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How Can Addicts Recover With Minimal Stress

The hardest aspect of giving up on an addiction is the loneliness that comes with it. You are all alone in the struggle.

No one can really meet you where you are, even the closest person in your life.

The pain is your own, the struggle is your own and the nightmare is your own. It is tough to give up on an addiction, people who manage it come through on the other side as more evolved humans. But is it possible to reduce the stress involved in giving up an addiction?

After my own struggle with addiction to cigarettes I realized that I had to quit or live in bondage. When you no longer have a choice in what you do, it means you are addicted to what you do – a habit has taken over, a conditioning has taken over, a chemical has taken over, and you have become a slave to it.

You thought you could control this habit only to realize the habit is controlling you – smoking is one such habit and it’s really tough to break out of its addiction simply because the body craves the chemical after sometime. The body almost believes that the chemical is needed for its survival. So when you try to quit on the addiction, the body, for a while, perceives it as a threat to its survival.

The main cause of the stress, while quitting an addiction, is generated by the body itself. Quitting a chemical addiction is considered to be a “physiological” struggle but in truth it’s a “physical” struggle. The body creates the panic, the body goes into stress, the body goes into craving and the mind simply interprets these reactions in a negative way. The mind is completely innocent in this, it can only see the body struggling and so it gives off thoughts of alarm and panic. If you can soothe the mind then half battle is won.

It helps to know what to expect when you give up an addiction to a chemical like tobacco. The body feels empty, it feels insecure, it feels like a haze, there is depletion of positive thoughts or feelings, there is acute restlessness and loss of interest, there is a loss of appetite and strong emotions flood the body.

The mind does not help either; it interprets all this in a very negative way and paints a horrible picture. The mind starts throwing up all sorts of negative thoughts and goes into a rampage of criticism and complains. It has no idea what’s going on and it just wants the struggle to end.

You can’t help what the body is going through and it’s best to let the body balance itself. It’s quite futile to pump other chemicals into the body to help it overcome an addiction. Many people try to drink down a tobacco addiction; this can severely disrupt your body’s effort to balance itself. Never try to counter one chemical addiction with another.

With time the body will get used to the absence of the chemical, it usually takes close to two weeks for the worst cravings to be done with. After that it can take close to two to three months before the body removes all traces of addiction. Knowing the time frame can help you be more prepared.

The mind needs to be comforted and soothed while it’s coping with the body’s struggle. The mind needs to be reassured that what’s happening is a “positive” process and not a negative one. It needs to be told that the way the body is reacting is expected and there is nothing to panic about. It also helps to keep the mind occupied whenever possible by reading books, watching movies or just hanging out with friends.

It’s easier to quit an addiction when you are not troubled by other aspects in your life. It’s much more difficult to cope with a detox when you are having trouble with your finances, your relationships or your career. Unfortunately, many people don’t find their life to be so smooth. The best you can do is to avoid thinking about anything else while you are dealing with recovering from an addiction – this should be your central focus simple because your mind will be quite incapable handling any other stress while dealing with the stress of the body’s recovery.

Article by Outofstress.com staff. Feel free to reproduce this article on your website, blog or ezine as long as the link to Outofstress.com is intact.