Curbing Your Cravings When You’re Struggling With Addiction

Curbing Your Cravings

Publish date

Nov 26, 2021

Post Author

Bryan Amaro

Category

Addiction to alcohol or any other substance is harmful to the body. It often starts as casual substance use, later developing into a habit and then worsening to a chronic state known as “addiction.” Once you get to the point of addiction, your body changes and transforms in several ways. Various organs experience different worsening symptoms, such as a fatty liver, dysfunctional kidneys, mouth cancer, deterioration of gut health, and more. Your emotional health will also deteriorate, and you’ll likely go through behavioral changes, emotional outbursts, and other emotional health-related concerns.

How to Know When You’re Experiencing Addiction

Addiction is defined by different medical platforms based on the frequency and proportions of substance intake. Through another lens, though, addiction refers to chronic dysfunction of the brain system. Addiction is a change in the way that a person’s body craves a substance or adjusts their kind of behavior. It is commonly expressed as a compulsive or obsessive feeling.

Knowing the difference between addiction and casual use is essential. We can help you understand your addiction and its related behaviors. If you are already struggling with addiction, you will show certain signs and symptoms, such as frequent cravings even at home, confusion at work when you can’t fulfill your cravings, emotional health concerns like anxiety, and more.

Look out for these general signs and symptoms to know if you are or not:

  • You feel a lack of control when it comes to substance use.
  • You feel an inability to stop certain reactions and behaviors.
  • You feel a low urge to socialize or go out with friends, family, peers.
  • You frequently abandon your commitments.
  • You or your family realizes you are compromising on time with them or you’re disconnecting from your close relationships.
  • You feel you have increased your intake of the substance you feel you might be addicted to.
  • You often feel indecisive or confused at work.
  • You give up more easily than before to your daily cravings.
  • Any good reason cited by your loved ones to avoid drinking or intake of substances seems irrelevant to you.

How to Curb Your Cravings

Wondering how to curb your alcohol (or any substance) cravings to get rid of its prolonged side effects?

Here are some tips to help you:

1. Do Things That You Like

Now is the best time to revive your long-lost hobbies. Interesting activities such as gardening, listening to music, playing an instrument, painting, and drawing help you to spend time with yourself while indulging in exciting and positive activities.

2. Have a Balanced Diet

Some people do not understand the critical importance of having a balanced, healthy diet daily. This helps the body recover better, manage its health effects, and curb future cravings.

3. Yoga and Meditation

Thanks to their help in establishing positive mindfulness practices, yoga and meditation can produce positive effects for many individuals. Curbing your cravings becomes much easier when you’re mindful of your activities through yoga and meditation.

4. Stress Management Assistance

Seeking expert help for managing your stress can help you handle it better. You can find professionals to help you at a rehab center or addiction recovery facility. These professionals can prescribe medications if necessary and teach you stress-relieving exercises at home.

5. Do Not Attend Social Events That Involve Substance Use

Parties and events where you know you will be meeting your buddies that you engaged in substance use with should be avoided in many cases. If you are struggling with controlling your cravings, do not involve yourself in social gatherings where substance use is a norm.

6. Remind Yourself of the History and How Far You Have Already Come

Addiction often brings out bad behavior and actions in us. History can be harsh on our memories. Whenever you feel the urge to drink again, you must remind yourself of the losses you’ve had to face because of the addictive behaviors.

7. Spend Time With Nature

This is often a quick way to curb your cravings. Leave your home, take a walk in the park, spend time under the sky and stars at night. This will calm your senses and curb your cravings.

8. Monitor Your Weekly or Monthly Substance Intake

Maintaining a record of your substance intake is a must for people who think they are addicted and feel like it’s getting worse over time. Your weekly or monthly intake of a substance will give you an idea that you need to curb your daily cravings by thinking logically and reasonably.

It is extremely important to know when you have crossed the line of casual substance use and have entered into habitual use or overuse. Addiction to any substance can be risky for your emotional and physical health. It is essential to know the right tips and tricks to curb your cravings. These can help you control your substance use and improve your health in the long term.

Knowing when you are addicted can help enable a speedy recovery and avoid deterioration of health. HealthyU is your safe haven for addressing addiction issues. Our trained professionals hold unique experiences in dealing with a wide range of individual cases of substance use disorders. Customized treatment plans and individually-focused strategies come in handy when you are looking forward to a speedy and long-lasting recovery. Our dedicated team can help you understand your specific addiction issues and suggest you a family-driven, symptom-specific recovery plan. If you or your loved ones are struggling with addiction and its related issues, seeking expert assistance is a wise decision. The better you understand your substance use disorder and its effects, the better you will be able to manage it in the initial stages. Curbing your cravings is also easier if you know what you need to do exactly and when. Get in touch with trained experts at HealthyU at (619) 542-9542