March 1, 2017
Over the last month and ongoing for another few weeks, I have been privilege to an extensive amount of training by a charity I am hoping to work with. The training is around Drug & Alcohol dependency – one a “taboo” subject, unless given in prescriptive form and the other an “accepted” part of daily life.
One thing I have learned from the training so far, is how we all seem to have dependency on one thing or another, and that the dependency may well be something we wouldn’t even consider under most circumstances. For example it could even be drinking lots of cups of tea (caffeine).
Please note that I do not condone the use of illegal substances… but any dependency really does give pause for thought irrespective of what it may be.
So as you read this, I invite you to consider what you think you might be dependent on? Oh, and we tend to be dependent on what makes us feel good!! Surprise surprise…
Might it be chocolate, caffeine, sugar, wine, beer, cigarettes, food, Facebook & other social media, exercise, over the counter or prescriptive painkillers and drugs….. the list can actually, and surprisingly is if I’m honest, be endless.
- Do you come home after a day’s work, or after you’ve put the kids to bed and petrol in the car and not been able to resist a bar or two of chocolate from the petrol station?
- Is it automatic in the morning when you wake up to check your emails or Facebook and other social media?
- How many times a day might you switch the kettle on for a cup of tea or coffee?
- Do you light a cigarette as soon as you’ve been awake for a short while?
- Do you crave something sweet and sugary when you sit on the sofa watching reach for the bottle and a glass of wine or two, or even three?
- Have you nipped out during your lunch break, or when you’ve stopped to puta bit of telly in the evening?
Now I bet none of the above scenarios sounds like anything out of the norm do they?
However, what happens if you had to consider and maybe acknowledge how often you might make the choice (and notice my use of the word CHOICE here) to reach for the bottle of wine or that can of beer, to switch the kettle on, to reach for a bar of chocolate, the phone, some food, the painkillers, or a cigarette? In my case it was chocolate and portion problems with food!
I bet you’d be surprised at just how automatic doing any or all of these things has become – I was. Continuous repetition is where a habit begins to take shape and from a habit a dependency can grow and grow until you physically and emotionally seem to rely on whatever you have chosen as your dependent “drug of choice”….
However….. habits and behaviours can be changed with help, understanding and learning awareness around what the link is to the “Why” of the behaviour…