Burning Bridges and Building New Ones

The DBT Skills Challenge

Skillset

Distress Tolerance Skills: Skills for when the Crisis is an Addiction

Overview

"Burning Bridges and Building New Ones" is a strategic approach in addiction recovery, focusing on eliminating relapse risks and creating new, healthy patterns. This method involves making definitive moves to sever ties with the addictive lifestyle (burning bridges) while simultaneously establishing new habits and sensory experiences to support sobriety (building new bridges).

Description

Burning Bridges involves a radical acceptance and commitment to never engage in addictive behaviors again, followed by proactive steps to eliminate any options for such behaviors. It requires identifying and removing all elements that facilitate addiction—this could include discarding any items associated with addiction, eliminating contact with individuals who enable the behavior, and removing any environmental cues or temptations that could lead to a relapse. The process is thorough and often involves making significant lifestyle changes to ensure there are no avenues left to return to the addictive behavior. This step also includes being completely honest about one's behaviors at all times, enhancing accountability.

Building New Bridges simultaneously involves creating new, powerful sensory experiences that can help counteract cravings. Since cravings can often be triggered by specific visuals or smells associated with the addictive behavior, introducing competing sensory inputs is crucial. This might involve surrounding oneself with new smells and engaging with dynamic visuals that are unrelated to the addiction. Additionally, the practice of "urge-surfing," where one visualizes riding the waves of their urges like a surfer, helps in acknowledging and managing cravings without giving in to them. This visualization not only helps in managing the urges but also strengthens the mental and emotional faculties over time to handle such impulses effectively.

When to Use

This approach is effective in various stages of recovery:

Early Recovery: Immediately after deciding to quit, when the need to remove relapse triggers is critical.
Ongoing Maintenance: As a continuous practice to reinforce the commitment to sobriety and to manage cravings effectively through new sensory experiences.
Periods of High Vulnerability: During times when external or internal pressures increase the risk of relapse, this approach helps maintain focus on recovery goals and implement immediate coping strategies.

Benefits

Implementing this dual approach offers several key benefits:

Enhanced Relapse Prevention: By removing access to addictive elements and creating a hostile environment for addiction, relapse risks are significantly minimized.
Improved Coping Strategies: Developing new sensory experiences and mental imagery provides practical tools to handle cravings and urges effectively.
Strengthened Recovery Commitment: The radical steps involved in both burning and building bridges reaffirm one’s commitment to recovery and help cement a new identity away from addiction.

Common Challenges

While this approach is powerful, it also presents several challenges:

Emotional and Social Adjustments: Cutting off old ties can be emotionally taxing and may lead to feelings of isolation.
Creating Effective New Sensory Experiences: Finding and maintaining new sensory inputs that are strong enough to counteract old triggers can be challenging.
Sustaining Commitment: The initial enthusiasm for making drastic changes can wane over time, requiring renewed motivation and support.

"Burning Bridges and Building New Ones" offers a comprehensive framework for addressing the challenges of addiction recovery, ensuring that individuals not only leave their old habits behind but also cultivate a new, healthier lifestyle.