YouTube video (Amber Hollingsworth) offering early sobriety advice: identify exactly why you want to stop using drugs/alcohol, write down all positive reasons and negative consequences, and create a weighted pros-and-cons list by assigning importance scores (1–10) to each item and totaling the columns; keep this list accessible because motivation may fade over time.
Chapters
The best place to start is by.
Identifying exactly why you want to stop.
Using drugs and alcohol.
If you're already really clear on the issue, then just take a little time.
And write it down in any order that you want.
But I would encourage you to include.
Both positive reasons why, for example, I.
Want to fix this relationship, or I.
Want to feel better when I wake up, and negative reasons why. And these things might include bad things.
That have happened to you, or negative.
Things you want to avoid, or you don't want to hurt your health or.
You don't want to go to jail or whatever it is. So make sure you list all the positive reasons why you want the change.
And all the negative reasons why you want the change.
If you're still really unclear about your why or if you should or shouldn't.
I know this may sound silly, but.
I think the best place to start.
Will be to make a list of pros and cons, but not just like.
Not just a basic pros and cons list. The reason I don't really do those is because each pro and each con isn't exactly equal. You can create a whole list, but some of those things may be super important, and others of those things may be not so important. So when you make your list of pros and cons, beside each thing that you list, put a number from 1 to 10. 10 being extremely important and 0 being, or, excuse me, 1 being not so important. And so in the end, it's not just how many do I have in each column, but what is the weight of each one of those things I.
Have in the column?
So you'll total up. You'll get a score for pros, and you'll get a score for cons. And remember, that's not just how many things you listed, but that's counting the.
Actual weighted number that you're going to assign to each.
The main reason why you want to.
Get super clear on your why is.
Because it's going to start to fade.
As you go along.
You see, our brains have this protective.
Mechanism that thankfully allows us to forget.
Bad things that have happened to us.
I like to say that's probably the only reason why anyone ever has more than one child.
We tend to remember the good things.
And forget the bad things.
And overall, that's a great defense mechanism to have.
I'm a big fan, but when it.
Comes to drugs and alcohol, it can kind of run you into trouble because you start to forget the bad things. You start to forget your whys about.
Why you really, really wanted to stop using and why it got so bad.
And just exactly how bad it got. But you'll still remember the good parts and then your thinking can get skewed. So right now, in the beginning, just take the time and get clear on.
