Is this what happens when you get rid of your addictions? Does the trauma bubble up to the surface for a lot of you?
Exactly.
1. That’s why the best addiction recovery centers require dual diagnosis people either get their other disorder treated first, or both the addiction & disorder are treated concurrently. Because if you’re self-medicating, the gaping void can make things soooooooo much worse; symptoms dropkicked into the stratosphere worse. (And that’s the number one tell: Most addicts’ lives get
better when they quit using, the minority of people whose lives go sideways? Usually have another disorder or condition that was being managed by their addiction).
2. On the PTSD & Stress Management side of things? Even if you’re reeeeeally careful to add in NEW (old, favorite, other, etc.) coping mechanisms to replace the ones you want to stop… and in my own experience it takes roughly a half dozen to a dozen or so to do the work of one I’m replacing… as most coping mechanisms have their own little constellation (or facets like a gem, recipe, hit list, boxes checked off) & finding that exact combo in any other coping mechanism? Is as rare as hens teeth.
***
To find coping mechanisms you WANT IN your life?
Try listing out all the things overeating DOES FOR you. Not in fantasizing/fooling yourself way, and not in a guilt ridden way, but in curious/curiosity way IME/IMO. Bullet list. For example? (Not all of these will be true for you, and some are probably flat out wrong / opposite).
- Grounding / Focusing on the right here and right now
- Dissociating / Being able to block out here & now on command
- Rhythm & Patterns
- Breathing regulation
- Sensory (tastes, touch, smell, sight)
- Internal Pressure
- Warmth (eating warms most people up, which is part of why most people eat more when it’s cold & less when it’s hot).
- Planning
- Action, execution, sense of accomplishment
- Using your hands & mouth & throat, together (most kind of making music hit 2:3)
- Time Spent Certainty (like watching a movie means you know where you’re going to be for the next 90 minutes, that kind of knowing what’s coming next is soothing for a whole lotta people AND having a way to kill time / get through a block of time).
- Reward
- Punishment
- Control
- Letting go of control
- Etc.
- Etc.
- Etc.
Once you have a list of everything can think of? Star a handful of them that …feel… important (to start with). And then start brainstorming different ways to meet those need/wants. At least a couple few options for each. Ditto the rest, later, as you start tetris’ing different options in different ways. We usually know ourselves well enough to instinctively THAT ONE! with some, as well as find ourselves surprised by how effective & important others are that we initially dismissed.
