quit strategies
Quitting is empowering. You are back in the drivers seat with control over your body and life. You can be yourself again. Once again there is time, energy, clarity and money to do what you want.
Ever increasing doses of drugs like opiates speed and alcohol are needed to maintain their effect and prevent withdrawal symptoms. Eventually the side effects are incapacitating and quitting is difficult or even dangerous.
Most give up addictions by themselves. Some use other drugs to alleviate withdrawal symptoms. Most go cold turkey.
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suggestions |
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Act immediately – don’t put this off. - one last binge may be followed by another and endless other one last binges. Regain control of the mind and stop the never-ending excuses and postponements. |
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Do it for yourself – care for yourself. |
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Pause to recall the effects on perception, sensations, movement and thinking. The positive and negative effects. |
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Remember the circumstances. When was the first time? What did it feel like? How did it come about? Who else was there? How often have you wanted to quit? Have you tried? How successful have you been? |
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Deep fears of deprivation, starvation or loneliness that often accompany overeating or drug taking can be explored in therapy or using the exercises on the mind and stress pages. Knowing their origins helps to find alternatives. |
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Research the health dangers. Many side effects and risks are not officially recorded or widely known. Everyone is different so pay attention to changes in mood, performance and health. |
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Research the costs. Tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars can be saved over a lifetime. When users buy a drug they are paying for things like protection, bribes, advertising, political donations, legal costs of addictive food and drug companies, health insurance and court awards for the harm prescribed drugs have already done to others. |
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Weigh up the benefits of the addiction against the costs and dangers. |
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What exactly is to be gained by quitting. Physical and mental gains emerge quickly after the initial pain or discomfort of withdrawal. Tolerance of stress improves. |
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Planning can double the chances of quitting successfully. |
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Cutting down drug use brings better health and performance once withdrawal symptoms have abated and might be a useful way to begin quitting. |
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Find alternatives like meditation or interesting activities on the alternatives page on the left hand menu. |
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Practice the alternatives. |
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Notice any thoughts about the drugs. |
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Get support. Tell friends and family. Ask for assistance or cooperation. |
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Notice triggers – stressful situations, feelings, daily activities, friends. |
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Try one of the alternatives instead of taking the drug. |
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Avoid compromising situations, people or places until cravings have gone. |
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Endure withdrawal – this does not last forever. |
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Reward yourself out of the cost savings. |
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Many beginners can use very addictive drugs like heroin, amphetamines and tobacco occasionally without becoming addicted. After quitting high levels of use a single dose usually leads dto more and a return to square one. The most important step is to remember not to try it again – not even once. |
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Don't rebound into another activity or drug which is as bad or worse |
Mood changing drugs override feelings and preoccupations. They disable or bypass thinking so they are taken with lessened awareness. Just becoming aware of being addicted and how it feels is almost halfway down the path to freedom. In one survey 40% of people quit drug use after trying The World Health Organisation drug and alcohol screen (WHO – ASSIST V3.0) to check how addicted they were.
Drug taking is conditioned response to a feel-good reward. The immediate pleasure is striking and memorable but the negative after effects creep up later and are not noticeably associated with taking the drug so there is little incentive to change until expanded awareness brings the broader picture into view. A third of Western women of childbearing age suffer significant or debilitating premenstrual tension but don't connect it with cyclical sugar, alcohol and food cravings and binges. Overlooking the obvious.
Friends and family are usually bewildered when someone has difficulty quitting. Why are they so evasive, hostile or oblivious to suggestions? Why wallow in misery instead of simply stepping out of the mire. The advantages seem so clear and the solution so simple but long established drug taking is not easy to leave behind as drugs provide relief from unbearable feelings of stress and intensely uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.
Drugs keep us in a familiar state and familiar routines and although consciously we may want to change internal subconscious processes and conversations are at work maintaining the status quo where misery is preferred to change.
The familiar memories, routines, friends, rituals and places of drug use and relationships with prescribers and dealers do not easily go away either. They can be closely and pleasantly associated with intimate companionship, relief from distressing withdrawal symptoms, or time out from stressful routines.
People usually only quit when they have prepared for these losses and have hope of real alternatives or after they experience or witness life threatening effects of drug use.
Once someone feels confident, open and good about themself then drugs, overeating and other comfort and diversionary activities are unattractive.
withdrawal
The first benefits usually begin to be noticable within days.
Reducing or quitting psychoactive drugs is agonising for some and barely noticeable for others. Withdrawal symptoms include headaches, irritability, sadness, tiredness or pain. They may be intense for a couple of weeks and then the body may take a few months to completely adjust. Withdrawal from some medications and high alcohol use can be so dangerous as to require hospitalisation.
Heroin and other opiate withdrawal is the most physically painful for most even though only 5% to 10% of casual users become addicted. Tobacco is much more addictive and difficult to quit. Withdrawal is intense but not as physically painful as heroin.
The movement and relaxation exercises on the stress and body pages stimulate production of the body's natural drugs and ease the discomfort of withdrawal without damaging the brain, emotions or health.
The thought awareness exercise on the mind page can be used to examine the persistent rationalisations that excuse, minimise or dismiss the addictive activity and get in the way of facing what is really happening.
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WHO ASSIST |
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instructions |
who.int/substance_abuse/activities/assist_factsheet_june2006.pdf |
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Smart Recovery |
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Beating Addictions |
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porn |
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Porn and Sexual Addiction |
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gambling |
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Want to Stop Gambling |
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gaming |
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Gamer Widow |
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Online Gamers Anonymous |
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copyright (C) John Brasted 2008
updated 11/06/11
