Action
In the action stage, individuals take concrete steps to modify their problematic behavior. They stop smoking, avoid casinos, remove drug paraphernalia from the house, pour the last beer down the sink, or enter a treatment program to support not using. In short, they implement the plan that they prepared. Action is the stage that requires the greatest commitment of time and energy. Velasquez, Mary M. Group Treatment for Substance Abuse, Second Edition (Page 15-16). The Guilford Press. Kindle Edition.
Tool(s) to Use: ABC #1 and ABC #2, DISARM, Brainstorming, Role Playing, Review CBA, Update Change Plan, HOV. SMART-Recovery. (n.d.). Matching the appropriate SMART RECOVERY® tool with the stages of change. Facilitator Course.
Only a committed, planned, comprehensive effort can break the multidimensional connections in the areas of physiology, cognition, affect, behavior, and environment that constitute an addiction. DiClemente, Carlo C.. Addiction and Change, Second Edition: How Addictions Develop and Addicted People Recover (Guilford Substance Abuse) (p. 212). Guilford Publications. Kindle Edition.
The four main tasks of Action are (1) breaking free of the addiction by utilizing behavioral change processes and the strategies of the plan, (2) continuing commitment, (3) revising the plan in the face of difficulties, and (4) managing neurobiological readjustments, contextual barriers, cravings, temptations, and slips that can provoke relapse. The goal is to establish a new pattern of behavior. All the behavioral processes of change are needed to initiate and sustain the separation from the addiction. Commitment (self-liberation) must be sustained. Counterconditioning, stimulus control, and reinforcement management must be employed.
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Slips—brief episodes of use—are events that interfere with successful Action. Yet slips also create an opportunity to correct defects in the current Action plan. Many Action attempts do not end in successfully maintained change. A full relapse back into the addictive behavior pattern re-cycles the individual to earlier stages of change. The tasks of those earlier stages must be redone or accomplished more fully if the person is to move back into the Action stage. Re-cycling successfully through Action enables the addicted individual to move into Maintenance. This chapter describes the specifics of behavior change needed during this Action stage to continue along the road to recovery.
DiClemente, Carlo C.. Addiction and Change, Second Edition: How Addictions Develop and Addicted People Recover (Guilford Substance Abuse). Guilford Publications. Kindle Edition.