BESOCHEMPS If you haven’t yet heard of the 5-Headed Dragon, BESOCHEMPS, you’re either new here, or I haven’t been doing my job. (Please don’t scroll away yet – we aren’t a cult and this discussion about a 5-Headed Dragon is neither frivolous nor foolish.) Over twenty years ago I began serving brave folks intent upon …
We all WANT to do things that we know aren’t good for us from time to time. And feeding those urges with occasional splurges may be OK now and then. But when it feels like the habit has us on its leash, it’s time to take our control back!
Some of us carry a so-called “stress-buster” in our pockets every day. In fact some of us would NEVER think of leaving home without them. Most of them come in a handy pack of 20 – some with a flip-top box! In order to use these alleged reducers of stress, one generally needs to light …
Plenty of folks get a few text messages every week to remind them to stay positive and take positive steps, but QuittersWin is more than just feel-good text messages and blog posts. For people dealing with addictions or compulsive behaviors, QuittersWin can be a game-changer or life-saver. By serving brave folks addicted to tobacco and …
“BESOCHEMPS” PS-ychological Compulsion The PS in besochemPS is surely the slipperiest aspect of the beast – psychological compulsions. It’s quite evident that under different circumstances and to varying extents, we are all willing to participate in a behavior that we know is causing us certain harm. We’ll all quickly agree that it is not OK …
“BESOCHEMPS” EM-otional Urges EMotional urges can lead us to want to smoke (or use other substances/behaviors) as a means of avoiding unpleasant feelings. If we are feeling, for example, anxious, we’ve learned to reach for the “relief” of a cigarette. The nicotine in our brain results in the release of endorphins, which make us feel …
“BESOCHEMPS” CH-emical Cravings The CH in besoCHemps reminds us to be aware of how our body/brain have learned to depend upon a regular daily dose of a chemical. When we don’t get the drug, we can become physically uncomfortable. It’s very important that you learn to tell the difference between wanting to smoke because you’re …
BESOCHEMPS” SO-cial Triggers The SO in beSOchemps makes us aware that there are familiar SO-cial situations that can make us think about using. Notice that again, the face and the place only have the power to make us THINK about using. They can’t “make” us do it. In classes and phone coaching with smokers, I …
“BESOCHEMPS” BE-havioral Triggers The first of the 5 heads of the dragon represents the behavioral triggers that have become associated with our using. For a smoker, some common behavioral triggers are pouring a coffee, starting the car, answering the phone, and finishing a meal. We use the letters BE to represent that connection between wanting …
“A 5-Headed Dragon? Are You Serious?” If you’re new to QuittersWin maybe you haven’t heard about the dragon, Besochemps. If you only get the daily texts messages, but haven’t dug any deeper into the web sites, the blog, the Facebook page, joined a class, or dialed in for the Friday conference call, perhaps you don’t …
Addiction isn’t just about chemicals, but if you look at how our culture treats addiction (“patches, pills, and potions?”) you might think it was. One of the reasons that defeating addiction is so hard, and why we “fail” so often, is that we over-focus on the chemical aspect of addiction and ignore some of the …
