Most people who have been around 12-Step programs for any amount of time are familiar with the concept of acceptance.  Overall, finding a way to integrate acceptance in your life will make it a much more peaceful one.  You can find a more in-depth discussion of acceptance near the back of this book.  It explores the “big picture” of acceptance in more detail.

However, when we are dealing with getting abstinent, there is that single, absolute point that is the fork in the road.  One way leads to relapse, and the other towards long-term abstinence.  The question is:  why did the fork appear at all?  For most of us who have dealt with it, there was a time before relapse where we felt pretty secure with our abstinence, and then everything fell apart.  There was one thing that made that fork in the road reappear and pushed us toward “the path not wanted.”  That one thing was a craving.

In my business, we use the word “craving” as a general catchall for whatever ideas start coming into an addict’s head that have them considering making their substance an option again.  The same is true with the food.

How does acceptance figure into all of this about cravings?  Simple: We have to accept that we will have cravings.  In my experience, almost every newly sober or abstinent person – no matter how pink of a pink cloud on which they might find themselves in the present moment – will find her or himself face to face with cravings at some time in the future.  How this situation is handled is absolutely critical.  Understanding and accepting that this phenomenon will happen at some point in the future makes it easier to be ready for it when it does hit.