The ACT technique
We can find ourselves in this endless cycle where we want to drink less and we also want a drink. You can either choose not to drink, feel deprived and cranky, and then cave to drink a lot more than usual Or you drink and feel like you’ve failed -
Either way results in stress. And wha do we do with when we’re stressed? We drink!
Anyone out there interested in trying something new?
Annie Grace, in her book This Naked Mind, developed the ACT technique that helps interrupt negative thinking patterns, get behind root causes, and leads to positive behaviors actively chosen.
The ACT Technique
Awareness
Clarity
Turnaround
Awareness: State the belief or thought.
For Example: I need a drink to cope with my job as a death investigator
Clarity: Is this thought true?Where and when did it start? How does it make you feel? How does it make you behave?
For Example: I remember interning at the OCME and after the shift, all of the cool forensic folks went down to the local bar. I wanted to be like them so I went! As I got older, I began taking my interns to the bar after work. We spent the time talking about the cases we’d had that day. I felt like a chance to debrief among people who understood me. But the alcohol made things hazy and the conversations were never really that deep or helpful.
Turnaround: State the opposite
For Example: I do not need alcohol to deal with my hard job
Or
My job is not so hard that I want to numb myself to everything around me
Or
Alcohol doesn’t make my work any better, it doesn’t make the job less hard
Please don’t try to force a change here. Thoughts are things but they are not you. You can change them! Go in like a scientist and see if the statement is true. Perhaps you need baby steps to get a little farther and that’s ok too! Ladder thoughts from the Awareness to a new Turnaround is a step in the right direction.
The ACT technique is from @thisnakedmind and based on The Work by @byron.katie and Liminal Thinking by Dave Gray. I highly recommend these books if you’re ready for some mindset work! #thinpurpleline #thisnakedmindcoach #deathismylife #thinblueline #thinredline #thingreenline #thealcoholexperiment #thinyellowline
