Thinking and Behavior Cycles was developed at TCU for the CJ-DATS project. This session features a leader’s script, with notes, worksheets, and handouts for leading a discussion on the nature of behavior cycles and the interplay of thoughts and feelings that fuel cycles of unwanted behaviors or relapse.

Materials highlight the structure of many types of “cyclical” behaviors and participants are invited to identify the thinking patterns associated with their own previous cycles of drug abuse and/or criminal activity and to plan strategies for interrupting future cycles before they begin.

Step 1

Introduce the topic. Invite participants to discuss how some behaviors and ways of doing things become “habits” “rituals” or “cycles,” and are often below the radar of conscious thought.

Point out that most situations we consider to be “problems” very often involve cycles. In other words, a “difficulty” can be thought of as “one damn thing after another.” But a “problem” is usually “the same damn thing over and over again.”

Give an example. Describe one of your own problematic cycles to get the ball rolling, or use this script.

When I was in school, I was frequently late to class. It went something like this: The alarm would go off and I would hit the snooze. I’d usually do this for about 30 minutes, then run to the shower. If one of my room-mates was there first, I’d curse and pace around until the shower was free.

I’d then race to school, probably driving a lot faster than I should have…no, definitely driving faster than I should have. I’d then park and race to class, all the while cursing myself for oversleeping, and feeling disgusted and ashamed of myself for my lack of discipline and for disrupting the class when I walked in late.

I’d spend the rest of the morning in a rush, trying to catch up, and would promise myself… swear to myself… make a mental oath to myself that I would do better tomorrow. That I would get up in plenty of time, not hit the snooze, not oversleep, etc.

Sometimes that worked for a day or two, I’d tell myself I was “okay” and in control of things. But, there I would be again, hitting that snooze button, being late for class.

Distribute The Cycle handout (page 36). Draw your example as a cycle on an eraser board or flip chart, as show below:
[see source document for diagram]

Mental Attention; Thoughts Feelings
Event; Impulse; Fleeting Idea
Repeat Problem Behavior
Vow to Change; Pretend “Normal”
Guilt Shame Anger Regret
Permission Statement

[see source document for diagram:]

ALARM CLOCK RINGS; “I’m tired”
“I hate to get up” “I want to sleep”
"I’ll just lie here for another 15 minutes”
Roll over; hit the snooze button
“I hate it that I’m always late!!”
“I’ll get up tomorrow-no big deal”

Explain how the parts of the example fit into the cycle:

Most cycles or habitual patterns of problem behavior work in the same way. They usually begin with an event, and / or an impulse, or fleeting thought. Instead of choosing to ignore or override this initial thought/impulse, we give it some more mental attention, inviting thoughts and feelings that influence the decision about what to do.

At some point in this thinking, we give ourselves a permission statement that helps us justify the problem behavior. We then repeat the problem behavior. Afterwards, however, we usually feel really bad about stepping back into the cycle (guilt, shame, anger, regret).

We then tell ourselves that it won’t ever happen again, or that we will change next time (vow to change). Or we try to fool ourselves and others by acting like nothing ever happened (“pretend normal”). However, we remain at-risk for jumping right back into the cycle of problem behavior in the future.

Explain the transitional arrows. Review and discuss Mind Traps and WOT to Avoid handouts:

Cycles are “driven” by many of the overriding thinking errors that were discussed in earlier sessions. In drawing a picture of a cycle, we use the arrows to represent the “mind traps” and WOTs (ways of thinking) that push people to follow an impulse and end up repeating a problem behavior.

For instance, things like minimizing, justifying, blaming, entitlement, playing helpless.

Staying with the example used, summarize how a typical behavior cycle operates, plugging in examples of thinking errors that drive the process:

In my example, the whole thing looks something like this. The alarm rings, and I have an impulse to stay in bed. A sleepy little thinking error voice tells me “I shouldn’t have to get up when I feel so tired” (entitlement).

This helps me focus mental attention and begin to develop strong feelings/thoughts toward the impulse to stay in bed.

Another thinking error “It’s just not fair” (victim stance) moves me toward a permission statement, “I’ll just give myself another 15.”

And yet another thinking error, “It’s just 15 minutes” (minimizing), allows me to hit the snooze button.

Later, as reality sets in and I realize I did the very thing I was trying to stop doing, thinking errors help fuel the bad feelings I now have about myself, “I’m a loser” (helpless), “I can’t do anything right” (all-or-nothing).

Of course, these bad feeling also keep other thinking errors active – minimizing, justifying, etc. Guilt helps fuel all the mental promises I make to myself to not do it again, to change, to reform.

I tell myself I’ll stop oversleeping and that it is “No big deal”(lying, minimizing). However, since I was “driving in the dark,” in the sense that I was not aware of the way my cycle operated, I had no real plan beyond mental promises to change the problem behavior, so I was at risk for it to happen again, and again, and again.

Transition

Events, impulses, thoughts, feelings, and behavior are all at work in the behavior cycles that cause us problems. Often, the impulses, thoughts, and feelings have been operating together for so long, they are out of our conscious awareness.

We end up doing the same damn thing over and over, but remain truly clueless about “how come” it keeps happening. Using the mental picture of a “cycle” is a good first step for gaining awareness and learning to break or interrupt the problem behavior.

It forces us to take the time to look at all the parts—the urges and impulses, the mental justification and other thinking errors that we use to repeat the behavior, and the feelings that come from yet another failure to change. It can be tough work, and it requires a lot of honesty and courage. Bothering to take a really close look at ourselves is one of the most courageous things we ever do.

Step 2

Distribute One of My Cycles worksheets (page 37). Ask participants to think about a problem behavior they struggle with that seems to keep on cycling in their lives. Encourage them to think about current behavior cycles that are causing problems. Prompt them to focus on general types of problem behavior cycles (diet, exercise, getting in trouble, problems with other people, procrastination, breaking rules).

Allow time to complete the worksheets. Be available to guide individual participants who get stuck.

Ask for volunteers to describe their problem behavior cycle from the first (general) worksheet. Use a flip chart or eraser board with a cycle template and fill in and label the parts of cycle as the participant describes them.

Stay with the volunteer and ask:

Has there ever been a time when, despite the same activating event or impulse, you didn’t “cycle through?” In other words, a time when you interrupted the cycle, didn’t repeat the problem behavior?

(If yes)
What did you do to stop the thoughts and not give a “permission statement?”
How did you make yourself do that?
How might you make yourself do it more often?

(If no)
Based on what you know about yourself, what would be the best way to interrupt one of your cycles, once the impulse has happened?
How might you make yourself do that?
What else might help you interrupt a cycle?

Those sound like practical ideas – Would you be willing to try them next time you find a cycle starting, and report back to us?

Complete this process with two or more volunteers, as time allows.

Distribute another One of My Cycles worksheets (page 37). Ask participants to use it to map out how their drug use cycles operated in the past. Encourage them to focus on a specific drug/alcohol use episode that they remember from the past or their most recent drug use episode (relapse).

As before, allow time to complete the worksheets. Be available to guide individual participants who get stuck.

Ask for volunteers to describe the cycle they chose to describe on the second (drug use) worksheet. Use a flip chart or eraser board with a cycle template and fill in and label the parts of cycle as the participant describes them.

Process the worksheet activities with some of the following questions:

What similarities are there between your “bad habit” cycles and your drug using cycles?

What are the differences between the two examples of behavior cycles you recognize in yourself?

Based on what you know about yourself, what works best to help you interrupt a drug cycle once it’s started?

Who can help with this? What would your closest person (friend, spouse, family) advise you based on what they know about you?

How might you remember to do “what works” more often?

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Excerpted from Unlock Your Thinking - Open Your Mind - A collection of materials for leading counseling sessions that address thinking patterns that can hamper behavior change.

http://www.ibr.tcu.edu/_private/manuals/BriefInterventions/BI(05Aug)-mind.pdf