Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
Destructive Imagery and Self-talk Awareness and Refusal Method
Addiction is like a salesman in your head. Addiction speaks to us through internal dialogue and mental pictures that flash through our heads. These thoughts are a part of the underlying stream of consciousness that often goes unnoticed. Addiction is a learned behavior, and many of our addictive behaviors manifest themselves almost like we are running on automatic. The first part of the DISARM tool is isolating and recognizing these thoughts. Sometimes giving this part of ourselves a name is helpful. Some people call it The Beast... I like to refer to this part of my self as my Old Self. I refer to the person that I aspire to be as My Sober Self.
Once we have isolated the destructive imagery and harmful self talk we can move on to the second half of the DISARM tool.
PUT THE THOUGHT ON TRIAL!
Now it's time to dispute the destructive imagery and harmful self talk. We do this through asking a few simple questions. Examples of how you might do this are given at the SMART Recovery website.
From the SMART Recovery website...
Ask and answer the following questions:
1. Question: Do I have to give in to the urge because it is intense and hard to resist?
Answer: No, I don't have to give in. Because the urge is strong, it would be easy to give in, but I don't HAVE TO. I have had urges that I did not give in to, therefore it must be possible to resist.
2. Question: Will it be awful to deny myself by not giving into the urge?
Answer: No, it won't be awful. It may be quite unpleasant, but unpleasant is not awful, it's just unpleasant. If I don't give in to the urge, it will get weaker and come less frequently. If I do give in, the urge will stay strong, be harder to resist next time and show up more frequently.
3. Question: Is it really unbearable not to give into this urge?
Answer: I don't like the way it feels to deny my urge, but since it doesn't kill me not to give in, I can keep on resisting.
4. Question: Am I somehow entitled to be able to give up using without strong urges to go back to using?
Answer: No! I don't have a note from God, my mother, SMART Recovery group members or anyone else
http://www.smartrecovery.org/resources/library/Tools_and_Homework/Other_Homework/disarm.htm
Addiction is like a salesman in your head. Addiction speaks to us through internal dialogue and mental pictures that flash through our heads. These thoughts are a part of the underlying stream of consciousness that often goes unnoticed. Addiction is a learned behavior, and many of our addictive behaviors manifest themselves almost like we are running on automatic. The first part of the DISARM tool is isolating and recognizing these thoughts. Sometimes giving this part of ourselves a name is helpful. Some people call it The Beast... I like to refer to this part of my self as my Old Self. I refer to the person that I aspire to be as My Sober Self.
Once we have isolated the destructive imagery and harmful self talk we can move on to the second half of the DISARM tool.
PUT THE THOUGHT ON TRIAL!
Now it's time to dispute the destructive imagery and harmful self talk. We do this through asking a few simple questions. Examples of how you might do this are given at the SMART Recovery website.
From the SMART Recovery website...
Ask and answer the following questions:
1. Question: Do I have to give in to the urge because it is intense and hard to resist?
Answer: No, I don't have to give in. Because the urge is strong, it would be easy to give in, but I don't HAVE TO. I have had urges that I did not give in to, therefore it must be possible to resist.
2. Question: Will it be awful to deny myself by not giving into the urge?
Answer: No, it won't be awful. It may be quite unpleasant, but unpleasant is not awful, it's just unpleasant. If I don't give in to the urge, it will get weaker and come less frequently. If I do give in, the urge will stay strong, be harder to resist next time and show up more frequently.
3. Question: Is it really unbearable not to give into this urge?
Answer: I don't like the way it feels to deny my urge, but since it doesn't kill me not to give in, I can keep on resisting.
4. Question: Am I somehow entitled to be able to give up using without strong urges to go back to using?
Answer: No! I don't have a note from God, my mother, SMART Recovery group members or anyone else
http://www.smartrecovery.org/resources/library/Tools_and_Homework/Other_Homework/disarm.htm
The Beast as it is called must be resisted in order for me to deal with other uncomfortable feelings past and present in the best way possible. These uncomfortable feelings are the food in my being that keeps the beast alive. As some level of discomfort is embedded in my life the beast is never quite slain...So my beast waxes and wanes in my consciousness according to my discomfort in the present.
I must maintain the motivation to resist the beast and not drink. Self appraisal, openness to advice, and the desire to carry out the mission of abstinence no matter how strong the beast is talking right now are the traits I am trying to develop in ever increasing measure. (Help wanted: Translators)
How one copes with the good, bad, beauty, and ugliness of life without mood altering substances is as different as the snowflakes...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXewIR7Y7cc