Skills to deal with Anxiety, Distress and Cravings

Posted on February 1, 2016

Changing your relationship with substances or any compulsive behavior pattern takes time and practice. When you first start to reduce or abstain from the behavior you are trying the change, you will likely have lots of “craving” to return to it. These moments of craving will happen when you are triggered by external (places, people, situations) and internal (certain mood or feeling states) cues that are associated with the behavior you are trying to change.

These cravings are completely normal and should be expected (and planned for!). For the most part, cravings states die out as you get farther and farther away from the old behavior and fill your life with new behaviors and ways of coping. They can however happen even after long periods of successful change and after they have seemed to die down all together. These moments can happen when you are faced with the “perfect storm” of triggers.

For the full article http://blog.smartrecovery.org/2016/02/01/skills-to-deal-with-anxiety-distress-and-cravings/#more-7263