Quality of life and addiction
As early as the 70s, Prof. Alexander has been researching rats and addiction. His research is really interesting … and actually we still have to learn from those studies.
He saw that the rats who lived in a very boring glass box and that were given the choice between water and heroin, and it was clear how almost all of them died of heroin overdose after a while. But then he changed his mind and looked at this from the rats perspective: “If I were locked up in such a boring cage, for all my life, then I would really choose the heroin too!”
So he has created a nice and challenging “rat park” made with running wheels, coloured balls, corridors and holes, attractive partners to have sex with, good food and the same two bottles from the other study: one with drinking water and one with heroin water. And what turned out? Almost all rats opted for normal water for thirst, only a few percent at all for heroin, and for the rats that liked it, there was hardly any uncontrolled (unhealthy) use of the heroin…
Suddenly not one rat died of the same heroin as in previous experiments…
Enjoy
Hopefully your daily life is fun and attractive enough to make an effort for yourself. Because I would like to get a dime every time in my career I have heard a client going into a ‘slider’ with the reasoning: “I want something nice to happen, again!”
An addiction (or better said “regular use”) sometime mean that people no longer know how to make fun in their daily life. How to live an enjoyable life without use. And that certainly applies to a human trait that the Dutch Annie M.G. Schmidt already described in the 70’s: “Lekker stout!”
The need for play, the need to perhaps even be “nice and naughty”, to walk “close to the lines” every now and then in your life to get this feeling of being alive.
Quality of life
So as an experiment: write down your ‘daily’ things that you can do more-or-less every day that are fun or tasty …
And also the same question for the weekly things. Fun or delicious things that you can do once a week, that can make your life fun or challenging or enjoyable.
Or think about things that could make your life a little more sexy or a little hotter (you don’t have to share it if you don’t want to … you are just going to have to do it! ) 🙂 .
Think about ways you can be ‘nice and naughty’ whilst being sober? Oh, and what do you think of ways to reward yourself without going back to using your means for the times when you have done things well , or when you have dared to do things that you were upset about. ..
And for the long term: it might be a good idea to make a bucket list and also a fuckit list of the realistic fun things you want to do again in your life and also a list of the things that you really don’t feel like anymore in this new life with the control that you have in mind (see Plan of Approach).
[contact-field label="Name or nickname" type="name"/] [contact-field label = "E-mail (if you want a response) type = email "/]
[contact-field label="Write down 5 daily things that you could do every day that are fun or tasty ..." type="textarea"/]
[contact-field label="Write down 5 weekly things that you could do once a week... that give nice memories... that can make your life fun or challenging or tasty ..." type="textarea"/]
[contact-field label = "Write down 5 things for yourself that could make your life a little more sexy or hotter (you don't have to share them if you don't want to ... as long as you do them! ) 🙂 type = textarea "/]
[contact-field label="Name 5 ways you can be sober *nice and naughty *? ..." type="textarea"/]
[contact-field label="Write down 5 ways to reward yourself if you have done things well... or if you have dared things..." type="textarea"/]
[contact-field label="What is the Bucket List that you grant yourself (realistic)." type="textarea"/]
[contact-field label="What is the fuckitlist that you grant yourself in a new life (honest and taking into account all aspects of yourself)." type="textarea"/]
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