 The SEA's
Tools for a Recovery Lifestyle
Cues for Anti-Recovery
Content:
What are cues for anti-recovery?
Cues
for anti-recovery include:
-
Suggestions
you receive that encourage you to back off from your efforts to recover from
unhealthy behaviors.
-
Messages
you receive from sources outside of yourself to try or to continue to use
behaviors which in themselves are not bad, but for you are unhealthy.
-
Internal
feelings or ideas you experience which encourage you to act in an unhealthy
way.
-
Your
habitual ways of acting which automatically stimulate your desire for
unhealthy behaviors.
-
Rationalizations
and excuses why the unhealthy behaviors should or must continue.
-
The
stimuli which result in unhealthy behavioral responses.
-
The
pressures you feel to act or believe in a certain way which are unhealthy
for you.
-
The
propaganda you receive which makes light of or ignores the negative
consequences of unhealthy behaviors.
-
The
signs and symbols which stimulate you to act or believe in an unhealthy way.
-
The
images portrayed in our society which give you confusing or mixed messages
about what is unhealthy or not.
Examples of cues for anti-recovery
You
are being affected by the cues for anti-recovery if you experience the following
symptoms. Which of these symptoms are you currently experiencing.
Lack
of commitment to change your current lifestyle
Lack
of motivation to begin or to continue the efforts needed to change your
unhealthy lifestyle
Depression
over the difficulty, slowness, and effort needed for the required changes in
recovery
Boredom
over the repetitious monotony of the efforts required to achieve recovery
Denial
that there is any other change needed in order to gain recovery
Discouragement
over the requirements needed to create a new, recovered lifestyle
Anger
over the sacrifices, alterations, and deprivation initially required to change
your lifestyle
Suspicion
over the motives and level of concern of the helpers and professionals
involved in assisting you to change your lifestyle
Overwhelmed
by the ongoing vigilance and effort needed to sustain the energy for recovery
Resentful
since you feel singled out over others for this change and resentful that others
in your life don't also have to make these changes along with you
What are sources of cues for anti-recovery?
Of
the following sources of cues for
anti-recovery which are currently present in your life:
Emotional
Status: the emotions you experience are often cues which lead to unhealthy
compulsive or impulsive behaviors such as eating, drinking, gambling, shopping,
drug use, sexual excess, etc.
Irrational
Belief System: the system of rationalizations, excuses, denial or irrational
beliefs, out of which you operate in order to counter the belief that there are
better, healthier ways to bring your life into balance for recovery. This is
especially true when the healthier behavior requires time, effort, sacrifice,
and energy on your part.
Peer
Pressure: you are often confronted with pressure overt and covert not to
continue the pursuit of a healthy recovery balance in your life by other people
or peers. Your peers intentionally or unintentionally seek to sabotage your
efforts to change because they are often consciously or unconsciously threatened
by the changes in you and how it will affect them directly. This is the opposite
of positive social support.
Habitual
Ways of Acting and Believing: the unhealthy habits which you acquired in
life are often so deeply ingrained that you act with no conscious forethought to
the negative consequences of such action.
Advertisement:
the proliferation of magazine, newspaper, radio, TV, billboards, handbills, junk
mail advertisements which bombard our society are a source of prompts and cues
for you to act in an unhealthy way for yourself.
Overabundance
of Choices: in a prosperous society, you can be overwhelmed by the number
and variety of convenient resources which stand ready to contribute
intentionally or unintentionally to your unhealthy lifestyle, e.g., number of
fast food restaurants open 24 hours a day, number of bars and lounges open 18
hours a day, convenient corner stores open 24 hours a day, 24 hour department
stores, grocery stores, and even some suburban malls, etc.
Sense
of Prosperity: when you are struggling for physical survival for food,
clothing and shelter, you are less likely to overindulge in unhealthy lifestyle
behaviors. (Some compulsive behaviors such as alcoholism, drug abuse and
gambling often reduce a person from a state of prosperity to a state of
subsistence and result in a reduction of the sense of prosperity.)
Propaganda:
novels, short stories, radio and TV shows, movies, magazine articles are often
filled with stories which seem to elevate or canonize unhealthy lifestyles for
you to emulate and model after. This is often done unintentionally. Often the
intent is to show the negative or degrading side of an unhealthy lifestyle with
the opposite impact resulting.
Conspicuous
Consumption: in our consumer-oriented society you are fully encouraged to
over consume with no negative consequences implied. Such consumption advocates
are "all you can eat buffets,'' "happy hour 2 for 1,'' "1/2 price
sales,'' "outlet or off price malls or shopping centers,'' "state
lotteries,'' "a must have one in every home,'' etc.
Value
System: as a child you had a belief or value system which was handed over to
you by your family, peer group, schools and community. Oftentimes these values
are supportive of an unhealthy lifestyle. Because the values are so deeply
ingrained in you, they are difficult to change.
Messages given by the cues for anti-recovery
The
following are some examples of the messages given you by the sources of cues
for anti-recovery
Emotional
status
-
You're
too depressed to continue on with all these new changes for recovery.
-
You
need to nurture yourself more in this time of stress and need to forget
these changes.
-
You're
too overwhelmed right now with your own problems to deal with changing your
lifestyle.
-
You
feel so bad; it must be all these changes you are making in your life.
-
You're
hurting and alone and no one cares about you so why should you change?
Irrational
belief system
-
I
am healthy just the way I am.
-
I
have nothing that requires any change.
-
I
don't trust anyone who questions my reasons for doing things.
-
People
just want me to change so they can control me.
Peer
pressure
-
You
are just fine the way you are.
-
Why
are you spending so much money in that program to change when you should be
able to do it on your own?
-
You
make me feel uncomfortable now that you've changed your behaviors.
-
You
are being too hard on yourself. Lighten up and be good to yourself this
once.
Habitual
ways of acting and believing
-
You
always have a big spread on Thanksgiving and Christmas and greet the New
Year by getting drunk.
-
You
never go to any game without a cooler full of beer and a big picnic hamper.
-
You
always shop until you drop the day after Thanksgiving and on Labor Day.
-
You
always put out lots of food and drink when company comes over.
Advertisements
-
Win
a million!
-
Be
part of the Pepsi generation!
-
Be
a Marlboro man!
-
So
get up and on your way to McDonalds!
-
Regardless
of your credit rating, apply for our secured credit card.
Overabundance
of choices
-
Don't
deny yourselves.
-
We
make it easy for you to shop.
-
If
you don't have time to fix a full meal, stop by and we'll take care of you.
-
Fast
foods, take out or sit in.
Sense
of prosperity
-
What
else are you going to do with your money?
-
Money
is to be spent.
-
Don't
let your money burn a hole in your pocket.
-
Enjoy
the rich bounty of our land.
Propaganda
-
It
doesn't make any difference what you do in life as long as you have fun.
-
The
rich and famous overindulge themselves and you should too.
-
There
is no better time to announce a new secured credit card than during the
holiday shopping craze.
-
Live
the life of the powerful and you'll live a full life.
Conspicuous
consumption
-
When
the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.
-
The only way to be happy is to overindulge in food and drink.
-
It's
not gambling if it's for a good cause.
-
You
aren't in the "in crowd'' unless you have one of these in your home.
Value
system
-
Never
waste food. Eat everything given to you.
-
All
doctors are inherently evil people who are just out for money.
-
Exercise
is a waste of time.
-
A
balanced diet is too difficult to plan and it doesn't taste good.
How to lessen cues for anti-recovery
To
lessen the impact of the cues for anti-recovery, you can do the following.
-
Use
thought-stopping techniques to stop thinking about the cues.
-
Practice
stress-reduction techniques.
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Replace
with alternative activities when the cues are more active.
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Visualize
being successful in the recovered lifestyle and dwell on this visualization.
-
Avoid
the sources of the unhealthy cues.
-
Give
the cues less power in your life by committing more energy to the new
changes being made.
-
Use
positive self-talk which encourages you to continue on with the new changes
you are making in your life.
-
Use
positive affirmations of who you are, what you can and what you will
accomplish in you new, recovered lifestyle.
-
Use
pictures or images of yourself in your old, unhealthy lifestyle as a
reminder of what you no longer want to return to.
-
Become
very busy with healthy behaviors such as exercise and stress reduction
activities so as to not have enough time to dwell on the cues.
NOTE:
For a look at other cues for anti-recovery, see Developing
Self-Control in Tools for Handling
Control and Handling
Irritations in Tools for Anger Work-Out
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