The Coleman Institute for Addiction Medicine Blog
11
Jun 20
June 11, 2020
PART 4: Make Not Drinking Easy
While it is widely accepted that substance use disorders and behavioral addictions are complex psychosocial/spiritual conditions and not just bad habits, I believe that incorporating insights from the highly studied topic of habit change can be a boon for anyone desiring recovery. (more…)
9
Jun 20
June 9, 2020
PART 3: Cravings and Forming Habits
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits defines the Habit Loop as consisting of four components: the cue or trigger, the craving, the response and the reward. By breaking each component down he offers strategies for those who are attempting to create a new habit or extinguish an old habit. (more…)
28
May 20
May 28, 2020
PART 2: Choose Healthy Habits
All habits are behaviors that have been repeated enough times to become automatic. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, breaks habits into simple feedback loops composed of four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. His four laws of behavior change are rules we can use to build new (hopefully better) habits. (more…)
26
May 20
May 26, 2020
Alcohol Habit vs Addiction – How It Forms
Although author James Clear makes it, well, clear—that addiction is not just someone’s “bad habit”, I think it totally makes sense for people in recovery to utilize some of the concepts he captures in his best selling book, Atomic Habits.
Clear has taken the topic of habit creation, broken it down to bite-sized pieces, and gives discrete suggestions for any of us attempting to create a good habit or eliminate a bad one. (more…)
25
May 20
May 25, 2020
Do This 1 Thing to Stay Off Opioids Forever
Using willpower to change a behavior means working hard to achieve something; Merriam Webster defines will power as “energetic determination.” If I need willpower to accomplish something, then I am attempting a task that I feel some level of conflict about doing. Like a part of you knows that you need or should do something, but another part of you feels resistance to doing it.
This holds true for someone who also has decided to stop using drugs, yet when the choice to use is no longer an option, resistance drops. However, perhaps the most important part of getting to this place of diminished resistance is creating an environment conducive to succeeding.
(more…)
