As we navigated our day, our senses and emotions would alert our subconscious that a use-cue had been encountered. Although usually unnoticed, a gentle urge was generated reminding us that it was time for replenishment.
If use conditioning was ignored or replenishment overdue, like blowing up a balloon, the urge's anxiety energy could explode into a full-blown crave episode. If in recovery, a wave of escalating tension could begin squeezing our resolve to the point of bursting, with surrender, relapse, and defeat just seconds away.
It's believed that our right insula (just above our ear and an inch or so in) acts as a control center for urge and crave anxiety routing and intensity control, including recognition of conditioned nicotine use cues.[1]
According to brain scan studies, the more intense a crave, the greater the bloodflow in brain regions known to control attention, motivation, and expectancy (the prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate).[2]
The intensity of a particular crave episode appears to be influenced by a number of factors. A 2007 study found that the two most significant were: (1) how recently we had used, and (2) our level of impulsiveness.[3] The more available cigarettes are, the more intense the craving.[4]
You'd think that once we end all use and become 100 percent nicotine-free that our subconscious would notice that we were still alive, well, and functioning, and immediately abandon demands for more.
While getting clean forces re-sensitization to commence and begins diminishing underlying withdrawal anxieties, urge and crave anxieties flowing from subconscious use cue conditioning are independent.
Still, once beyond peak withdrawal, all levels of the mind are hit with escalating awareness that we've been living a lie, that once all nicotine is out of our system that things start slowly getting better, not worse. It's here that fear of failure butts heads with fear of success.
As for impulsiveness, it's the trait that played a key role in many of us experimenting with using nicotine in the first place. It's a trait that years of quickly silencing urges and craves made worse. Now, the same trait that helped keep is using, hopefully, begins questioning relapse as a solution.
Patience in standing up to impulsivity can, itself, foster confrontation anxieties. Our hopes and dreams of a lasting dependency solution are pitted against thousands of old "aaah" memories promising instant yet temporary relief from wanting.
Truth is, only one choice provides a way out. Truth is, the only path home is to choose the bigger and better yet delayed reward. Truth is, every activity that triggered use can be done as well as or better without it.
Neurofeedback studies suggest that what you're doing here and now - generating dependency recovery mindfulness - may aid in significantly diminishing crave intensity both short and long-term. [5]
Be honest with yourself. What is the only solution to permanently ending replenishment urges and craves?
Then, why not invite your subconscious to switch teams, to join in your quest to stay free and clean, instead of generating urges and craves for more.
Invite your impulsiveness to get impulsive about guarding against a natural insecticide entering your bloodstream and controlling your brain.
Talk to your subconscious. Encourage it to serve as a vigilant ally in protecting today's freedom, healing, risk-reversal, pride, and growing self-esteem.
Picture the creation of healthy, positive impulses that instantly respond to protect you from challenge. Imagine all levels of awareness forming a skilled firefighting team that immediately arrives on scene and is in full control within seconds of the initial spark.
Although one study noted that the level of depression among women, but not men, was capable of impacting crave episode intensity,[6] study after study finds little or no difference between male and female success rates.[7]
It's simply more evidence that, in numerous ways, women are stronger then men.
Although the thought of a depressed woman having to endure a slightly more intense crave episode is disheartening, keep in mind that all episodes are extremely short-lived, and within a week the majority are silenced.
But as reviewed in Chapter 9, whether male or female, never ignore or make light of ongoing depression. Get seen ASAP if you or loved ones become concerned about any new or worsening symptom.
A food craving study found that vividness of imagery associated with food influenced food craving intensity.[8] Let's give it a try.
Picture your favorite food. Now make the mental image as vivid and detailed as possible. Feel the urge? Now picture your particular brand of nicotine delivery device. What color is it? Hold it in your hand. Smell it. Do you sense an urge?
If so, why not use recovery imagery as a subconscious re-training tool? Why not flash our own subliminal messages?
One at a time, picture yourself engaging in every activity during which you used nicotine, but now comfortably doing so without it. Acknowledge the simple truth that life is easier without it.
And it isn't just "doing" or "existing." Don't forget the rewards.
Allow healing tastebuds to sample the rich flavors of a mouth reclaimed. Imagine the solitude upon arrival of that first full day where the thought of "wanting" never once enters your mind.
Picture such days soon becoming more and more common, until becoming your new sense of normal. Listen as the diminishing noise of addiction's daily chatter gradually fades into rarity. Feel the serenity of a brain reclaimed.
References:
2. Small DM, et al, The posterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex mediate the anticipatory allocation of spatial attention, NeuroImage, March 2003, Volume 18(3), Pages 633-641.
3. Zilberman ML, et al, The impact of gender, depression, and personality on craving, The Journal of Addictive Diseases, 2007, Volume 26(1), Pages 79-84.
4. Hayashi T et al, Dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex interactions during self-control of cigarette craving, PNAS, March 2013, Volume 110(11), Pages 4422–4427.
5. Bu J et al, Effect of Deactivation of Activity Patterns Related to Smoking Cue Reactivity on Nicotine Addiction, Brain, June 2019, Volume 142(6), Pages 1827-1841.
6. Zilberman ML, et al, The impact of gender, depression, and personality on craving, The Journal of Addictive Diseases, 2007, Volume 26(1), Pages 79-84.
7. Etter JF, et al, Gender differences in the psychological determinants of cigarette smoking, Addiction, June 2002, Volume 97(6), Pages 733-743.
8. Tiggemann M, et al, The phenomenology of food cravings: the role of mental imagery, Appetite, December 2005, Volume 45(3), Pages 305-313.
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