Abstinence Summary

Summary of Abstinence I tried to give up soda for six weeks for my abstinence project. For the first two weeks, I stayed strong and did not have any soda. Every time I would usually have a soda, I replaced it with water. At the beginning of my third week, I relapsed and drank soda. The reason I had soda was because my stomach was upset and I am use to drinking ginger ale when this occurs. From there, I went through a downward spiral, and continued to drink soda. I tried not to drink soda as much as I had in the past, nonetheless I was drinking soda every day. My personality contributes to my addiction to soda the most. I have a very addicting personality, which makes it hard to give up something I really enjoy, such as soda.
External Influences There were several external factors that contributed to my relapse. The first the massive headaches I was having due to not having my soda every day. It would be hard to focus on my work without the caffeine to give me that jolt I usually received from it. Another factor contributing to my abstinence was my family use of soda. Every night for dinner, my family put out a glass full of ice and a soda can. I tried hard to resist this for a few weeks, but in the end, I gave in and …show more content…
I didn’t realize how the external factors influenced my desire to drink soda, until now. After this experiment, I can see how easy relapse can be because of the external influences. It seems the environment is key when trying to stay abstinent. If I was not in my work environment and tempted with soda, I might have been able to continue drinking just water. Another insight I gained from this experiment is how significant withdraw is. Withdraw occurs when the body crashes from an artificial high (Van Wormer & Davis, 2013). I was only drinking soda and had massive headaches, which made me feel nauseous. I can only imagine how withdraw from drugs takes a toll on the