Paying Attention: Fighting Marijuana Addiction Cravings
One of the key characteristics of those who are living with marijuana addiction is the way in which they gloss over the details -their own and other people’s. Few have the ability to pay attention to more than the pursuit of maintaining their addiction, because addiction is a physical and psychological disease that takes over every other aspect of life.
During marijuana addiction recovery, learning how to pay attention is a huge part of creating a new life for yourself. Whether it’s paying attention to your own emotional responses or to the emotional responses and needs of others, it’s an important skill to develop as you begin the process of building a strong support system in your new life without marijuana addiction.
Pay Attention to You During Marijuana Addiction Recovery
There’s a long chain of events that lead up to relapse after marijuana addiction treatment. An argument, not feeling well, not getting enough sleep, a problem at work -any of these separately may not be enough to make you want to get high, but when they add up, you’ll notice that your resistance to temptation weakens.
Paying attention to how you feel before you start to get angry, hungry, or tired can stop a small issue from turning into an overwhelming problem that precipitates relapse.
Pay Attention to Others’ Emotional State
Arguments with other people and problems with work often stem from inconsiderate things that we do when we aren’t paying attention to other people’s feelings. Learning how to notice when someone seems embarrassed, tired, angry or distant can help you to make better decisions in dealing with them. Though it is not your responsibility to guess what people need, you can be sensitive to the emotions and needs of others when it’s obvious and not just steamroll through and inadvertently cause problems for yourself -problems that can overwhelm you and give you cravings to smoke marijuana.
Keeping Track of the Details During Marijuana Addiction Recovery
Another set of details to pay attention to that will help decrease your stress level during marijuana addiction recovery is your schedule. Are you doing too much? Do you have too much free time on your hands? Are you promising to do things that you have no interest in doing? Do you have enough recovery-related commitments incorporated into your schedule? Writing everything down as soon as you schedule it will help you stay on top of where you need to be and when, relieving the stress of missed appointments or upset friends and bosses.
What details are important to you in your recovery? How do you hold things together after marijuana addiction treatment to avoid relapse?
