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Situation-Specific

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Early in my recovery, I realized my yearning to be spontaneous kept me in bondage to my disease. I put things off until life got out of control; then my anxiety escalated, my character defects flared up, and the food started talking to me.

I learned to make a daily action plan that organized healthy meals (with enough time to prepare them) around other responsibilities; I also created blocks of time for other program actions, self-care, and enjoyment. This is now as natural to me as breathing.

I decided to develop specific action plans for recurring situations that are always hard for me, which is when I tend to act out. My first was for travel. After returning from a vacation when my behavior was distressing to my family, I wrote an inventory of my challenges with travel, focusing on specific details that seemed to trigger inappropriate responses. I wrote about the feelings and motivations underneath. I shared my writing and prayed to have my shortcomings removed. Then I designed an action plan detailing specific triggers and actions I could take to handle them better. I saw I had been trying too hard to accommodate others and also saw that taking little actions, like unpacking my suitcase, helped unclutter my mind and made me more serene.

I learned from my success with my Travel Action Plan. I have since developed plans that help me with holidays, with my husband’s looming retirement, with the challenges of having an adult child living in my home, and so on. I find that by referring to what has worked for me in the past and tweaking the plan as needed, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a situation occurs.

— Anonymous

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