Assignment 1: (3 Pages total) This exercise is designed to help the student experience some of the feelings/thoughts that addicted individuals experience when they quit their drug or behavior of choice. This exercise requires that the student give up a substance (e.g., nicotine, caffeine, or alcohol) or a behavior (e.g., Internet use, eating sweets, playing video/computer games, watching television, cell-phone usage) for a period of 2 weeks.
This assignment will be graded based upon the criteria found in the Scoring Rubric for the Abstinence Exercise located on Blackboard.
During this assignment, the student will
(a) write an introductory letter to the student’s substance/behavior discussing the substance or behavior you decided to abstain from, the impact it has had on your life, and why you selected to give up this particular behavior
(b) keep an abstinence journal of the student’s experiences, and
(c) write a summary paper which will serve as the conclusion to the 2-week exercise.
This assignment will have the following components:
a) “Letter to my Substance/Behavior” – This letter should be written in the first person to the substance/behavior from which the student is abstaining. For example, “caffeine, you have always been there for me in the morning…”).
The following areas should be addressed in your letter.
1. How my addictive substance/behavior is loved and is considered a “friend.”
2. How my addictive substance/behavior is sensual (appeals to my senses).
3. How my addictive substance/behavior provides “healing” or is a “balm” to my emotional wounds
4. How my addictive substance/behavior controls and promotes my feelings of helplessness and entrapment.
5. How my addictive substance/behavior is hated – what it has “cost” me. A description of the strategies you plan to use to be successful can also be included
