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Centre for Addiction Medicine VKN ECHO, and NIMHANS DIgital Academy
Practical and useful tips to manage craving in Addictive disorder.

Strategies for Managing Cravings and Urges

When possible, choose a strategy that provides a substitute “payoff.” For

example, if you drank to relax and cope with stress, then you need an
alternative way to relax and reduce stress. If you smoked marijuana or
snorted cocaine to enhance sex, then you need to find ways to enjoy sex
without relying on drugs. If you smoked cigarettes to quell your anger,
then you need to find healthier ways of dealing with anger.

As you review the following coping strategies, place a checkmark next to

those you have successfully used in the past or can use in the future.

Environmental Coping Strategies

□ Reduce environmental cues by getting rid of the substances you are

trying to quit using. There is no need to keep cigarettes, alcohol, or
drugs in your house if you quit using.
□ Get rid of paraphernalia used to prepare or ingest drugs (e.g.,
lighters, ashtrays, needles, mirrors, papers).
□ In early recovery, when possible, avoid people, places, events, and
things that you feel represent a high risk of relapse.

Cognitive Coping Strategies

□ Talk yourself through the craving.

□ Tell yourself that you are capable of coping with a craving no matter
how strong it is.
□ Remember that cravings always pass in time.
□ Buy yourself time by saying you’ll put off using for a few hours.
□ Remember the troubles caused by using alcohol or other drugs.

Dennis C. Daley, Antoine Douaihy

Managing Your Substance Use Disorder.
© 2019 by Oxford University Press
22/1/2022 Right knowledge- Right place- RIght time
Oxford Clinical Psychology | Oxford University Press Subscribe us @ vknnimhans.in
65

Centre for Addiction Medicine VKN ECHO, and NIMHANS DIgital Academy

□ Ask for help and strength from a higher power.

□ Imagine the craving as a wave that you are surfing to safety. Rather
than fighting against the wave, you ride it to shore without getting
engulfed in it. “Ride out or surf ” the craving and it will eventually
leave you.
□ Delay your decision by telling yourself you’ll wait until later in the
day or tomorrow before you use. By that time, your desire may have
decreased in intensity or left completely.

Behavioral Coping Strategies

□ Distract yourself with an activity.

□ Do something physical, such as take a walk, jog, or work out, to
release tension.
□ Write in a journal or complete a daily craving record.
□ Read recovery literature for help and inspiration.

Interpersonal Coping Strategies

□ Talk to friends in recovery.

□ Talk to family or other supportive people.
□ Go to a recovery meeting and share your cravings.
□ Leave situations immediately if the pressure to use feels too strong to
resist.
□ Avoid interpersonal “set-​ups.” These are relationships or encounters
that influence you to use. This influence may be overt or direct,
or subtle and indirect. If, for example, you want to date someone
who uses alcohol and drugs or have a sexual encounter with
someone who is drinking or using drugs, you may not initially feel
like using. Later, your desire to use may increase as the situation
unfolds and the person you are with invites you to use or uses in
front of you.

Substitute Coping Strategies

□ Smokers find it helpful to chew gum or eat mints or hard candy

when they feel like having a cigarette.
□ Substituting a soft drink or other nonalcoholic drink is helpful
during times or situations associated with alcohol use, such as
during the pre-​dinner cocktail hour or a wedding reception.

Dennis C. Daley, Antoine Douaihy

Managing Your Substance Use Disorder.
© 2019 by Oxford University Press
22/1/2022 Right knowledge- Right place- RIght time
Oxford Clinical Psychology | Oxford University Press Subscribe us @ vknnimhans.in