While I think a lot of what ACE has been posting lately is poppycock, i dont really have a problem with his post here. I dont think hes saying you will beat addiction by eating, its more about being cognizant of your mental state and being aware of how that shapes everything around you.
I think a lot of people at certain points can feel lonely, its a normal human emotion. There is a huge difference between being lonely sometimes and being depressed though. Being cognizant of your mental state and its effects on you alone isnt going to beat addiction/depression, it can be a tool to help though. If anyone is feeling “lonely” frequently it could be a reason to seek some help possibly before it turns to something worse.
I wasn’t attacking him specifically, I hear that shit all of the time, it’s certainly not original. Pretty sure that’s a large part of the Living Sober book. Just venting.
The problem i have with it and from what I’ve seen in the halls of meetings: addicts in recovery like to pick and choose how they go about their new way of life. It’s called the easier and softer way. So if they hear their current issue of the day might just be a result of being tired or hungry, they’ll go with addressing that over doing the more rigorous work that it takes to rewire their thought process. These issues center in the mind, not the stomach. What ACE said is valid, I just cringe when I see HALT because… there’s just so much more to it. People like to baby addicts and that rhetoric feeds into it.
Just my experience. Apologies if I came off as antagonistic.
lots of issues intermixing here. my thoughts on impulsivity – it comes down to whether or not you have mastery over your inner state. the key in my mind is first to realize that you are not your thoughts/impulses. with practice you can learn to create space between impulsive thoughts and reactions. you do this by witnessing the impulsive thought with no judgement as to what it means relative to who you are (for example – “i want to eat but i’m not hungry, i’m just a fat ass who has no control over my eating.” and before you know it you’ve eaten an entire bag of Doritos. that type of thinking doesn’t recognize that you are not your thoughts). Once you learn how to detach from and witness your thoughts, you can gain more control over how you decide to proceed. but underlying it all you have to work to develop a desire to be your best self and then evaluate each decision against whether or not it helps you achieve that goal (this is the real work).
Any guesses on what I’d recommend to develop these abilities???
Yes. Viktor Frankl highlights this key fact. (Neurologist/Psychiatrist) 1905 - 1997 “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Prayer, Meditation, Visualization, using small steps to make big gains?