Tips for cravings?
Member
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 500
I stay busy...physically and mentally. The only time I get cravings is when I'm at home, alone, with nothing to do. Then I'll usually get up and do something, anything really. If I physically can't do anything, then I'll usually grab a pint of blackberry crumble gelato out of my freezer and put on a good movie. Works every time! Good luck.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 25,373
Have you read through this Sticky Thread with all the helpful posts in it? It has the Urge Surfing and Cravings threads down the page a ways:
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...at-we-did.html (Recovery Programs & What to Expect (What We Did))
For me, in the first few months I stayed busy and I planned meals, watched comedies, listened to soft music, went to AA meetings, took long walks.
Grocery shopping, meal prep, cooking and cleanup took enough time to keep my mind occupied. I also paid attention to HALT, was I Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired? That was important stuff that I kept at the top of my mind.
I said the Serenity Prayer about 20 million times, too.
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...at-we-did.html (Recovery Programs & What to Expect (What We Did))
For me, in the first few months I stayed busy and I planned meals, watched comedies, listened to soft music, went to AA meetings, took long walks.
Grocery shopping, meal prep, cooking and cleanup took enough time to keep my mind occupied. I also paid attention to HALT, was I Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired? That was important stuff that I kept at the top of my mind.
I said the Serenity Prayer about 20 million times, too.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 268
I am only 9 days sober. I have had a couple strong cravings that lasted about 5 minutes each. I always preferred to drink on an empty stomach to get drunk faster. Anytime I ate a meal while drinking I would feel bloated. So when I get a strong craving, I eat something to the point I feel full and the craving seems to disappear. Try it.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 221
I agree with eating.. cravings are much less with a full belly! I also found exercise really helps. Times I知 going to be home alone which is when I would normally drink I go to the gym. By the time I get home I知 so tired the craving has disappeared!
Sobriety is Traditional
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Orcas Island, Washington
Posts: 9,056
Remember H A L T-- Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. These feelings often cause cravings, so dealing with the emotion directly can eliminate the craving. For example, if you hungry, eat something; if you're lonely, go to a meeting.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: W Washington
Posts: 11,589
couple things -
cravings are normal. we suddenly cut off a seemingly endless supply and the body is going HEY!!!!!! where's that totally unnatural substance you've been feeding me?
cravings really don't last very long. 5 minutes maybe? and if we would just sit with it, not fight it, argue, or even give it much notice, the craving will pass. cravings always pass. they can come back, for sure, but they DO end. the more we can just acknowledge and then do something else, the quicker they pass and the less damage they can do. nobody ever died of a craving.
use a craving or urge to recommit to sobriety. every time we use that NO muscle, it gets stronger.
cravings are normal. we suddenly cut off a seemingly endless supply and the body is going HEY!!!!!! where's that totally unnatural substance you've been feeding me?
cravings really don't last very long. 5 minutes maybe? and if we would just sit with it, not fight it, argue, or even give it much notice, the craving will pass. cravings always pass. they can come back, for sure, but they DO end. the more we can just acknowledge and then do something else, the quicker they pass and the less damage they can do. nobody ever died of a craving.
use a craving or urge to recommit to sobriety. every time we use that NO muscle, it gets stronger.
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Dancing in the Light
Posts: 61,460
This is an oldie but goodie:
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...-cravings.html (CarolD's tips for cravings)
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...-cravings.html (CarolD's tips for cravings)
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 64
Thanks guys . You know what I was craving sooo bad earlier on. Bit now I have finished exercising and the craving is non existent. I知 in the UK and it is starting to get darkish now and I find it so relaxing. Because I know soon it痴 the end of the day and another day sober x
DOS: 08-16-2012
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Central Iowa
Posts: 365
Are you following a recovery program or just not drinking? If you are just not drinking and are an Alcoholic than things probably won't get better. You need to take some action and follow a program so your life will get better!
Member
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5,152
Originally Posted by AnvilheadII 
cravings really don't last very long. 5 minutes maybe? and if we would just sit with it, not fight it, argue, or even give it much notice, the craving will pass. cravings always pass. they can come back, for sure, but they DO end. the more we can just acknowledge and then do something else, the quicker they pass and the less damage they can do. nobody ever died of a craving.
Meetings seemed to give me the strength to make it through until the next day. Meetings aren't available all the time, so they don't work to overcome a 5 minute annoyance, but they did give me a preemptive advantage, so I could make it through the cravings easier. Only then did I experience 5 minute blasts of cravings.
This was one of the first signs I had in early sobriety that I could beat this disease. I started to experience 5 minute passing annoyances that were manageable, rather than the never ending obsessions that were only relieved by giving in.
Logically, meetings cannot be some magical cure, so there had to be more involved, and I think it was because of something that happened to me in the meetings. I never sat down and tried to understand this before so I'm taking a shot in the dark here. I think the meetings were ridding myself of a false hopelessness by observing other joyful survivors. Somehow, through mechanics that I don't really understand, those cravings turned into short lived thoughts that I could stomp on, sometimes while laughing them off.
Knowing cravings would pass was a break through. I can endure quite a bit of misery, if I know it will end. I don't understand this, but I associate learning this with daily meetings. Eventually, the cravings would make me laugh to myself when they would show up, and then they disappeared after that.
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