Three states of mind

Your mind has three states

The Addict mind

The Clean mind
The Clear mind

• Everyone in addiction struggles with one of these states.

• most people gravitate toward a specific one most of the time.
The Addict Mind
 The Addict mind
• Is used when feelings control your thoughts and behavior.

• You might act impulsively with little regard for consequences.

• You are ruled by your addiction

• Urges to engage in addictive behaviour governs your thoughts, behaviour and emotions

• In addict mind you are not even trying to resist your addictive behaviour

• The emotional mind is used when feelings control a person’s thoughts and behavior.

• might act impulsively with little regard for consequences.

 Addict mind is
• Hot

• Mood-Dependent

• Emotion-Focused

• When in emotion mind, you are ruled by your moods, feelings, and urges to do or say things.

• Facts and logic are not important

• A reward is a reward whether pleasurable or not

 Addict mind behaviors
• Glamourizing

• Lying

• Stealing

• Isolating

• Avoiding group

• Avoiding therapy

• Manipulative
 Clean mind
• A person uses their clean mind when they approach a situation intellectually.

• They plan and make decisions based on fact.

• The mind is distorted in its thinking that you will not engage in the behaviour ever again

• Oblivious you the dangers and temptation of relapsing

• You feel invincible In the fight against addiction and immune to temptation

• You lower your guard and your defenses

• You are not prepared for the hit

Clean mind
 Clean MIND IS:
▪ Cool

▪ Rational

▪ Task-Focused

▪ When in reasonable mind, you are ruled by facts, reason,

▪ logic and pragmatics. Values and feelings are not important.

▪ A person uses their reasonable mind when they approach a situation intellectually. They
plan and make decisions based on fact.
 Soldier Mindset

The soldier mindset is like defensive combat.

● We may think that we’re being objective when we’re subconsciously defending our views and beliefs.
●
We focus on fortifying our case and shooting down the other party’s points.
●
Changing your mind feels like surrendering or being defeated.
●
We’re driven by directionally motivated reasoning, i.e. we decide what to believe based on our underlying motivation.
●
Even if we start out with good intentions to find an answer/solution, we end up trying to prove that we’re right.
●
If we want to accept something we ask, “Can I believe it?” If we want to reject something we ask, “Must I believe it?

● This is also known as the confirmation bias, denial, delusion, self-justification or rationalization.
 Scout Mindset
The scout mindset is like making a map.

●
The goal is to be as accurate as possible.
●
At the same time, you know that a map is only a rough estimation of reality, so there’ll always be missing details or errors.
●
When you uncover mistakes or inaccuracies, it gives you a chance to improve your map.
●
We’re driven by accuracy motivated reasoning. We ask, “is this true?” with a genuine desire to uncover the truth.
 Apparently irrelevant behaviour
• Actions that take you closer to engaging in addictive behaviour

• Superficially they seem reasonable and unrelated to addiction

• But it’s a step toward addictive behaviors

• Its not thinking

• Could be denial

• Its not one behaviour in isolation but a collective of behaviors

 Example

• You are a gambling addict, you decide to visit a friend in the in Goodwood, at 16:00. you decide to leave
at 12 because you want to have some lunch before you get there so you decide to stop off at the spur in
grand west (because they sell nice steak). You go there and finish your lunch at 13:30, and now you are
ready to leave, but you only have to be at your friends house at 16:00 so you decide to walk around in
grandwest to check out the sites. By chance they are having a car competition in front of the casino (not
inside you tell yourself) so you check it out.

• At 16:00 your friend calls you concerned about your safety.. You phone is off because your still at the car
competition .
•
The Clean mind
Refers to a balance between the reasonable an emotional halves.

• People in this phase are able to recognize and respect their feelings, while responding to them in a rational manner.

• Clean mind takes a pause

• Observes (watches feelings and thoughts without pushing them away)

• Its intuitive (it labels the feelings)

• It participates (throwing itself into the present moment

• Its non judgmental (sticking to what you observe)

• Acknowledges phenomena for what they are

• It is effective in not letting feelings control behaviour

• Stays focus on the moment

• The wise mind refers to a balance between the reasonable and emotional halves. They are able to recognize and

respect their feelings, while responding to them in a rational manner.

• Clean mind is a DBT term first introduced by the founder of dialectical behavior therapy
Marsha M. Linehan.

• It lies between the addict mind (decision making and judging based entirely on our
emotions, or the way we feel) and the clear mind (thoughts, decisions and judgments
based entirely on facts and rational thinking).
 Activities

• Have you made a commitment to getting rid of everything in your life that makes your addiction
possible

• What are those things?

• How are those things interfering with your addiction ? -

Step One: Find a Comfortable Space

• This is a skill that requires practice and comfortable environment where you wouldn't be
interrupted.

• Its Reminding yourself that you are on the path of learning a skill that has the potential to
help you navigate the difficulties of recovery
Two: Thinking About a Problem in Your Life

• Before we can proceed with asking our wise mind for help, first we need to settle into
our breathing (Bringing things into focus)

• Tune in and gently observe what the main thing or issue that you started thinking about
is.
Step Three: Using Your Wise Mind

• After you have observed the problem that your mind started thinking about, now ask your
wise mind for guidance. Pick one of the two methods. Set your timer for 5 minutes.
• Method 1: Ask your wise mind a question about how to solve or approach your problem.
Listen for the answer. Don't try to answer it yourself as you usually do. Instead try to tap into
your intuition and look for your gut-feeling. Listen for the answer. If an answer came to you
then just notice it and try not to perceive it in a judgmental way. Just be aware of the answer
that your wise mind provided you. If no answer occurred to you, that's okay. When you do
the exercise next time, you will be more familiar with it and maybe you will get an answer
then.
• Method 2: Listen to your wise mind. Sometimes we don't need to ask an explicit question
about the problem that we have. Maybe we don't exactly know what to ask, or we are too
aware of the issues that we don't need the question. In this case, just think about the problem
and tune in with your intuition. Listen to your wise mind. Did any answer or solution in any
form came to you? Keep doing this until the time runs out. Whatever thought, solution or
answer you receive, just accept it non-judgmentally, and observe what it is.
Its about burning bridges
• Its about radical acceptance, commitment and action directed at never using the
substance again