I think Sea Monkey had a great idea in his last comment: a dinner reward! So how many of you pullers out there have tried the reward system? It was one of the first behavioral interventions that was tried when I first went into counseling. I think I got 20 points per day, and if I pulled, I lost points (that way if you don’t pull you get a bigger reward faster). The points would then add up so that I could get something I wanted, like a pet hamster, a trip for ice cream, etc. Different rewards were different point amounts. Maybe the hamster (which I REALLY wanted) was 500 points and a trip for ice cream was 50 points. It worked for a while, but then, since no one was really holding me accountable, I just started fudging the results so I could get my rewards faster.
I tried this technique again when I began trying to grow my hair out for my wedding. Again, it worked for a while, and then I got lazy again. This seems to be how it goes for most any of these behavioral interventions: they are hard work -> I get tired & lazy -> I become my own worst enemy. It really helps when you have someone checking in and holding you accountable. It works the same way as weight loss, I guess, where you tend to do better if you have a workout buddy or someone you chat with every day to talk about what exercize you did. The other problem with doing the points with my husband was that we went out to dinner a lot for special things anyway. So trying to earn them became kind of redundant.
So what kind of behavioral modification programs have you tried? Has anything worked really well for you? Was anything a total flop? Please share. Or ask me questions if you want to know more about what I’ve tried.
Today was a rough day pulling wise. The weather is bad but I opted to come to work anyway. I know the ride home is going to be slippery so I’ve been keyed up about that. I’m also low on sleep which never helps with resisting urges. But, because of the Sea Monkey comment, I now have a reminder about why I need to keep resisting those urges. Seeing as my head itches like crazy again today (in a different location), it is proving very difficult!
