Exercise 2 : Your drinking cues
Risky situations hold strong cues for drinking . These cues come from places , people or events round you – or from thoughts and feelings within you . Think about the cues and risky situations that have been factors in your drinking .
Identify outside cues
With the table from page 16 in mind , think back to times when you ’ ve been drinking . Ask yourself where , when and with whom you usually drink or drank , and pinpoint those outside cues . Note these in columns a , b and c on page 20 . If you ’ re aware of any incidents or events ( eg pay day or receiving a final demand for a bill ) that tended to spark off a drinking session , note them in column d on page 21 .
Identify inside cues
How did the incidents or events you noted in column d make you feel ? Maybe an argument , a bereavement or a celebration generated certain thoughts and feelings in you , from happiness to anger to loneliness . Some of these thoughts and feelings are more likely to make you want to have a drink . If so , note these in column e .
Confidence to cope with cues
In the last column of the cues table , discover how confident you feel about not drinking in the situations you have identified , when they arise again in the future . The scale is from 1 to 10 . If you ’ re confident of not drinking , you might score as high as 9 or 10 . If you ’ re unsure one way or the other , you would score 5 . If you think it would be hard for you not to drink , you would probably score 1 or 2 on the confidence scale . There are a couple of examples . Work out and write down the cues that you experience . You can then order them from not risky to highly risky .
Learn to cope with your cues
Avoid situations that would tempt you to start drinking again . Sooner or later , you will be in a situation where you might be tempted to drink again . Plan how to cope with these situations before they crop up unexpectedly . It will be easier to deal with your low-risk cues before your high-risk cues . Look back through your answers in the cues table . How would you deal with each of them without drinking ? Discuss your ideas with one of your supporters . Write down a step-by-step plan . Starting with your lowest-risk cue , put your plan into practice . Each time you attempt to deal with a new cue , have help at hand to give you support in case the situation is more difficult than you expected .