Notes from a Triumph! Workshop

Preventing Relapse: Notes from a Triumph! Workshop

Preface

On Dec. 2 and 3, 1995, Jim Christopher, founder of SOS, gave a Triumph! workshop in Berkeley on Relapse Prevention. Workshop participants were people in recovery from alcoholism and/or addiction. These notes are one workshop participant’s view of Jim Christopher’s two-day presentation. A version of these notes was published in the SOS International Newsletter, Vol. No.

Introduction

This workshop introduces a tool you can use to keep yourself from going back to drinking or using. This method works for many people who have trouble staying clean or sober for any length of time, especially in early recovery.

Agenda

You will learn a self-teaching technique you can use immediately without professional help. Even if you are not relapse prone, you may be able to achieve a more comfortable sobriety using this method.

Overview

We’re going to learn a method to educate our primitive lower brain, which is where most relapses in early recovery come from. Addiction is in the gut. Few people, if any, make a rational plan to become alcoholics or addicts. Addiction comes from the lower brain, from the viscera, the gut. We call this part of the brain the "limbic system" or "lizard brain." "Limbic system" means the part of our brain where our basic, primitive urges and feelings reside. This is the part of the brain that evolved long before humans developed the capacity for rational thought. That’s why we call it "reptile brain."

A flawed survival mechanism

Our limbic system is usually a tough survivor. We exist because it watches out for us. But alcohol and drugs exploit a flaw in this survival mechanism -- its short range vision. The "lizard brain" is short sighted. With most dangers, pain follows immediately on exposure. Put your hand in the fire -- the painful response is instant. The lizard brain handles this well. But with alcohol and drugs, there’s a time gap between exposure and pain. Pleasure is immediate. Drinking/using leads to instant feelings of pleasure. This is all our myopic primitive brain has learned over the years of addiction. The pain comes later. The hangovers, the blackouts, the job loss, the shame, the breakups, the illness, the poverty and all the other misery of drinking and using are beyond our lizard brain’s normal range of vision. Our reptile brain is like those primitive tribes who didn't know that sex causes babies.

We know the consequences

We’re in recovery because our cognitive brain has learned that drinking/using leads to pain (illness, blackouts, job loss, poverty, relationship trouble, divorce, isolation, jail, guilt, shame, degradation, death). Unfortunately, knowing it in the abstract, and feeling it in the gut, can be two different things. So, early recovery typically has episodes of battle between two forces at work inside ourselves:

Limbic brain formula: Drinking/using = PLEASURE

Rational brain formula: Drinking/using = PAIN

Feelings can overwhelm thought. Relapse happens when the feelings stemming from the "lizard brain" overwhelm our cognitive process. This can be an uneven battle. And no wonder: the limbic brain has been mistrained for many years, while our sober brain is new, unsteady, unsure of itself. Sometimes it seems like Godzilla v. Bambi.

How do we fight back? Does this mean we are doomed to fail? No, not at all. We can take charge of our reptile brain and retrain it. This is how:

We can change our lizard mind.

Research shows we can actually change the chemistry of our brain by changing our thinking patterns. An extreme example of changing deeply held feelings is aversion therapy. The lizard brain responds to primitive conditioning, using feelings as tools.

The lizard brain doesn’t respond to thoughts, it only understands feelings. To talk to the lizard brain, we need to send messages with powerful emotional impact.

(1) Identify Feelings

So, in order to have an impact on our reptile brain, we have to: First, locate and identify powerful negative feelings that we have about the consequences of drinking/using. Negative feelings are gold Those powerful negative feelings are valuable for staying sober, if we know how to use them.

For example:

When I drank I threw up and slept in my own vomit

When I used I hurt somebody

The feeling has to come from our own individual life experience. It has to come from deep inside us. Borrowing somebody else’s won’t work. Book formulas are useless. Hint: look at your "hit bottom" experience for likely material. Keep it simple. Don’t make the message too complicated. Remember, you’re speaking to a lizard brain. Don’t mix in topics tangential to drinking -- everybody has other issues.

(2) Send the message

Once we’ve found the feeling, we need to send it to the lizard brain. Make the message short and to the point. For example:

"My name is ______. I’m a sober alcoholic. I do not drink or use no matter what. Why? Because when I drank I slept in my own vomit."

Or:

"My name is ____. I’m a clean addict. I do not drink or use no matter what. Why? Because when I used I abused my girlfriend."

To enhance the impact:

Speak the message out loud.

Speak it in front of a mirror.

Press on your solar plexus while you do it.

You can do this in the privacy of your own bathroom, in front of the mirror, every morning.

(3) Repetition is key

Use this method for five minutes every day, at least once a day. Repetition is key. Remember you’re training a reptile. They aren’t very bright. Don’t stop after a month; keep it up as long as you have cravings.

The lizard brain is not evil Remember that our limbic system is not evil. It’s just shortsighted. It wasn’t designed to cope with delayed-reaction evils like drugs and alcohol. You’re not punishing it, you’re educating it. Be good to yourself. Remember that the lizard brain is your friend in survival. Do this exercise with patience and kindness; be good to yourself as you do it. You will feel the difference. The lizard brain will quiet down. Your urges to drink will fade and become less frequent. Your cognitive, sober brain will stay in the saddle with ease and comfort. Even reptiles can learn. In the long run, your lizard brain will synchronize with your cognitive brain and associate drinking/using with pain. You will experience visceral reactions against drinking/using. The danger of relapse due to overwhelming visceral urges will be behind you. It isn’t like Godzilla v. Bambi any more; it’s like the Hartford stag v. a pet lizard.

Summary

We’ve identified the source where the urge to drink comes from. We’ve resolved to retrain our lower brain by talking its language.

This is not a cure for alcoholism, nor a fix for all kinds of relapse. You can only arrest the progress of the disease, not cure it. You may still relapse from overconfidence or for other reasons.

To have a Triumph! workshop in your area, contact

Jim Christopher

SOS International Clearinghouse

5521 Grosvenor Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90066

1-310-821-8430