Today I’d like to say something about how I came away from cravings and triggers in the first couple of days and weeks of my cutback and sobriety voyages.

I will not dive too deeply into the psychology of habits or the neuro-physiological aspects, but one thing your craving tells you is: “Give me something to release dopamine!”, or something like that. And each time you fulfill your mind this wish, you want more stuff to give you the dopamine.

Since it worked for stopping smoking, I thought: First break the addiction, then break the habit.

So each time I had a craving or a triggering moment, I replaced alcohol to a fizzy drink and some candies. After I had effectively built up a routine taking fizzy drinks and candy, I realized that the cravings got less and in the end I reduced the frequency of taking substitutes.. Bit by bit, the craving for alcohol was replaced by a craving for sugar, which, I found out, is a similar craving.

In the end I found out that drinking water and eating wholesome in the day’s course, I could reduce cravings whatsoever, since the sugar cravings (or, alcohol cravings) correlated with my level of insulin, depending on how much I ate or not. So, with a good breakfast and some nutritious snacks that are sugar free, I could finally handle the cravings and defuse triggering situations.

Now it is time to work on long term habits and systems to ensure that I am safe from ever having a drink again!

Until next time: Keep up the faith in yourself and take one step at a time!