental voice.

Telling your brain "I wish I could drink" has a powerful and negative consequence, just as "I am relieved I am sober and the drinking ordeal is finally over, I don't drink" has just as strong consequences in the opposite direction.

Tell yourself you do not drink, that you'll never drink no matter what, that you don't like feeling drunk, that you feel free without it, come up with as many different ways to say the same thing To YOURSELF and you will turn the tide.

Like bulldog I have a response in public as well! I've said it many times. "Oh no! I don't drink anymore at all. It lost its appeal.".

" it lost its appeal" is what the everyday joe gets to hear. To myself it is "there is no circumstance on earth that would make me drink, because I dont want to drink, I don't like drinking and I don't drink any more."

there I've said it about 20 times just in this post! Haha, just to provide an example of my daily self talk.

What you think can be a dangerous thing.

The most useful craving avoidance technique for me was simply distracting myself. That's it, just stop the thought process by focusing on something else and changing my environment if possible. Think about something else, read something or something else, change the music, leave the room, drive in a different direction, whatever it takes to break the fixation that can grow into a crisis as we slowly convince ourselves that we *must* drink. I think this also pays dividends later in lessening the severity of cravings, because subconsciously we train ourselves to understand that they are temporary transients - the last one was no big deal, this one won't be either.

Thought stopping techniques are a big part of CBT and the SMART recovery program, you check that out if you're interested.

I also find that playing the whole reel in my head helps. Often when the craving emerges, we envision the good feeling and stop there.

I thought about what it will lead to, that I know on a conscious level that was I to give in to the craving, it wouldn't be "just this once". That is how it all starts up again, even if it's spaced out over weeks or months. Eventually, it would lead back to:

- Horrendous hangovers and guilt
-That dull pain my right side
- Fear and anxiety
- Driving to work probably still technically drunk
- Shaking, sweats, heart palpitations, poor sleep
- Weight gain
- Increasing the likelihood of a DUI exponentially
- Wishing I had chosen differently and stayed with sobriety

Last weekend I had the most intense craving I've ever experienced. Part of what made it so intense was the circumstances I created. But despite the discomfort, I anchored in on the voice of reason and let the AV pass me by. (I also browsed posts on here!) It was definitively clear once the craving left, though; like a storm passing it was gone after about 20 minutes and I was back to being grateful for sobriety.

So I underscore avoiding triggers. You'll have to modify your life a bit in the beginning. I also allow myself treats that normally, I wouldn't, like In n' Out, ice cream sundays, milkshakes, etc.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

You're in the eye of the storm, and it's a tough one. We've all been there and can appreciate how difficult it is. But if you can make it through, you're well on your way. :grouphug:

hows it going Eve?

D

Day 9 again Dee. Cravings worse in the evening and emotions up and down. Been here before as a periodic. Want this to pass so hard. But trying to stick to the plan. Had enough and have a big fear of drinking again cos I can’t do this anymore. Exhausted by it all