What can I say or do to get my mind off of the urge?

alcohol
#1

“I need tools that I can use for myself when I feel like drinking instead of just so easily giving in. I then feel like crap and let down with myself the [next day]. What can I say or do to get my mind off of the urge?”

*Posting on behalf of a Village Community member

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One technique is called “urge surfing” which allows you to experience the craving in a new way and ride it out until it goes away, emphasizing that the urge doesn’t always have to be acted upon. Urges usually peak between 20 - 30 minutes, if we let them. What is meant by this last phrase is this: if we adopt an open and curious attitude about the urge and observe it happening without doing battle with it, then the urge will subside. If you imagine that urges are like ocean waves that arrive, crest, and subside - they are small when they start, grow in size, and then eventually break and dissipate.

A few other steps you can take to respond to urges:

  • If you need to separate yourself from an immediately high risk situation, take action to do so.
  • Breathe: practice mindfully breathing to slow down emotional excitement.
  • Remind yourself that it is transient, a passing experience.
  • Focus on your personal coping thoughts and alternate sober behaviors. Consider the supportive coping skills and thought you can use and have used in the past to cope with the urge.
  • Remind yourself of all the hard work that you have accomplished in recovery and think through the consequences of giving in to the urge.
  • Use distracting or self-soothing coping skills until the urge becomes manageable.
  • Reach out to someone you trust for support.
  • After the urge has subsided, bring kind attention to yourself for coping with the urge successfully.
  • Congratulate yourself for strengthening the coping skills which will help you to reduce the strength of urges and increase your resilience in recovery.

The more you find yourself getting through urges the easier it will become, over time, with practice.
Let us know how these work out for you! :grinning: