One of the most straightforward and instantly available ways that I found to break the drinking cycle was to ‘do something else’ when a craving for a drink emerged.
This might sound like flippant advice, akin to ‘just don’t have the first drink’ but there is a strategy to it. Cravings are transient and are emotional or cognitive in nature, meaning, it is certainly safe and certainly within your power to NOT act on them. Cravings build to a peak and then subside, they don’t become stronger and stronger if you ignore them.
The craving is going to resolve itself in one of two ways: you consume alcohol and the carving fades, or you do something else and the craving fades.
Figure 1 shows two emergent cycles of behaviour in response to a craving. The purple cycle shows the pattern if we respond to a craving with by drinking alcohol. Relief from the craving follows consumption, so we are rewarded with a dopamine spike (see the Alcohol Trap) and this behaviour is reinforced. Unfortunately the cycle doesn’t end there because like the craving, the effect of alcohol is temporary. As dopamine dips below baseline, we are now more vulnerable to alcohol seeking behaviour (not to mention feelings of failure) and so the cycle repeats and reinforces itself. The blue cycle shows what happens if we make a decision to choose alternative engagement at the point of craving. The craving fades, we feel a sense of relief and corresponding internal reward for our new behaviour. While at first the relief will not be as complete as drinking alcohol, with repeated efforts we rapidly gain confidence in our own coping abilities and self-agency to deal with a craving. As soon as we see for yourself it is possible to ride out a craving we are more likely to choose alternative engagement again, reinforcing the cycle.
Neuroplasticity and formation of new neuronal pathways
Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. This allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to adjust their activities in response to new situations or changes in their environment.
When we consistently choose alternative engagements over alcohol in response to cravings, we harness neuroplasticity to form new neuronal pathways. These new pathways reinforce behaviours that promote alcohol free living and reduce the reliance on alcohol for relief.
Over time, as these new pathways strengthen, the brain's circuitry changes, and we may find that engaging in these alternative activities becomes more automatic, reducing the frequency and intensity of alcohol cravings.
Making it work in the real world
When facing challenging situation, if we prepare our preferred behaviour in advance, we can default to it with the minimum cognitive dissonance. First of all we need to identify the situations that trigger us to seek alcohol, then we need to create a response plan.
For example:
1. Trigger: going out with friends. Plan: What you are going to say, drink, and leaving the pub
2. Trigger: good day surfing. Plan: Food, drink and evening entertainment
3. Trigger: hard day at work. Plan: Alternative activity, food and drink
The night before, or in the morning, identify your main triggers for the day ahead. Some days these will just be repeat triggers as you get through the working week, while sometimes they will be unique such as at the weekend, trips away, or special events.
Look ahead to the trigger point. Mentally rehearse it so that when it arrives, you recognise it. Plan what you will do to engage alternative activity instead of drinking ethanol. Picture yourself doing it in your mind’s eye. Plan and acquire the resources you need (e.g. tub of ice cream, alcohol free beer, what drink you will order at the pub, what you will say when people ask what you want to drink etc…)
Your value system
Like any repeated behaviour, this gets easier with repetition and the satisfaction you get from beating a craving will build. The 'relief' you feel whether you take an alcoholic drink or successfully avoid doing so (see figure 1) is in fact a little dopamine hit. So you're 'doped if you do, and doped if you don't'. Dopamine is a reinforicing neurotramsitter when it comes to laying down new memories and behaviours; in a future post we will look at the biology of this process. However, the dopamine release is dependant on the outcome of your behaviour aligning with your value system.
If you know and believe that going alchohol free is the ticket to a better day, week, life, then you will experience great relief and reward when you choose alternative, more healthy behaviour. If on the hand you believe that consuming alcohol still serves you in some way, and that you are missing out or depriving yourself, then you will not experience the necessary dopamine release when you abstain. If this is you, revisit the long-term and short-term of alcohol vs abstinence exercise in table 1 in the previous post.
Now try this simple exercise to establish your own value system. Write down the top 5 most important things in your life, according to the priority you give them. Your list might look something like this:
1.Family
2.Personal health
3.Career
4.Home
5.Hobbies
But where on the list is alcohol? Every time we yield to a craving and take an alcoholic drink, we are prioritising alcohol above everything else in our value system. There is no way around this, because alcohol negatively impacts everything that is dear to us. So, when we cave, our value system now looks like this: 1. Alcohol
2. Family
3. Personal health
4. Career
5. Home
6. Hobbies
This simply exercise can fast track the belief needed for the feeling of relief when we do not yield to a craving: we feel the relief because we have prioritised our family, our health, career, home, and the things that give us try pleasure instead of resorting to behaviour that harms all of them.
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