So What About Cravings


I have been reading a lot of posts on the issue of what to do with cravings and I thought It might help to say a little more....

Cravings come from beta endorphin withdrawal. If you had something sweet, when it wears off, you will crave. If you have a big event that spikes beta endorphin (a fight, a joy, a lot of sex, dancing all night, getting a job, not getting a job), when it wears off you will have cravings.

Sometimes the *wearing off* effect takes 4 days, so you do make a connection between let down and craving.

So the key question, is what to do when you have them ....

First all, entertain the idea that it is possible to have a craving and not *do* anything.

Now when you are just starting out, this is hard. Not doing anything is called impulse control. If you have low serotonin, you may not have much impulse control, so you get a craving and you do something right away. One strategy is to simply work the steps and allow your biochemistry to heal and imporve your impulse control. Another strategy is to start right away and learn to recognize this phenomenon and simply practice waiting. Cravings by nature are simply your brain calling. If you start to get antsy and scared, they call more. If you do something else, you can overide the call.

So, bottom line, sort out ways to reduce the BE priming - this means having your sweets with meals or always with protein. This cuts down the *hit* effect.

Use your journal to mark when to expect the whispers or yelling to come...Mark 4 days down the road when you have a BE spike. Being prepared for the edginess helps.

Do the food. When you get to step 7, cravings go away.

Ok this is great Kathleen. I got it till I got to the last sentence:

"Do the food. When you get to step 7, cravings go a way"

Could you or someone else elaborate on this a little. I thought you said cravings are caused not only by food, but by life also. Actually you wrote that cravings are due to BE-withdrawal, so are you saying that once we're on step 7 we learn to avoid BE spikes hence no cravings? Or we manage the withdrawal better? What I'm noticing is I'm trying to avoid spiking because I'm noticing the effects it has on my body, but sometimes it's impossible to avoid spikes. I see them too late and that's when I get cravings. I'm sorry I'm a bit puzzled with what comes after step 7. It sounds like the step 7 is somehow magical and all the bad things go away and I feel disappointed because it's not the case in my life. What I do see is that I start to manage things better, I have a better control over things, I have choices, but the things I've struggled with, I still have them in my life. I just manage them better.

Anyway, I just got a little confused by the last sentence.

Thank you for this clarification .

Sure (smile). As your brain heals, the beta endorphin receptors don't scream so much. If *life* creates a spike, you have skills to not react in the same way. So it is a blip not a flood. The more you heal, the more you up the normal level of beta endorphin. Let me see if I can describe this... When you start, you have low level BE. Imagine it at a 2 out of 10. Something happens that spikes it to an 8. So when it drops, you have a 6 point gap with big screaming and big fallout craving. Over time, you heal. Now your normal BE runs ar 7. Something spikes it to an 8. It drops back to a 7. The BE receptors say, Um, did you notice that and you laugh with them.

Make sense?

(c) Kathleen DesMaisons 2006 All Rights Reserved