This might not help some people during recovery and some it might help because we all know that people recover at different times seeing as everyone is different, one thing you should do when you first start recovery is think of all the bad factors of what your doing and think about why you want to recover it maybe for a loved one, then you need to start cutting down on the amount of smoking / drinking what ever the addiction is your doing, for example say you take about seven drinks a week or seven cigarettes a week try and cut it down so that your only taking about four a week then gradually lower it down as you go a long, one day when you think your ready to quit set a final date for the day your not going to take a cigarette again in your whole life.

This method has helped me alot recovering from alcohol addiction, I was allways thinking of all the bad factors alcohol had on me, so I got basically scarred of drinking, even a sip, good method anyone can try this really works. Just think only about the bad factors and there are a lot of those , and this will help a lot.

Writing a plan for recovery is something that each person should do no matter what the addiction. Then making sure that you follow through with the plan is the key to being successful. Knowing what is in those items and how they affect the body can be enough to scare some people into sobriety. But this does not always work with everyone and there needs to be steps taken. No one ever said that it would be easy but it is worth it.

You are correct writing down the pro's and con's can take you further than you ever imagined. If for some reason you have a problem with writing down some of the positive aspects of recovery vs. the addiction, then you might want to ask for some help.

start off with relaxing, then reflect and you would realize a lot. "Lay down and let your worries fall asleep."

I think this is the smartest way to quit. By slowly but surely quitting. Cutting off cold turkey is hard and most likely have side affects, but this is better.

I kept a journal of my recovery since the first day.  I can look back now and realize the person I was and all of the mixed up, horrible emotions I had to finally deal with.  I went through withdrawals and that was definately the hardest part for me.  I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs but instead I wrote in my journal, lots of angry stuff, lots of epiphanies happend and I wrote them all down.  I look through it a lot just to remind myself why I quit and the person that I no longer am.

ChicaBonitawey said: I kept a journal of my recovery since the first day.  I can look back now and realize the person I was and all of the mixed up, horrible emotions I had to finally deal with.  I went through withdrawals and that was definately the hardest part for me.  I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs but instead I wrote in my journal, lots of angry stuff, lots of epiphanies happend and I wrote them all down.  I look through it a lot just to remind myself why I quit and the person that I no longer am.

I think keeping a journal is a very good idea. I wish I would've done that. I know I've changed so much since I became sober but I wish I could see something that would show me the steps of how I've changed. I love the person I am today and I'd never go back to the person I was.

ChicaBonitawey said: I kept a journal of my recovery since the first day.  I can look back now and realize the person I was and all of the mixed up, horrible emotions I had to finally deal with.  I went through withdrawals and that was definately the hardest part for me.  I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs but instead I wrote in my journal, lots of angry stuff, lots of epiphanies happend and I wrote them all down.  I look through it a lot just to remind myself why I quit and the person that I no longer am.

I think if a book like this were published it would be very interesting. I would definitely read it.

jjcoolj said:

ChicaBonitawey said: I kept a journal of my recovery since the first day.  I can look back now and realize the person I was and all of the mixed up, horrible emotions I had to finally deal with.  I went through withdrawals and that was definately the hardest part for me.  I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs but instead I wrote in my journal, lots of angry stuff, lots of epiphanies happend and I wrote them all down.  I look through it a lot just to remind myself why I quit and the person that I no longer am.

I think if a book like this were published it would be very interesting. I would definitely read it.

Have you ever heard of the book "Go Ask Alice"?  It's such a good book!  It's about a girl, she's in high school and she starts doing drugs after being invited to a party where everyone is given a drink and some drinks have LSD in it, and some don't.  Well she gets one of the drinks with LSD and ends up tripping out and from then on she starts doing drugs and ends up homeless, on drugs.. but the whole time she's writing everything in her journal and it's really deep stuff she writes about.   I felt like I knew this girl after reading about everything she'd been through and learning everything from her point of view.  I like those type of books, it's like a confession.