hey guys,
while i am quite successfully fighting my drugs of choice at the time, with this app and the rest of my sober match plan. I realized strong cravings for all kinds of things. found my self overeating, benging netflix and youtube, scrolling the newsfeed of anything, smoking more frequently, even running in the park 2-3 times a day sometimes. Feels like being waves of “generalized addiction”. When I read a bit, found this term crossaddiction and feel like thats it. But what now? Do you have aproaches on how to tackle those? And how do you understand these cross addiction urges. as a temporary side effect of sobriety (i am only in 3rd month so no much long term experience) or something I will have to life and fight with forever (as I understand my drug of choice addiction by now)? Even read that it is a sign of unresolved mechanism that drive the general addictiveness I need to realize and work on. That sounds kind of locical, but also not like something hands on and I have no idea how or where to start. Felt really bad about those things the last two weeks, becouse it dosnt feels like being in control, even thou i am sober. happy to hear your opinions, tipps and experiences? 
I feel this. I worry about trading one addiction for another. Obsessing over meetings, gaming too much, among others. Sorry I don’t have an answer but this was relatable to me. 
I think when addicted, your doc (drug of choice) is giving you a dopamine/serotonine rush when you use. If you quit your bad habit your mind still wants his rush. I guess that’s why we are fulnerable for other addictions.
Im definitely realising that my brain is prone to becoming addicted to things. Ive never been able to quit biting my nails, since i was 5 years old. If i buy one book amd love the author, i have to buy all of them. When i have joined a gym in the past its become a thing i obsess on daily.
I think some of us just have brains that are wired differently. I suppose the positive is that we are often also very focussed so if we are determined to quit something and find healthy habits we can maybe use that to our advantage. Does seem to tale a lot of discipline though to not switch one addiction for another though and to keep healthy habits healthy and not obsessive…
I guess it all takes work.
Early days here for me. Still learning.
If we intend to quit an addiction, we should have a plan in place to deal with the time, effort, energy and money we will have afterwards.
We can feel those spaces or voids with healthy or negative options, our choice. Want to give up drinking and start dating obsessively? Or give up drinking and maybe go back to school or get a new job? Our choice. Nothing is destined.
I get what ur saying about cross-addiction. Even at over 2 years clean and sober i can obsess and get addicted to other things in my life. Things that i need to be aware of. These things have been my phone, sleep, exercise, food, shopping etc etc
In early recovery i didnt pay too much mind to it as i was really focused on just staying clean and sober. I may have had cross-addictions going on but ultimately i didnt want to focus on quitting and managing everything at once when my main goal was to stop using drugs. So while being clean in eqrly recovery, i did engage in exercise a little too much or used my phone abit too much, that sort of thing. I hadnt learned new coping skills yet and didnt know what finding balance looked like in recovery.
Now being almost 2.5 years clean and sober, im working on balance. Finding a good balance btwn diff areas of my life. Being self aware of when i get too involved in one area (for example my health) and when other areas are lacking.
Progress not perfection In time things will sort and balance themselves out. As long as u stay sober, everything will find their place
I like that, thank you!
Are you working a program of recovery that is not of your own making? As we recover, generalized benefits do follow. But fighting addiction on my own always, 100% of the time, led to return to drinking.
I hear ya. I’m only day 20 but I have noticed that I’m using walking, reading and running as my crossaddictions. But I’m not worried about those because they are helping me to stay sober. I think it’s important to know when they are causing you harm or are they just helping your sobriety.