How do you distract yourself from withdrawal symptoms?

Some symptoms are minor, but some are extremely hard to ignore. If you have any tips, tricks, or activities that you use to distract your mind from withdrawal symptoms, please feel free to comment and discuss here.

I recommend prayer, exercise on the beach, and meditation on what life was like before your addiction. Anything that calms you and gives you a sort of "back to the womb" experience is going to be beneficial to you.

Before planning and scheduling an alcohol or substance-abuse withdrawal, seek advice from DrugAbuse.com. Please do not hesitate to call.

Seek out trustworthy friends, family, preferably a care group who will identify with your need for help to abstain from your addiction. Your trusted friends will serve as your accountability group of good friends who will seek only your good and wellness.

If you couldn't find friends whom you could trust to help you: NEVER DESPAIR and never allow negative thoughts about "not having friends". Those thoughts are never true. There will always be people, miraculously, who will listen and help.

Change your diet. Eat more nutritious food rich in protein. Vit.C as antioxidant (detox from substance consumed in the body. Research, study and make intelligent decision about abstaining from alcohol and drug abuse. It's not that easy, but a busy mind will help tremendously. Exercise.

Write our journal your daily progress.

Good luck. I wish you well and all the good in your endeavor to be free and be well.

I've read that many people start exercising to deal with all of their withdrawal symptoms. It really is a healthy and beneficial way to cope with all of your pains and thoughts. I fully support the option of working out.

Leading a disciplined, fulfilling life is the biggest distraction from withdrawal symptoms. To start with, never keep yourself idle or alone. Keep doing something you love and spend long hours on. Don't let negative thoughts engulf you. Every time a negative thought crosses your mind, think of a positive accomplishment you made.

Also, spend your time with your friends, share a joke, let people tickle you a bit and crack a joke yourself. Consume Kiwi fruit or Kakadu plums. These are excellent sources of Vitamin-C and help you in the detox process. Seek your family's help. Listen to soothing music and stay clear of trouble.

Get away from people, environments, or situations that will tempt you. Especially if you are quitting something like smoking - clean your place from top to bottom, and take all your clothes out of the closet and clean them all as well to get rid of that lingering smell, which only makes it harder to resist having another smoke or buying another pack. I noticed this in particular when I would spend the weekend at my parents - I wouldn't smoke the whole time I was there nor would my cravings be as bad either, and I really believe it's because nobody smokes in their household at all so I wasn't smelling that lingering tobacco odor the whole time.

If it's something like cocaine or weed though, the same applies - wipe clean any surfaces you were doing lines off of, clean out all those ashtrays, get rid of any containers that you were storing your stashes in, and make sure you don't accidentally find some leftovers in your pockets and other hideaway spots.

Form some new "routines" as well - perhaps you and some of your friends can make it a point to go see a movie, or movies on Saturday or Sunday afternoons when the theaters are dead (or even weekday afternoons if possible). That will keep you occupied for hours right there. Or make it a point to hit up your local museums regularly, go on some road trips each month to get out of your house and experience some new things.

It might seem a simple thing to say but I just kept busy and tried to take my mind of things by concemtrating on other things.

I think a lot of it is about breaking the routine or the cycle that an addiction can get you in to. People often abuse substances at certain times of the day or when a circumstance comes up that they cant deal with. Once the habit is broken then you can start to fight the addiction because i believe that a habit and an addiction can be two seperate things to deal with.