What is urge surfing? Urge surfing is a technique developed by psychologist Dr. Alan Marlatt and used in DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) to help people in addiction recovery overcome their urges to use their substances of choice. People in recovery may feel an intense desire or urge to use drugs or alcohol, but the surfing technique can help them experience the urge without engaging with it.
If you or someone you know is in addiction recovery or considering recovery but weary of it being effective, it may be interesting to learn some of the techniques people in recovery use. Surfing the urge is one of many techniques, and we’ll discuss it in depth in this article. Read on to discover the urge surfing technique in detail.
What Are Urges?
Urges are natural and designed to help humans and animals meet their basic needs. For example, we may experience an urge to eat when we’re hungry, drink when we’re thirsty, or use the bathroom when needed.
However, all humans experience non-essential urges, too, like the urge to eat a piece of chocolate. The problem is that sometimes, these urges can actually be harmful. For example, we may have an urge to drink too much alcohol or smoke a cigarette.
Why Surf The Urge?
Many of us are taught to ignore our harmful urges in the hope that they will go away without us engaging with them. Research has shown that ignoring an urge does not cause it to disappear. In fact, the opposite is true. Like the ‘pink elephant’ theory, the more you try to banish the urge from your conscious mind, the more it lingers.
Additionally, the urge usually grows and becomes more fierce, making resisting exceedingly difficult. For example, if an addict in recovery feels an urge to use drugs, pushing away the thought will probably cause him to use drugs, if not at that time, then at a later date. Surfing the urge is a technique designed to honor the urge instead of pretending it doesn’t exist.
While surfing the urge, addicts acknowledge the urge but treat it like a wave in the ocean. Waves in the ocean are strong, powerful, and all-consuming, but they recede after a short time. In the same way, addicts learn to observe the urge and its powerful grip on their minds, but remember that it will fade in a short time.
When To Use Urge Surfing:
In the past, urge surfing was only recommended for substance addiction recovery. However, today, it is used as a mindfulness technique for other conditions like behavioral addictions, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), and eating disorders.
People with gambling, sex, or eating addictions have seen success using this method to resist the urge to engage in their destructive behaviors. Likewise, OCD and eating disorders are illnesses of the mind, where the person has thoughts, feelings, and urges and cannot resist the urge to act upon them. Urge surfing can be extremely useful when facing such an urge.
Benefits of Urge Surfing:
Urge surfing meditation offers many benefits for people in addiction recovery. Utilizing the urge surfing DBT method consistently allows you to resist urges or cravings to use substances, building your self-control. Additionally, mindfulness makes you more attuned to your body, helping you become intimately familiar with the messages your brain and body send you.
When you ‘ride the wave’ in DBT, you may start to notice patterns of when you get triggered with an urge, giving you more tools to manage your addiction. For example, you may notice that you usually feel an urge when in a certain place, with a certain person, or during a certain experience.
You will notice changes in your body temperature, feel adrenaline fill your body, experience a pit in your stomach, a tingling of your palms, or any other physical sensations that addicts having a craving may experience. The bodily sensations can be a warning to start practicing the urge surfing technique before the craving becomes bigger and more overwhelming.
Limitations of Urge Surfing
Urge surfing is very effective in helping curb sudden cravings, but it is not enough of a treatment plan for people struggling with addiction. In other words, urge surfing can be used if other interventions are used simultaneously. In-patient or out-patient rehab, medical detox, and medications are some of the interventions that are needed in conjunction with the urge surfing DBT technique.
Additionally, your safety comes first. If you’re using urge surfing to resist the urge to use drugs, but you haven’t had a medical detox, you may experience adverse side effects that can even be dangerous. It’s also important to note that if the urge is too strong and you’re still new in the recovery journey, practicing urge surfing can backfire and cause harm.
How To Do Urge Surfing:
In short, urge surfing is about recognizing the urge, observing it, and allowing it to pass. It is not resisting the urge by pushing it out of mind or pretending it doesn’t exist. Here are the simple steps to urge surfing:
- Recognize- Be aware of the urge. Being unaware of the urge will lead you to perform your subconscious behavior, which is using the substance. If you are mindful that you are experiencing a craving, you have brought the urge to the conscious mind and can now deal with it intentionally instead of habitually.
- Acknowledge- Don’t be afraid to give your urge acknowledgment. You may be tempted to pretend it doesn’t exist, but, as the saying goes, ‘what you resist persists.’ Make a conscious effort to acknowledge that you are currently feeling an urge that you will take care of in the correct way.
- Observe- Try to observe your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations as a third-party person. Watch the quick flow of thoughts race through your mind, feel the sensations in different parts of your body, and observe where the urge is felt in your body. Is it a squeeze in your chest, a tightening in your jaw, etc.? If your thoughts wander, gently bring them back to the urge and your uncomfortable feelings.
- Breathe- Use mindful breathing to center yourself. Focus on your breath, how deep or shallow it is, whether it’s coming from your mouth or nose, how long the inhale and exhale are, and whether you can feel it travel through your body. Don’t try to change your breathing; just watch and feel it.
- Visualize- Use your imagination to visualize the rise of a wave in the ocean. Imagine yourself riding the wave, reaching the crest, and gently coming down when the wave passes. Keep doing this until you slowly feel your urge crash enough times that it passes completely. Remember constantly that the urge is like a wave that will pass, just like the visualizations.
Conclusion
You can choose how much you’d like to incorporate urge surfing into your life. You could decide to use it every so often, or you can use it every time you suspect you may start to feel a craving. Like all therapeutic methodologies, different things work for different people, so if this technique doesn’t resonate with you, you’re either doing it wrong or not for you.
You can start by making a point of practicing urge surfing once a day at a specific time, or practice it for something else (for example, if you’re addicted to drugs, you can first use urge surfing to help you resist sugary or fatty foods) until it becomes your automatic response when you experience an urge to use your drug of choice.
As always, Avenues Recovery can assist you with rehabilitation, medical detox, therapies, and support groups to help you start your journey to recovery. If you or your loved one is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, reach out today to find a supportive network of trained mental health counselors, addicts on the journey of recovery who will support you, and all the tools you need to finally get sober and live your best life.
