The fact of the matter is that being able to deal with cravings as well as any type of addiction is difficult at first. However, once you do get started, the road to addiction recovery is completely possible.
  1. The most important piece of advice I can give is to give up your bad habit (addiction) just for today. If you think in terms of going cold turkey for the rest of your life, you will fall off the wagon. A habit is formed in 21 days and a bad habit can be broken in 21 days, except in terms of a serious addiction, then you have to put a lot more work into your 24 hours to keep you on track to remain sober.
  2. If your poison is alcohol and you tend to spend a good part of your day with people who talk about “looking forward to that drink after work” then you will need to distance yourself from your peers. They will put pressure on you once they find out that you are going to give up your poison. Why do people behave like this? Sometimes they have no idea why they badger you into having a drink after work because it’s been the reward at the end of the day. A lot of hard working men look forward to their beer with the boys after work, except they forget to go home. You don’t have to come up with a plethora of excuses – just tell people that you are not drinking/drugging and that’s the end of the story. Trying to explain to people that your life is going nowhere because of your drinking will bring hoots of laughter because they will often identify with your problem and rubbish you for your efforts to stay sober because that means, they would have to look at their own drinking habits.
  3. Change your pattern. This is an effective method to be able to help you change or remove your craving addiction. If ever you have a particular routine when you start your day during the time when you were under the influence of addiction, try to change your daily routine now that you are trying to overcome your addiction.
  4. Drive a different way to work or drive a different way home, particularly if you have been used to driving past a bottle shop and your car seems to be running on “auto” as it slides in the driveway and the bottle shop owner asks you “what’s your poison tonight?”
  5. Wait it out. If you feel like a drink or a drug, put it off for 15 to 20 minutes. Busy yourself with something to distract you from your negative thoughts. You will find that the same thought comes back after an hour and haunts you again. Well then, do the same thing again and put off that drink or drug for another ½ hour and distract yourself with something else.
  6. Pick up the phone and talk to a friend or take the dog for a walk. If you are at work and it’s close to finishing time, ring your partner and arrange to meet for a coffee, to keep you away from bottle shops on the way home.
  7. Keep very busy. Be as busy as a bee. An idle mind and idle hands are easy temptation to the craving devil. Remind yourself of the ugly things cravings bring such as unhealthiest, unattractiveness, smelling of alcohol (it comes out of the pores of your skin.) Most of all, it is unattractive to be seen staggering around and slurring your words. You might not think that people notice but they do. Rarely do they intervene but will gossip behind your back.
  8. Do not forget. As much as possible, try not to forget the particular reasons why you want to overcome your cravings. Remind yourself of the ugly things you’ve said and done when you have been totally over the top with your inability to control your drinking.
  9. Go to Alcoholics Anonymous and there you will find friends to help and support your through learning the 12 Steps of AA. They are a guideline to living.
  10. Start taking Tyrosine Mood Food to help balance your brain chemistry and a Glutamine supplement to help your cravings.
  11. Be patient. The fact of the matter is that it is not that easy to stay stopped. Anyone can stop but staying stopped is near impossible. You have to remain ever vigilant. This is a fact that you need to acknowledge especially during those times when you feel weak and vulnerable. However, take each day as it comes. One day at a time. Put your head on your pillow at night and ask yourself, “What have I done today to improve myself?” Take each day as it comes. You will then eventually realize that your cravings become weak and weaker as the day passes. Just make sure that you don’t feed your cravings. By telling yourself that you won’t drink or drug “just for today” puts it in perspective. It’s only for today – for the next 24 hours. You can do anything for 24 hours as opposed to telling yourself that you can’t drink or drug for the rest of your life.
  12. Have a substitute handy when a craving hits. Take another teaspoon of Tyrosine Mood Food and you will start to feel better. Don’t turn to sugar for comfort because you will end up in Overeaters Anonymous as well as Alcoholics Anonymous.
  13. Take up a hobby. The purpose of hobbies is to de-stress you. The reason for cravings is to alleviate a perceived stress. Doing some sports or going to the gym or any other activity that does not make you feel tense or tired is a good alternative to overcoming cravings.
  14. Look at the long term results. How happy you will be when you are free of the bondage of alcohol. It is easy to feel tired when you only look at the short term benefits and not the big picture. In the long run, cravings could be overcome and you eventually will have the freedom to not be controlled by a poison.
  15. If you ate a punnet of strawberries and broke out in hives all over your face – would you still eat strawberries? Apply that philosophy to alcohol or drugs.
  16. Play it forward. Remember that you are really not talking about “just having one”, after all, when was that ever enough. One drink is too many and 100 drinks are not enough. Play the scene forward to the end, see the misery and feel the guilt and shame. Be realistic.
  17. Write out the history of your drinking and leave nothing out.
There is life after alcohol and it is a good life. Help your liver with the following suggested products. LivaTone Plus is a more powerful formula that can support liver function when there are more chronic liver problems. LivaTone Plus combines the proven doses of St Mary’s Thistle with the benefits of Turmeric and Selenium. It also contains all the B vitamins and the amino acid Taurine as well as the antioxidant vitamins C and E. LivaTone Plus is designed to support the step one and two detoxification pathways in the liver. Glutamine can help support efficient brain function along with Tyrosine Mood Food as Tyrosine is necessary for the manufacture of dopamine and noradrenaline, which are required for concentration, alertness, memory and a happy stable mood. Magnesium is known as The Great Relaxer and may assist in the reduction of stress, nervous tension, anxiety and sleeplessness. Glucemic Balance Capsules aid in the metabolism of carbohydrates and supports insulin function and is helpful in curbing sugar and carbohydrate cravings when you are detoxing from alcohol.   The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.