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Posted: October 22, 2005, 3:56 PM
Hi, a month or so back you copied and pasted an edited version of the following. I found it very useful to read. Do you have the full version please? if so please print it here, thank you. as there is a limit to how much you can post, i have shortened it, but when replying please reply in how ever many posts it takes for full version.
"" Cocaine, Craving, And Relapse By Terence T. Gorski This article describes the basics dynamics of cocaine relapse a process that progresses through three stages, setups, trigger events, and a self-reinforcing craving cycle. Guidelines are provided for preventing craving and effectively managing craving if it is activated. Cocaine addicts often relapse because they are overwhelmed by a powerful sense of craving. The physiological craving of cocaine is far more powerful than the physiological craving of alcohol or other drugs. As a result, the issue of craving needs to become a primary concern in relapse prevention therapy with the cocaine addict, especially during the first 90 to 120 days of recovery. To responsibly focus upon the issue of craving requires a comprehensive biopsychosocial model that will help us understand the craving process. In 1990, I developed a three stage model for managing craving. The three stages of craving are: Stage 1: Set-up behaviors: Ways of thinking, managing feelings, and behaving that increase the risk of having a relapse Stage 2: Trigger Events: Events that activate the physiological brain responses associated with craving. Stage 3: The Craving Cycle: A series of self reinforcing thoughts and behaviors that continue to activate and intensify the craving response. It is important to note that craving is the last step of a three stage process. It is self-defeating to focus on the end result, craving, without focusing on the factors that cause the craving. Recovering people unconsciously set themselves to experience cravings. The set-up behaviors lower their resistance to craving. When their resistance is down, they're vulnerable to trigger events that cause the actual feeling of craving to start. Once they feel the urge to use, they start using habitual behaviors that amplify or make the craving worse. This is the craving cycle. Stage One: Set-Up Behaviors: Set-up behaviors are a combination of physical, psychological, and social factors that lower resistance to craving. Physical Set-ups For Craving There are five common physical set ups for craving. 1. Brain Dysfunction From Cocaine Use: Cocaine damages the brain and leaves recovering addicts physically set up to experience powerful cravings. The result of this physical predisposition to experience craving is if recovering cocaine addicts don't do special things to avoid craving, they will experience craving. 2. Poor Diet: Recovering cocaine addicts are often nutritional disaster areas because they live on junk food and don't know what a healthy meal is. Many have coexisting eating disorders that lead to binging on junk food and/or starving for days at a time to deal with the result of weight gain. 3. Excessive Use Of Caffeine And Nicotine: Both caffeine and nicotine of these are low grade stimulant drugs and increase the likelihood of having cocaine craving. 4. Lack Of Exercise: Aerobic exercise reduces the intensity of craving, especially cocaine craving. Regular aerobic exercise is a protective factor against craving, especially in the first six to nine months of recovery. Not doing aerobic exercise on a regular basis sets the stage for craving. 5. Poor Stress Management: When recovering people don't manage stress appropriately in recovery, they increase their risk of having craving by becoming stress sensitive. Regular stress management activities such as meditation, relaxation exercises, taking regular breaks and rest periods are all protective factors against craving. Psychological Set-Ups For Craving There are five major psychological ways that recovering cocaine addicts set themselves up to experience craving. 1. Euphoric Recall: Euphoric recall is a way in which cocaine addicts "romance the high" by remembering and exaggerating the pleasurable experiences of past cocaine use, while blocking out painful and unpleasant aspects of the memory. 2. Awfulizing Abstinence: When addicts awfulize abstinence, they notice all of the negatives and exaggerate them while blocking out all of the positive aspects of recovery. This leads the recovering cocaine addict to feel deprived in recovery and to believe that being sober is not nearly as good as using the drug. 3. Magical Thinking About Use: Magical thinking about use is the belief that using cocaine or other drugs will solve all of their problems. This magical thinking is brought about by the euphoric recall ("Remember how good it was!"), and the awfulizing of sobriety ("Look at how awful it is that I can't use it."). 4. Empowering The Compulsion: They exaggerate the power of the compulsion by telling themselves that they can’t stand not having the drug and telling themselves that there is no way to resist the craving. 5. Denial & Evasion: The final psychological set-up is denial and evasion. Addiction is a disease of denial. This denial does not go away simply because they are not using the drug. Many cocaine addicts deny their need for a recovery program to reduce the likelihood of craving. They also deny that they are setting themselves up to have craving for the drug. Because this denial is an unconscious process, many cocaine addicts believe they are doing the best they can in recovery when, in fact, they are not. Social Set-Ups For Craving There are three major social ways that cocaine addicts set themselves up to experience craving. 1. Lack of communication: Cocaine addicts stop talking about their experiences in recovery and, as a result, they get into trouble. They replace rigorous honesty with superficial communication. This isolates them and prevents them from doing a sanity check on their recovery experiences. 2. Social Conflict: Out of isolation and a refusal to communicate comes a tendency to get into arguments and disagreements with other people. This social conflict prompts the recovering cocaine addict to avoid sober social situations and isolate themselves from others, spending more time alone. 3. Socializing With Other Drug-Using Friends: Out of loneliness and desire to be with people who understand them, many recovering cocaine addicts decide to associate with people who they used to drink and drug with. This puts them in the proximity of the drug and sets them up to have a craving. -------------------- "You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind " - Guitarist Joe Walsh- recovering addict. top of page cynical one Posted: July 10, 2005, 12:29 AM Posts: 557 Joined: May 11, 2005 Stage 2: Trigger Events For Cocaine Craving There are four primary types of triggers that activate immediate craving. These triggers include thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and situations that activate craving. 1. Thought Triggers: Thought triggers arise out of addictive thinking or an addictive mind set that creates thoughts about the role that cocaine plays in a person's life. 2. Feeling Triggers: Feeling triggers come from sensory cues - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling something that reminds them of cocaine. It also results from experiencing feelings or emotions that were normally medicated by cocaine use. 3. Behavioral Triggers: The behavioral triggers deal with drug-seeking behaviors and rituals that activate a craving. 4. Situational Triggers: Situational triggers include any stressful relationships or situations that used to be engaged in on a regular basis while using cocaine. Once these triggers are activated, a powerful cocaine craving emerges. Stage 3: The Craving Cycle The third and final stage of craving is the actual craving cycle. This cycle is marked by obsession, compulsion, physical craving, and drug-seeking behavior. 1. Obsession: When the obsession is activated, the person has out-of-control thinking about cocaine use. Intrusive thoughts invade their mind and they can't turn them off. The obsession quickly turns into a compulsion. 2. Compulsion: When compulsion is activated the person begins experiencing an overwhelming urge to use the drug even though they consciously know that it is dangerous to do so. Posts: 557 Joined: May 11, 2005 Tough Love, I know you hate long posts, so I highlighted the main points just for you. :D | ||
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Posted: October 22, 2005, 4:14 PM
http://www.tgorski.com/gorski_artic...se%20010523.htm
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Posted: October 23, 2005, 7:05 AM
thank you
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Posts: 14839
Joined: June 21, 2005
Posted: October 23, 2005, 10:54 AM
I always bump up that article when I get a craving...it puts things into perspective!
-------------------- Somedays it's just not worth chewing through the restraints. | ||
Posts: 1056
Joined: February 25, 2004
Posted: October 23, 2005, 3:31 PM
It was cynical one who posted that article in the first place.
I'm happy to see that he saw this thread before I did :o) -------------------- A bit of brains, lots of heart 
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