A note to my listeners, this episode includes discussion of disordered eating.

Please listen with care.

You're listening to the Recovery Happy Hour Podcast. Hi guys, welcome to Recovery Happy Hour, where we talk about life beyond the bottle and what happens after we get sober.

I'm your host Tricia.

Thanks so much for listening.

Guys, today we're talking about cross addiction.

In its simplest terms, cross addiction means

switching from one addiction to another. Not to be confused. cross addiction

not to be confused with co-occurring addictions which means having multiple addictions at the same time

cross addictions can be a substance such as food or cigarettes and but it can also be a

compulsive behavior shopping sex gambling exercising cleaning games, I mean in and of themselves, these are not all

harmful behaviors.

Exercising and cleaning, those are great, right?

But if you're compulsively doing something as a coping

mechanism for dealing with anxiety or to numb your feelings, well this is when we

find out that being in recovery isn't just about learning how to quit drinking.

You're reaching for something else now, but getting to the basis of why you are reaching for a substance or for an activity is where recovery really starts.

Getting to the root of an issue is what this process turns into once you really start doing the work.

If you're noticing that you're reaching for something else

when you have a craving or an emotion that's tough to deal with, that's normal.

Guys, we're used to alcohol. Alcohol is not an option anymore. We want something else. That

doesn't mean it has to have the tendency to become destructive with repetition.

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