Why Stopping Can Be So Difficult
Understanding Craving, Withdrawal, Cues, Habits and The Pressures That Can Maintain Addiction
The final resource brings the series together by exploring why wanting to stop an addictive behaviour does not necessarily make stopping straightforward.
It considers craving, conditioned cues, habits, withdrawal, unmet emotional or physical needs, relationships, environment and the consequences that can themselves create further reasons to seek relief.
The resource also explores lapses without framing them as failure, reduced tolerance and overdose risk, harm reduction, treatment and the importance of building alternative sources of reward, regulation, connection and purpose.
Useful for: understanding barriers to sustained change, reducing shame around setbacks and identifying the biological, psychological, social and practical factors that may need to be addressed to make recovery more achievable.
Space to Breathe Therapy
