Getting Ready for Detox


The Art of Detox - creating a steady state

This is an excerpt from a chat held on Your Last Diet. People had been struggling with what to do about their sugar use while they were working the steps.

Lots of new people come in and think they HAVE to get off of sugar now!
They believe that sugar is creating havoc.
Sound familiar?
Do you all have a sense why we do those other steps first?

Wouldn't it be better to just take the bull by the horns and get rid of it?

A sugar detox done cold turkey has the same symptoms as a heroin detox although less intense.

But if you wait and do the detox as the 6th of those first seven steps it is a whole different story. You can slide through it without even noticing. It becomes a non-event.

I have been updating some ideas since I have been working with some folks who are detoxing from other things and I always say, try to get as steady as possible before you attempt the detox.

You want the same time, same dose every day. It is much better to have a dessert every night after dinner than to have it one night and then not the next or to have cookies one day at 3 and then binge at 5 the next day. You want to be getting your drug at the same time every day and the same amount.

Create a steady state. The more you can work at steady state, the easier your detox will be.

Here is an analogy.

If you were going to go off cigarettes the first thing I would do is have you count how many you have in a day. You would be honest and functional.

So lets say you said 20 then I would say, figure out the times you smoke and divide up your twenty cigarettes say every 30 minutes or 3 after breakfast and 3 at 10 am.

Find your pattern.

Make it consistent rather than random so your body adapts to the drug being available on a consistent basis rather than having highs and withdrawals and rather than bouncing around.

Once you had mastered a consistent pattern, we would then reduce the number of cigarettes. Maybe from 20 to 18 in a week. Slowly.
But the pattern would stay the same.

Then you would stay steady on 18 for two weeks and then we would take out
2 or so. You would get to choose when so you would be in control totally.

Okay so lets say over 3 months you are now down to 6. Then I would say, okay, lets go for it and stop. You get some excitement but not crisis.

You can do the same with the sugar. <smile>
Get steady.
Build the foundation.
Stay steady.
Cut down
and then do a cold turkey on what is left.

(c) Kathleen DesMaisons 2006 All Rights Reserved