Did you quit drinking or taking drugs only to find you picked up other addictions like caffeine, sugar or even AA meetings?

Here is a video about why cross addiction might be happening to you. When you've finished watching, read below for more about my Cross Addiction Experiment!

So mindfulness is one of the DBT skills I teach. It is useful for not reacting with emotion to events when it might be inappropriate. Mindfulness entails stepping back from the situation and looking at it objectively and non-judgementally. So when I'm attempting to mindfully stop my caffeine addiction, I might feel the urge then step back from it and look at it objectively rather than acting on it.

Things I could observe are the feelings I might be feeling physically or emotionally. I could observe the thoughts I am having. Good Mindfulness is about observing but not getting attached or reacting. It's about letting go. i'll keep you up to date with my Mindfulness Cross Addiction Experiment on Twitter - just ask me how it's going f you're curious. You can follow me on Twitter here. Let me know if you think you're cross-addicted. Hey, we're all in the same boat.

by Beth Burgess, Therapist and author of The Recovery Formula, The Happy Addict, and What Is Self-Esteem?