Stop to start recovery. What you need to do first in addiction treatment is not start but stop. No more starting anything until you learn how to stop, stop the obsessive thinking and the compulsions and rituals and all like-things dead in their tracks.
It does not seem that difficult for 99% of people to refrain from using their drug of choice well in an addiction treatment facility or an addiction treatment program. People can abstain fairly easily. That is not to say they don’t get highly uncomfortable but they are able to refrain from using while in treatment. What people battle with more is stopping their mind chatter. That to me has always been the first port of call in any recovery process. The mind is of course not interested in doing things differently to what it is used to. The mind runs on memory and habit. When the body is uncomfortable in the mind wants to see that impulsively and straightaway. This is why addiction today is called a brain disease. The brain does not do what is best for us it does what is most comfortable for us. What drugs substances food and unmanageable emotions body is uncomfortable in the mind wants to see that impulsively and straightaway. This is why addiction today is called a brain disease. The brain does not do what is best for us it does what is most comfortable for us. What drugs, substances, alcohol, food disorders and people prone to unmanageable emotions do first is start your minds obsessive thinking. If you’re and alcoholic and you have a shot of vodka, what it does is start the obsessive thinking. It says “I need another one.”
Now, when we take the substances or food away, for example, what remains is the remanence of obsessive thinking. The mind will try and find anything to obsess about. Blame and denial of the first two ways that the mind most commonly tries to use obsession as a weapon to stay away from the true issues and feelings that a person may be facing. So what do we do about this? We stop. S.T.O.P We stop. We think. We seek other options and then we plan new actions from this point on. If you can learn how to stop the mind racing around everywhere in its unmanageable state then you can begin to start the recovery process. You can begin to focus on other things. New things. Like recovery. Stopping the mind is like everything else we do. It takes practice. So the more practice you do when you start recovery the better. Stopping mindless trains of thought actually makes a significant difference to your neurochemistry in a very short space of time. Yes it does not take long to get into recovery. You just need to hang in there at first.
Stop to start Recovery
It takes 21 days to change a habit and 90 days to change your lifestyle. That is not so long considering that you may have been addicted and running a life on autopilot for several years or decades.
I find that many people do not use the stop method in their recovery process. They run along with new ideas about recovery and become obsessed with those two only to be dismayed several weeks or months later when they realise that their pink cloud has dissolved. They become dismayed and oftentimes return to old behaviour. Life is a series of zeros and ones. It is a binary system and that is exactly how we have to start addiction recovery. With a big fat zero. Learn how to stop the body, the mind and observe the emotions and leave action for a little later. This is one of the best secrets we teach our clients. One of many. Stopping is an art form that is all too often neglected.
In this way you get to walk down a new road and not the same old road. Remember that nothing changes if nothing changes. We must consider that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is madness. So why on earth would we do something like recovery in the same way shape and manner that we have always done things. That is insanity. What you need to change in recovery is absolutely everything. You need to walk down a completely new Road and start a new life journey. Stop to start Recovery by meditating, using affirmations, do yoga and most importantly read and write. I am not quite sure what it is but reading and writing work wonders on the body, mind and soul. It is incredible how reading and writing again help still the mind and bring about actionable change. So that is how you get going. Half measures will avail you of nothing. Go all the way and live your best life and Stop to start Recovery then give it all the gas you’ve got!
Namaste