A Helpful List To Combat Cravings

Cravings are arseholes. They hit and they can be so powerful and they suck.

Often they come on the back of some emotional pain, so they’re pain on top of pain. And they can be so hard to resist.

My mind would get utterly obsessed with the craving, all I could think about was how much I wanted a drink, how a drink would be just lovely, how easy it would be to just have a drink, how lots of other people were having a drink right now and enjoying it, how a little wine would’t hurt, boy did I want a drink, couldn’t I just have a wee drink?, I deserve a drink, I WANT A DRINK!!!!!!

On and on and on the craving would go inside my head – because predominantly that’s what a craving is, a wall of non-stop words inside the head that just won’t shut up. Meanwhile my body would be restless and itchy and jittery and out of sorts. My whole being would be out of sorts. Craving, CRAVING a drink.

Bloody arsehole craving.

I tell you what. Those cravings are not going to go away if you feed them. This is the awful truth. If you feed them, they stay strong. You have to ride them out again and again and slowly you will starve the bastards and they will fade away.

Know this when a craving rears it’s ugly head. Try to step back a little from inside yourself and detach. It is not you, it is a passing feeling.

Talk out loud to the craving. Say, “I’m having a hard-out craving right now” to your loved ones or your reflection in the bathroom mirror. Even that little act will diminish it’s power a little.

Be curious about the craving. Examine it in a clinical fashion. Where you are feeling it in your body. Is it a tightening in the chest? Is it tension in the shoulders? Then do some things to help you get through;

• Visualise yourself getting into bed sober and waking up so, so happy with no hangover or guilt
• Run yourself a big, hot bath
• Go for a run
• Eat something yummy or make yourself a smoothie or a hot drink
• Go to bed and hid under the covers
• Walk the dog, pat the cat, feed the fish
• Play cheesy music really loudly and SING
• Yell out loud “I’M NOT FEEDING YOU CRAVING!!!!!!”
• Do some yoga
• Go for a swim
• Bake a cake
• Binge watch Netflix while eating chips and dip
• Write out all the reasons why you don’t want to drink alcohol any more
• Phone a friend
• Write a letter to your future self about how brave and amazing you are being
• Log in to the Members Feed here and talk to others who know what it’s like to fight off bastard cravings
• Do some housework
• Pluck your eyebrows
• Sit outside wrapped in a blanket and count the stars
• Do some gardening
• Walk the streets at night
• Comment at the bottom of this post with any ideas you have to beat cravings
• Know that the craving won’t kill you
• Know that if you resist this craving the next one will be just a tiny bit weaker
• Trust
• Have faith
• Hang in there
• Believe

Do one or many of these things, or your own things, and slowly over time, the more cravings that you resist the weaker and less frequent they will get until eventually they will disappear altogether. Gone.

Trust me on this. I used to experience such strong cravings all the time but now I’m twelve years sober and never get them at all. NEVER!

And I sure don’t miss those bastards at all.

Love, Mrs D xxx