Just curious, how long does it usually take for drug cravings, especially cocaine cravings to disappear or not happen every day anymore? I have been sober for 36 days after daily usage for about 2.5 years if I counted it correctly in my head, but I’ve still been getting one craving just about every day. The cravings have definitely gotten a lot weaker than what they were during the first week or two, but honestly not a single day has gone by where I didn’t have a craving for cocaine.
I find the cravings are pretty annoying, because I know for a fact that I don’t actually want to do drugs anymore, but my brain is just like “do it” once a day at the moment. The good news, is these cravings aren’t powerful enough to really make me wanna go and try to find someone to buy it anymore. I’m hoping these cravings disappear in the next few months. It’s tough at times, but I’m managing. I love yall!
I seriously could have written this myself to be honest lol Ive been wondering the same thing. I find i go through phases… weeks of daily thoughts of it and then ill go weeks without even thinking about it. And ur right, the urge to use is weaker of course than when i first got clean from it but they are annoying as hell. As of recently, every single day for the past 1.5 weeks i have thought of my DOC and even had using dreams about it. Im over 900 days clean from crack cocaine and im still waiting for my thoughts to be clear of it. I dont even want to use but i still think about the drug. I dont get it. I just keep myself distracted or if i am triggered for a specofic reason, i take care of that reason.
Just want to say how amazing ur doing on this journey! Uv come a long way already from when i first saw u post on here
Yep our brains have been changed with drug/alcohol use to believe it needs the drug/alcohol like food or water.
Everytime you get through a craving you are helping your brain rewire to learn it doesn’t need drugs/alcohol for survival like food and water and the cravings will get easier and less frequent.
I try to concentrate more on how to get through a craving, knowing it will pass helps.
What can I do to help myself when they happen.
Because sometimes they can come like a ten minutes rain cloud out of no where. How I deal with that ten minutes until the cloud passes is what will save my life.
Thanks Twizzlers that’s actually a good way of looking at it - every time I get past a craving it’s helping my brain rewire itself for sobriety. I’ll keep that in mind ty
I imagine it varies from person to person; however, what I did when I got cravings (or had nostalgic thoughts of using) was:
called my sponsor
called someone in my support system
read the literature
made a gratitude list
went to a meeting
if there were no meetings, found one online (there’s literally a meeting 24/7 nowadays)
distracted myself somehow 'til it went away (usually took about 10-ish minutes)
Sometimes just one of the aforementioned things, sometimes combinations.
If I still had cravings, I’d start at the top of the list and keep goin’ until they subsided.
In my opinion, the meetings were crucial 'cause it’s damn-near impossible to use in a meeting.
At any rate, hang in there! I try to keep my recovery simple so as not to get overwhelmed. Baby stepping, sometimes minutes at a time, but always moving forward.
I had to stop my “euphoric recall” of drinking so I wouldn’t remain romantically hooked to my DOC.
Once my mind accepted that booze wasn’t my friend, and was actively trying to kill me, I had no more illusions and the attraction turned to revulsion. With continued sober work, that revulsion eventually turned to indifference.
Now the thought of drinking booze occurs to me as often as I think of drinking bleach.
Every time you stomp out the addictive voice it gets weaker.
It’ll take time and you’ll have to do it a lot at first, but each time you say no to it that is a win. Just keep on going forwards, you’ve got so far, keep making it a weaker and one day you’ll realise it’s got smaller!
