Drugs and Drinking no more, A 40 day program: Day 2
(NA) and AA, say that we should admit we are powerless over drugs or drinking-that our lives have become unmanageable. If you believe that write out four things for you that support this theory.
1. _____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________________________
I really hate to admit that they are right. I most earnestly want to believe that I still have the power. But any “real” drug or alcohol user has lost the power. If you still believe you have the power this is something to consider over the next few weeks.
Many of you are 100% aware that you agree with NA and AA on this. But if you don’t have the power, who does? There are two power sources for you. The first is to join a NA or AA group. The second is your Higher Power.
Do you know people who strongly believe in God who seem happy and fulfilled? ______
God has an overwhelming love for you. But we often put up a wall between ourselves and God and shut Him out. Over the next 44 days we will discover how to break down that wall so that you can experience God and be fully aware of His love.
If you don’t believe in God currently that is OK. If He is real He will show Himself to you if you really seek Him. But it is very important that you are open to the possibility of God. If He is the Truth and the life then we really can’t flourish without Him.
For me I have found that I have more joy and real love in my life when I try to do things God’s way. Even if you struggle to believe what I say is true – you can still try it. Just ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.
List four reasons why doing things Gods way could be good for you.
1.________________________________________
2.________________________________________
3.________________________________________
4.________________________________________
How to Form New Habits
Phillippa Lally is a health psychology researcher at University College London. In a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Lally and her research team decided to figure out just how long it actually takes to form a habit. (new habits designed to help break old habits.)
On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally’s study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.
I will repeat many things many times in this 45 day program. If you develop a habit of saying certain statements multiple times each day your thinking will change. Then your habits will change. The more you embrace this repetition the stronger your control over your addiction will become.
Start a journal and fill it with ideas about quitting drugs or drinking. Add new idea’s as often as possible and review and highlight the best idea’s.
Consider how daily Bible reading may be good for your life.
Prayers for overcoming addiction: How to pray
- Pray: Father help me to continue to realize that 12 step programs and help from Pastors and sponsors are vitally important to my continued recovery.
- Pray: “Father help me to make it a habit to always plan my next few days. It is vital to plan because boredom is a trigger to relapse. Routine and concrete scheduling can be a lifesaver for an addict. A schedule, coupled with passion for a new hobby or sporting activity, allows people to successfully and happily break the cycle of boredom.
- Pray: Father help you me always to be balanced. Be balanced physically, emotionally and spiritually.
- Pray: Father help me to focus on the fact that drugs/drinking causes destruction. It always has and it always will.
- Pray: Father help me to have toughness to be able to say no to my habit.
- Pray: “Father, help me to learn how to think about other things instead of partying and to learn what to do instead.”
- Father, take away my drug/drinking urges and help me to worship and praise you so that I will become more disciplined and stronger.
- Pray: “Father give me the wisdom to write a prayer that will help me to start overcoming my addiction.” For example – you feel like your drinking has hurt your ability to be a great parent. You might pray “Father help me to care more about my kid’s future than I care about drinking.” Once you have that prayer that really speaks to what will motivate you – start praying it in earnest. You can pray it as many times each day as you want as long as you are sincere in increasing your desire to change with each prayer. God is not counting how many times I pray my prayer. He is looking at how my heart changes as I sincerely pray it each time and how I allow him to lead me to better choices because now (because of prayer and extra effort) I am starting to see reality clearer.
- Pray: Father help me to be moderate in all things (being moderate in all things may help you stay away from your main addiction).
Today we will continue to follow several people who are trying to quit what they are doing – Ty, Sue, Tom, Joy and TJ.
Tom has added golf to distract him from temptation. He hits plastic golf balls in his back yard.
New activities to replace drugs/drinking can make a big difference.
If we really are hung up on the addiction the new activities will seem less fun. Over time the fun will return with normal activities when our heads are back on straight.
TJ talked to his pastor about trying to find new “clean” friends? (Remember this may take some work as well as some time).
Ty loves to just wing it every day – and bad things happen very often. But today he decides to do what his AA sponsor told him to do – “Say to yourself at least twice today: Drugs or/and drinking have caused me destruction and pain, they have in the past and they will in the future.”
Sue has avoided joining NA like it was a plague. Today she decided she just couldn’t make it on her own. She joined NA.
Joy is trying to make a habit of saying: “This temptation will go away if I don’t act on it. If I give in it will return and it may be even stronger next time. If I don’t give in it will go away and someday it will go away for good. I have the self control to change”.
It’s amazing how powerful your subconscious mind is. Every single time you do a new positive activity, your subconscious programs it into your brain. The more you do it, the more entrenched the program becomes.
To reduce temptations or cravings make a Relapse Prevention Card to Take with You
Today write a relapse prevention card to carry around with you.
An Example Relapse Prevention Card
The Four Ds
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Instructions
Fold a paper into four squares:
- On the first square, write out The Four Ds (I shortened the 4 Ds for todays session. Some of you may want to review yesterdays sessions for the longer version of the 4 Ds).
- On the second square, write out 5 or 10 personally relevant distraction ideas
- On the third square, write out 3 or 4 of your most significant reasons for wanting to stay clean and sober
- On the fourth square, write out some negative expectations -accurate predictions for what will happen if you slip and use or drink.
Negative Expectations – When you’re about to relapse you tend to focus on positive expectations and gloss-over negative expectations.
Some examples of positive expectations are:
- “I’d have such a good time if I did a few lines and went out dancing.” Or “I am so stressed right now– a few drinks would really relax me…”
Some examples of negative expectations are:
- “If I drink tonight I will feel hung-over and ashamed tomorrow.” Or “If I start doing cocaine I won’t stop until all of my money is gone.”
By writing down accurate negative expectation statements you provide a counter-balance for the positive expectation statements your addicted mind manufactures all on its own.
Determine to think about new activities several times today. If you have nothing to do make it 50 times. You will at some point become what you think about.
TJ wrote out the activities he planned to do today. He then started a notebook to keep track of new ideas about how to stay clean as well as ideas about new activities.
What new habits do you want/need to start? Every day write down which day you just finished so that you can keep track of where to start tomorrow.
Always increase self-control. Try eating raw broccoli instead of candy. Why? It develops self-control and delays pleasure. Daily, repeat an exercise that grows your self-control. Learn a musical instrument, go for a walk, do something healthy. Broccoli tastes bad, but you feel way better an hour later. Living healthy for a 5 days straight is like eating broccoli. 16 days from now you will feel way better.
Harvard says to focus on long term thinking. Their study says that the more long term you are in your thinking, the more successful you will be in life. If you focus on a bad thing that you want today, you will get destruction again. If you focus on doing today, something that will lead to a great week or month, you just might get that.
Quit smoking. It has been proven to lead back to drinking.
“We are what we think.”
Thankyou for reading day 2: Giving up drugs and drinking.
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