{"id":1057,"date":"2019-11-04T06:17:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T06:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2025-11-03T09:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T09:58:23","slug":"change-your-thoughts-change-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

To stop your drug or alcohol habit, you must change your thoughts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the mythical werewolf legend, you can kill a werewolf with a silver bullet to its heart. In recovery from alcohol and drugs, it usually isn\u2019t just one thing that makes a person stop using or drinking, but a combination of things. Recovery is actually more like a jigsaw puzzle. Now it doesn\u2019t have to be one of those 1,000-piece monster puzzles. Probably, simply putting a few key pieces in place will complete a great recovery picture for you. One of the most important pieces of that puzzle is changing how you think; to change your thoughts. Why? Because we don\u2019t do anything until we first tell ourselves to do it. So, if you want to stop your drug or alcohol habit, it has to start with finding out just what it is you think about.<\/p>\n

What difference does that make? Maybe you\u2019re like I was. You might believe that whatever thought comes to your mind is somehow \u201cmeant\u201d to be there. \u201cI have no real control over it. So if my thoughts tend to lead me toward doing something that is self-defeating, the most I can do is try not to listen to the thoughts. \u2018I\u2019m not ultimately in charge.\u2019\u201d I was amazed when I found out that isn\u2019t true. I could actually learn to change my thoughts\u2014so much so that for the most part it no longer became necessary to ignore negative thoughts, because I started not to even allow them in the first place.<\/p>\n

Why Change Your Thoughts?<\/h3>\n

Changing your thinking is possible because most of how you and I think boils down to simple habit. We react to certain life events the same way because\u2026that\u2019s the way we\u2019ve always reacted. It\u2019s familiar. Fortunately, and unfortunately, our brains were designed to be efficient. It\u2019s simply faster if I learn that touching a hot stove means a lot of pain and develop the \u201chabit\u201d of avoiding the thing the next hundred times I\u2019m frying an egg than to have to stop and think, \u201cWait, let\u2019s reason this through. Should I touch it?\u201d That\u2019s the \u201cfortunate\u201d side. The unfortunate side is sometimes the way we reacted to a life event created a self-defeating thought or belief that is actually no longer good for me.<\/p>\n

Let me give you an example. A child on the first day of class is embarrassed when the class makes fun of him for wearing last year\u2019s jeans. This devastates him because all he wanted to do was fit in and not be \u201codd.\u201d From that day on, to protect himself, the child begins to predict what people are thinking about him, so he\u2019ll be prepared for the worst just in case it happens. That\u2019s called \u201cmind-reading.\u201d Ever done that before? The problem with that is that it introduces the thought: \u201cSomething might be wrong with me.\u201d And from there, it\u2019s only a hop, skip, and a jump until you start believing that there really is.<\/p>\n

What should happen is someone should have a conversation with him, find out that he\u2019s trying to be a mind-reader, and prove to him that it\u2019s only a game he\u2019s playing with himself. Someone should have asked the child, \u201cOK, if you\u2019re a mind-reader, then what number am I thinking of? Or who\u2019s going to win the Super Bowl?\u201d A thousand bucks says he\u2019ll get it wrong. Adults play these thought games, too. Our thoughts were never challenged, so we still play them. The only difference is we got a little bit taller and a little bit older. In therapy, other self-defeating thoughts and beliefs should be identified and if necessary, challenged and changed.<\/p>\n

How to Change Your Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Joseph Luciani, Ph.D., makes a strong point about how to change these self-defeating habits in his book\u00a0Self Coaching\u2014The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety and Depression<\/em>: \u201cLearn to develop the psychological muscle necessary to overcome the knee-jerk habits of insecurity that have been ruining and ruling your life. Why not recognize that the friction you feel is a clue that you\u2019ve drifted away from your natural and spontaneous center, your capacity for genuine happiness?\u201d When you can question the immediate, insecure response, you can start to change your thoughts.<\/p>\n

Luciani identifies insecure thinking as a source of much of our anxiety and depression. Knowing that, I can learn to recognize insecure traps, such as mind-reading or black-and-white thinking, and simply not allow myself to think them. Although these may seem to protect me from harm, they actually create insecurity. Guess what one of the top reasons is that people use drugs or drink? For most, that seems impossible. \u201cStop my thinking? Good luck.\u201d True, at first, it is an act of faith. But once you try it and experience even a few moments of peace that you created by refusing insecure thinking, you\u2019ll want to try it again\u2026 and again\u2026 until that becomes a habit\u2014a habit you\u2019ll want to keep.<\/p>\n

Changing your thoughts is the first step toward recovery. If you need support, reach out today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To stop your drug or alcohol habit, you must change your thoughts. In the mythical werewolf legend, you can kill a werewolf with a silver bullet to its heart. In recovery from alcohol and drugs, it usually isn\u2019t just one thing that makes a person stop using or drinking, but a combination of things. Recovery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nChange Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - The Carter Treatment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - The Carter Treatment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To stop your drug or alcohol habit, you must change your thoughts. In the mythical werewolf legend, you can kill a werewolf with a silver bullet to its heart. In recovery from alcohol and drugs, it usually isn\u2019t just one thing that makes a person stop using or drinking, but a combination of things. Recovery […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Carter Treatment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-04T06:17:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-03T09:58:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"beadaptify\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"beadaptify\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"beadaptify\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9da9a3ebad39c8a3b8991a8db03a3405\"},\"headline\":\"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-04T06:17:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-03T09:58:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":885,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/\",\"name\":\"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - The Carter Treatment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-04T06:17:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-03T09:58:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9da9a3ebad39c8a3b8991a8db03a3405\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Carter Treatment\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9da9a3ebad39c8a3b8991a8db03a3405\",\"name\":\"beadaptify\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e82bbf5370a6d645570ff9794ab896780f9ae44430a08917fc2d590c09a62444?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e82bbf5370a6d645570ff9794ab896780f9ae44430a08917fc2d590c09a62444?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/e82bbf5370a6d645570ff9794ab896780f9ae44430a08917fc2d590c09a62444?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"beadaptify\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.beadaptify.com\\\/cartertreatment\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/beadaptify\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - The Carter Treatment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - The Carter Treatment","og_description":"To stop your drug or alcohol habit, you must change your thoughts. In the mythical werewolf legend, you can kill a werewolf with a silver bullet to its heart. In recovery from alcohol and drugs, it usually isn\u2019t just one thing that makes a person stop using or drinking, but a combination of things. Recovery […]","og_url":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/","og_site_name":"The Carter Treatment","article_published_time":"2019-11-04T06:17:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-03T09:58:23+00:00","author":"beadaptify","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"beadaptify","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/"},"author":{"name":"beadaptify","@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/#\/schema\/person\/9da9a3ebad39c8a3b8991a8db03a3405"},"headline":"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life","datePublished":"2019-11-04T06:17:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-03T09:58:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/"},"wordCount":885,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/","url":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/","name":"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - The Carter Treatment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-11-04T06:17:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-03T09:58:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/#\/schema\/person\/9da9a3ebad39c8a3b8991a8db03a3405"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/change-your-thoughts-change-your-life\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/","name":"The Carter Treatment","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/#\/schema\/person\/9da9a3ebad39c8a3b8991a8db03a3405","name":"beadaptify","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e82bbf5370a6d645570ff9794ab896780f9ae44430a08917fc2d590c09a62444?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e82bbf5370a6d645570ff9794ab896780f9ae44430a08917fc2d590c09a62444?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e82bbf5370a6d645570ff9794ab896780f9ae44430a08917fc2d590c09a62444?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"beadaptify"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment"],"url":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/blog\/author\/beadaptify\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1240,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beadaptify.com\/cartertreatment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}