Ep. 066: Creativity, Staying Busy, and Having Fun Was the Answer to Overcome That Suffering in Cravings
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I want to show you what I did while early in recovery and battling those horrific cravings. As a fun bonus, we will end this singing "I Bid You Goodnight," by the grateful dead. How many know what I am talking about? Listen to my message because it may help you. I want to share what I did after spending thirty days in a residential program while attending an outpatient program. What I eventually did, worked for me and this may help others which I hope it does. For me, staying busy was important since my mind was still foggy but as I spent many years prior to this working with people, there was something I always taught people and it was to use our minds. I am speaking about creativity. I can actually show you what I am talking about. Creativity and staying busy was my answer to battling those cravings. I had days that I wanted to say fuck it and disappear again. My depression would creep in. The un-comfortability of relearning to accept that I have feelings and needing to embrace them rather than push them down or in worst case, use meth to numb myself.
The pleasure part of the brain, also called the nucleus accumbens is being manipulated by the drug that is causing that pleasure or reinforcing chemical. This is the same reinforcing neurotransmitter that is released causing us to desire food or water when we are hungry or thirsty.
The desire for food and water must be stored somewhere in our memory so we can recall what was needed to quench the thirst or satisfy that need for food.
Without the memory, none of this would work. If our body was dehydrated and we had no recollection of how to satisfy this, we would be in trouble. This is where the amygdala comes into play.
This is the part of the brain that stores our emotional memories. All of those memories that we need to recall for survival. As meth was my drug of choice.
Meth became that chemical which altered the functioning of my brain which told that part of the brain of survival that this is what will keep me alive. Glutamate the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter has engrained that message into my memory.
Just as we crave food when we are hungry, I now am craving that drug as this is what is going to keep me alive.
This memory doesn’t immediately go away when you get clean. You can be off the substance for 6 months with the amygdala reminding you that you are missing something.
A lot of times this happens when you see something that reminds you of it or, in some cases, when you wake up in the morning. The greatest tool that I used was to stay busy.
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