Final Assignment Guidelines & Expectations: Abstinence Exercise Paper & Log

This assignment is particularly designed to put course content into practice and for your own
personal experience & awareness. We must walk in the shoes of an addict to grasp a partial
concept of the challenges addicts face while using, being dependent on drugs, and trying to quit
the addiction. This experiment must capture your real struggles, temptations, withdrawals,
relapses, justifications, lies, etc., that comes with trying to quit an addiction of any kind. This
exercise will not make any sense unless you are fully committed to try it and be your most
honest self. Treat this experiment as serious as possible and pick something you have a deep
desire to quit/try/explore/learn to make it much more relevant and challenging enough.

1. This experiment must be: A two-week exercise in which you attempt to give up one of your
   addictions. Examples may include but are not limited to the following:
   Smoking
   Coffee
   Energy drinks (Redbull, Monster, etc)
   Sodas (soft drinks)
   Fast food/Junk food
   Hording on items
   Alcohol
   Marijuana
   Opioids/Pain killers
   Internet use
   Porno addiction
   Cellphone use
   Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and/or other social networks
   Sugar Addiction, eating sweets (candy, ice cream, cookies, cakes, etc.)
   Playing video games (play station)
   Computer games
   Napping/sleeping more than the average 8 hours needed.
   Netflix or other movie channels
   Other addiction not listed here.
2. You will be required to create a log in which you document brief details such as
   positive/negative feelings, thoughts, reactions, temptations, relapses, withdrawals symptoms,
   excuses, and any other details or struggle relevant to your unique case. The log must be clear
   with dates, times, what, when, where, why, etc. Enter brief explanations meant to guide you in
   the process of putting your abstinence paper together. The log must be typed and must not
   exceed more than two pages, preferable one page. Your log doesn’t follow a particular format,
   you can be creative by using a table or anything that works for you and for as long as is clear to
   follow and understand.
   Sample: Day One: On Monday, November 4, at 8:30am, I started my abstinence exercise and
   decided to be fully committed to try quitting my addiction to black coffee. I am so used to
   drinking coffee early in the morning that my usual routine is to gravitate to the kitchen and
   make my first cup of coffee for the day. I usually drink 3 cups of coffee per day… Once I
   remembered that I needed to stay committed to abstaining from it, I started having second
   thoughts & questioning myself if I can really do it. The thought of it alone made me crave coffee
   even more. I saw my mother holding a cup of coffee in her hands and the smell of it was hard to
   ignore. The smell of coffee is so satisfying to me. But I didn’t give in even with the triggers. Later
   in the afternoon, around 1:30pm, I was having an awful, pounding headache, I was wondering if
   my headache had anything to do with me not having my cup of coffee in the morning.
3. Abstinence Exercise Paper: This part of the assignment is the body of your paper. It is meant
   to capture your overall experience in trying to give up your addiction for two full weeks. It is
   typed in essay format. Here you introduce your addiction, you tell me about the impact it has
   had on you so far, the short and long-term health risks involved and if continued, the financial
   cost it has on you, how it affect you emotionally, physically, & mentally, if your addiction affects
   you in your interpersonal relationships with others like family, close friends, at work or school.
   Tell me about the impact your addiction has on your health. Here you also talked about the
   struggles you faced in the process, e.g., withdrawal symptoms, negative/positive emotions,
   relapses if any, justifications, lies, etc. What benefits did you find during the time you quit the
   addiction? Would you consider quitting your addiction in the long-term? What holds you back
   or what are your motivations to stay abstinent from your addiction?
    Four to five pages narrative, plus a title page, plus the log page.
    A reference page will be required only if you use any information from your textbook,
   research articles, websites, etc. References must be cited in APA format.
    The paper is typed in essay format as a narrative of your experience, typed in first-person
   since this is about you.
    Times New Roman, 12-size font, double space, and one-inch margins all around.
   This assignment is 30% of your final grade and it is due on Thursday, May 5, by 6:00pm. Your
   final must be uploaded under the assignments tab as a word document or PDF file. This
   assignment will not be shared in any forums for privacy and confidentiality rights of each
   student.
   Please email me at Cook_Y@heritage.edu or call me at my office: 509-865-8544, cellphone: 760-
   208-8825, if you have any further questions or concerns.