What follows is a summary of our 12 part series to hep addicts MANAGE their addictions. If you are an addict, or are trying to help one, be sure to consult with a certified and trained therapist, psychologist, or doctor who has experience in treating and SUCCEEDING with addictions and addicts. Do not modify or abandon any current addiction therapy and always seek certified professional advice from those trained in treating addictions.

GUIDLELINES:

  1. It’s always about avoiding “Just One”.  NEVER test yourself.  When it comes to seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, tempting yourself, the operative word is “NEVER”. 
  2. Always think AHEAD and be somewhere else. 
  3. Make a COMPLETE list of your triggers…it’ll be just about everything… so you can knowingly, consciously, spot and AVOID YOUR TRIGGERS.
  4. Your greatest emotional enemies will be either, DEPRESSION or ANGER.  Often anger drives you into a state of depression. Diffuse them early, or simply redirect your energies into something more constructive. 
  5. Extreme joy, “EUPHORIA”, is as dangerous as depression and anger. It will cause too much confidence, too much of a good feeling, and temptation will be highest. Be especially alert when life is showering you with joy.
  6. Addictions are never eliminated. They last a lifetime and will constantly threaten you. When you least expect it, your addiction will attack your willpower. Instead of fighting force on force, learn from Japanese Aikido masters: redirect force and don’t be there. 
  7. Always seek, study, read, and model after the uplifting, positive, successful. AVOID negative thinking, negative websites, negative books, negative people. AVOID ANYTHING that is NEGATIVE. Stop trying to predict the future.
  8. Successful people have a powerful, focused, compelling purpose in life and they start each day as if on a mission. Their daily to-do lists are lengthy and they end the day exhausted and ready for bed. Develop a compelling purpose bigger than yourself. 
  9. Addicts are negative thinkers , highly opinionated, and argumentative. They aggressively defend opinions and beliefs that are ill-founded. Result? Frequent disappointment, feeling of lacking in self-worth, feeling unappreciated, anger and depression. Become more open-minded and search for the positive middle ground. 
  10. Despite your best efforts and best intentions, your support groups, therapists, and even these guidelines, will, at times, prove to be insufficient. FIND yourself a SAFE, PRIVATE PLACE TO CRY.
  11. Though people will try to help you, eventually you will wear out your welcome, so to say. Add more support with a support tool. Find helpful and uplifting and reinforcing videos, recordings, books, sacred symbols, or even a special place to shelter yourself, to help resist and avoid your triggers.
  12. Supportive family members and organized support groups or qualified therapists are a necessity.  Find them or, if none exist, start your own support group. Alcoholics Anonymous started with an idea in one person’s head and grew into an international movement. If there are support groups, find and join them,