The Coleman Institute Blog
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…)
21
May 20
May 21, 2020
Alcohol Use Disorder: Easy to Meet Criteria
A lot of patients I see don’t really know they may meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder. I can tell you that it’s not that hard to qualify, and more and more people are entering the ranks. (more…)
15
May 20
May 15, 2020
Get Clean or Screw It?
Sometimes it is hard to think beyond the next two months or so. It is very easy to say “f**k it, I may not even be here in two months if the coronavirus gets a hold of me…”
And for many, there is a sense of the relief from responsibility that comes with being confronted by our complete vulnerability and lack of control. A well-patterned groove that finds comfort in chaos. Oh, the pleasure of slipping into the oblivion that alcohol or other drugs provide. (more…)
