I have spent quite a number of pages laying out the disease and how it works.  This would be a pretty poor book if it ended here with “Well, now that I’ve explained the disease… good luck with that!”

Instead, armed with the knowledge of the different threads that make up our disease, we can move forward with a program to help us get our higher selves back in charge.  Think of it like being an elementary school teacher taking your class of 10-year-olds on a trip to the zoo.  The main thing you’re trying to do is keep them all herded in and behind you so none of them sprint out forward past you.

However, it’s more than just that.  It’s about finding a way to calm that excitable group and make them want to follow behind you instead of trying to rush past you.

I used the schoolkids analogy for a reason.  The vast majority of the threads of the disease come from a very young age.  As I explained, these threads, once developed, always stay at the age at which they started.  This means sitting down with a 10-year-old and explaining abstinence and the logic of staying abstinent is going to be over his or her head.  We need to come to communicate to them: to listen to them, not just talk to them.  Again, lecturing a hyper 10-year-old is a waste of time.  (I sometimes use the male representation of these threads simply because I am male.  Feel free to swap out any set of pronouns you prefer to better get “in touch” with those threads.)

The key is to find a way into a meaningful dialog with these threads so as to avert a relapse while acknowledging the disease’s warped good intentions. 

What follows is a program that will hopefully help you in that regard.  It is divided into six aspects which all interact with each other.