Distracting from your pain certainly doesn’t treat the underlying issues, but sometimes that’s the best thing to do. This article is about learning healthy avoidance and practicing some grounding techniques. It’s okay to avoid the pain as much as you can sometimes.

Sure, avoiding pain every time it comes up isn’t a good long-term solution, but as long as you use that time and space well, you’re on the right track. In the model of the Current of Addiction, I view this as still being caught in the current, but taking a second to catch our breath.

We’re still avoiding pain and going for pleasure, but with the goal of giving ourselves a momentary pause, and regrouping so we can eventually reach the shore later on. As you take care of the underlying pain, and also learn to tolerate your feelings, you won’t need to do this nearly as often. But we can’t expect ourselves to always be able to handle our emotions, and distraction is just fine to use when you really need it.

Later, when you can get your current to slow down, you won’t need to catch your breath as much. Healthy avoidance is when we avoid certain feelings or behaviors out of maturity and wisdom, knowing that it can give us much-needed relief in our worst moments.

Practicing Grounding Techniques to Interrupt Your Addiction

Pardon me if you don’t like curse words, but in this article we’re trying to help with when you get to the “f*ck it” stage. I use that term because so many patients put it that way and have no better words to describe what it feels like just before they get overwhelmed by their cravings and can’t help but go for their addiction.

That’s the moment when your emotional pain is too much for you to tolerate, and you follow through with the quick or convenient false pleasure of addiction. It’s in that moment of being in the current that you need immediate and quick tools to tolerate the storm of addiction.

Breathing techniques and meditation are also good tools, but can be harder to do when we’re in this stage.

What are Grounding Techniques?

Grounding techniques are skills we can train ourselves to use that bring us out of an overwhelming moment of addiction and back to the here-and-now, present moment. You can do this just before you get up for a drink or before you cook up a shot, or even interrupt yourself while you’re in the middle of drinking or eating or taking hits.

There are thousands of ways to do this. We’ll review some of the tools that people find the most helpful, but feel free to explore them on the internet or even make up your own. There’s no way we can go through all the different methods to distract your mind, but I hope this gives you some ideas.

Examples of Grounding Techniques: Using Your Senses for Distraction

First, we’ll go over a handful of grounding techniques that try to capture our senses as strongly as possible. These are all things you can either do in public or, if you need some privacy, go to an empty hall or bathroom or car. 

If you’ve been sneaky enough to hide your addiction, you can be sneaky enough to find somewhere to practice these.

1. Touch

Our sense of touch takes up a huge part of the brain, and it’s a great way to stop a bad pattern going on in your mind. The inside of our arms has a huge number of receptors. 

Try gently stroking your own arm, just like you’d want a mate to do for you. You can also do this with your eyebrow. 

If you’re with an animal or your own child, you can pet them, and if you’re with someone you love and it’s appropriate, ask them to caress or hold you. Other ideas for our sense of touch are things like showering or, even quicker and easier, running warm water over your hands.

2. Smell

The next method is using a scent, like an oil or lotion. Our sense of smell is really powerful because the part of our brain that’s used for smell sits right next to the part of our brain that feels emotion. 

Animals need a good sense of smell for basic things like detecting predators, sensing hormones from potential mates, and knowing which foods are good or bad to eat. That’s why, for most people, smells are more memorable than sights or sounds.

You can get a small bottle of oil from special shops or grocery stores. Test a few samples so you can find a calming scent. Choose something small enough to carry. You can smell it from the bottle or put a dab on your wrist or neck. Slow your breath while you take it in.

3. Candle or Flame

The next trick is using a candle. Don’t do this if you use flames or lighters for drugs and know it may trigger you. If that’s not an issue, you can light the candle and take in the calming nature of the flame. 

Flames are mesmerizing because they’re unpredictable, with a gentle ebb and flow. Fire captures attention. It can also help you be still for a bit if you watch a small candle until it burns out. You could also use a lighter if you want something more portable.

4. Walking

Walking is another grounding technique. You can walk around inside or, preferably, outside. As you walk, notice every part of your body as it moves: toes and feet touching the ground, calves pushing off, hips swaying. 

Notice your breath, shoulders, and arms moving with your steps. You can even dance or jump to see how your body changes. Feel the impact with the ground and notice what your body senses.

5. Taking in Your Surroundings

Observe your surroundings and notice everything – colors, textures, movement. Pretend it’s the first time you’ve seen these objects. Notice things you never have before. Touch things – are they smooth or soft? Notice how colors shift with light and shadow.

Listen for sounds: the AC, cars outside, the hum of appliances, the TV, a pet’s breathing, a clock.

If outside, watch leaves rustle, branches sway. Follow a branch toward the trunk – how far until it stops moving? Look closely at flowers. Rub a petal, notice the moisture, smell it. Notice sidewalk cracks, rocks in the concrete, grass, bugs. Follow a bird or squirrel. Watch clouds change shape. There are endless things to observe that keep your mind occupied and away from addiction.

6. Imagination

Imagination can interrupt addictive urges, though it may not work as well as other techniques. You can mentally go anywhere, but if you’re stuck in your head, it’s hard to think your way out.

Practice by daydreaming about anything unrelated to addiction – maybe walking through a place and noticing everything as you would during a real walk. Be creative: fly, walk through walls, enter rooms you’ve dreamed of. Listen to imagined conversations. Let your mind go wherever it’s entertained enough to forget about addiction briefly.

7. Music

Music is another grounding technique. Have several songs or albums ready that match your moods – something soft for slow moments, something fast or loud for high-energy moments.

Don’t choose music you associate with addiction, as it may trigger you. Pick music that’s inspirational or connected to happy memories. Notice the lyrics, identify instruments, imagine the musicians, and pay attention to how the music makes you feel.

8. Ice

Ice is a very powerful grounding technique. You can watch it melt, which forces stillness, or you can hold it for a strong physical sensation. This can help if you tend to self-harm with burning or cutting, because it hurts without causing damage when held briefly. Squeezing ice gets your full attention and helps when you need something physical to do or have excess energy. 

Some people combine salt with ice. Please never do that. It can cause serious injury. It’s OK to seek the pain of cold, but not OK to damage your body. You deserve better.

9. Pocket Objects

Keeping objects in your pocket can help reconnect you with your values or memories. Choose anything portable that taps your senses or brings comfort: a rock, jewelry, a baseball card, a toy, a picture, a seed, a bit of soil from a special place. Get creative.

If you tend to pause and think before acting on addiction, having an object like this can help you draw on your values and make better choices.

More Types of Grounding Techniques: Occupying Your Mind

Now we’ll go over more ways of interrupting your mind when you’re either already starting your addictive behavior, or about to. Here we’re not necessarily trying to capture senses, but just our thoughts. We can do this by using tasks that require so much thought and concentration, that we have to drop our attention from the pain.

10. Grounding With Numbers

The first way is using numbers. Try counting down from 100, subtracting 7 each time (100 → 93 → 86 → 79…).
Or look around the room and guess how much things weigh, guess their cost and rank them, count how many items you see, estimate how old each item is, or even count the hairs on your arm or leg.

You can also count up from 1 as slowly or quickly as you want.
Another idea is to replace every number that’s a multiple of 5 with a funny word (like pickle): 1, 2, 3, 4, pickle, 6, 7, 8, 9, pickle…

11. Grounding With Words

The next way is by using words.
Pick a random funny word (like pickle) and say it 100 times. If you finish and still need distraction, choose a new word and repeat.

You can also try saying the alphabet backwards as another form of mental engagement.

12. Grounding With Art

Another idea is to use art. Keep a pen and pad with you so you can draw anytime you need to interrupt your mind. Many people create beautiful drawings during these moments.

You can make one detailed drawing, or draw something simple repeatedly. Try not to overthink what to draw – just let your hand keep moving.

13. Grounding With Categories

Playing with categories in your mind is another powerful technique.
Pick a category – cities, types of dogs, trees, insects, foods, anything – and list as many items as you can.

For example, if the category is animals: elephant, dog, cat, rhinoceros, horse… Or pick a letter and think of as many words as possible starting with that letter.

14. Grounding With Steps in a Process

The last way is by thinking about steps in a process. Choose any activity and mentally walk through every single step, as if you were writing a guide. This could be cooking, a sport, building something, or any routine task.

For example, the steps involved in running might be: get good sleep the night before → eat an hour before → drink water → put on your shoes → drive to the trail… and so on.

Final Thoughts

There are endless possibilities, so be creative. The grounding techniques that use your senses are good to practice even when you feel okay.

But the techniques above – the mind-occupying ones – don’t need to be practiced during calm moments. They can get boring when you’re relaxed.

Use these when your mind feels overwhelmed and you need a quick, healthy distraction.

Becoming Your Own Soother: Using Grounding Techniques for Self-Calming

The critical part of any of these techniques is to imagine that you are soothing yourself. Notice that the nurturing, calming, and caring part of you – even if it’s only 1% in that moment – is comforting the overwhelmed and hurting part of you.

Recognize how you care for yourself, how you are your own guardian, protector, and caretaker. Stay with that caring part as you soothe. It’s not a doctor, medication, therapist, or friend doing it – it’s YOU caring for yourself.

This is self-care, which is really self-love and self-acceptance. Over time, this can transform your ability to self-soothe and deepen your confidence in your own resilience. Don’t picture an outside “fixer.” Think of it as one part of you helping another part of you that is distressed.

How This Changes Your Brain

This practice literally builds new pathways for self-soothing, interrupting old cycles of painful thoughts, traumas and emotions.

People often say, “I’ve tried that, it doesn’t work,” or “that won’t help,” but this misunderstands the science – and underestimates their own brain. These techniques do work, but they require repetition, just like any learned skill.

Think of it like practicing basketball free throws. If you only shoot when the game is on the line, you won’t be very good at it. You’d practice hundreds of times beforehand so you’re ready when it matters.

Many patients who once believed grounding “didn’t work” eventually realized they simply hadn’t practiced consistently. Every time you do this, you’re laying down new nerve fibers – strengthening the calming pathways in your brain. That process is guaranteed. It’s universal. That’s how neuroplasticity works for every human brain.

Why Repetition Matters in Grounding Techniques

Repetition 100% changes the brain, and it happens faster with focused, consistent practice.
If you only try grounding techniques when you’re extremely overwhelmed, you’re not giving your brain the chance to learn them. The more you practice during calm, relaxed times, the quicker and more effective these grounding techniques will be when it’s addiction time.

Keep practicing, and your brain will reward you. Your ability to self-soothe will grow stronger and more automatic over time.

Discover the Self Recovery Full Program

If you’ve connected with the idea of becoming your own soother, I created the Self Recovery program to expand these tools into a complete, structured path for healing. The full program is designed to help you understand why your mind reacts the way it does, how addictive patterns form, and how to build the internal strength and clarity needed to break free from them.

Just like the practices you’ve learned here, the full Self Recovery Program is built on the belief that you are the one with the power to change your life. The tools, lessons, and strategies simply help you uncover the strength you already have.

If you’re ready for a deeper, more structured journey toward healing, resilience, and true self-understanding, the Self Recovery Program is here to guide you every step of the way.