How to Organize Your Thoughts When Addiction Problems Compete for Your Attention

When you’re trying to break free from addiction, it often feels like life’s problems are piling up and competing for your attention. The constant barrage of issues can make it hard to decide where to start or even to justify the effort it takes to solve just one problem. You might think,

“How can I focus on one thing when there are so many others? Solving just one won’t even make a dent!”

This overwhelming feeling is common, but there are practical ways to sort through these problems. By learning how to prioritize, take small steps, and make consistent progress, you can slowly regain control and eventually make headway against the cycle of addiction.

The Power of Small Wins

One way to break through the paralysis of too many problems is by starting small. While tackling a minor issue might seem insignificant, it can trigger a positive shift in your mindset. Successfully solving even a small problem can give you a sense of accomplishment, and over time, these small wins can begin to compound.

When you start solving problems, no matter the size, you’ll begin to believe that you are the type of person who can solve problems. These small victories build momentum, and as they accumulate, they turn into major progress. And as many studies show, experiencing progress in life is essential for improving mental health and counteracting addiction.

Major life progress becomes the antidote to addiction. When your life feels purposeful and you have something meaningful to live for, the desire for addictive behaviors diminishes. Addiction often thrives when life feels stagnant, but when you begin making positive changes, you have something to protect, something that doesn’t mesh with the addiction cycle.

Creating a Long-Term Plan: Collaborative Problem Solving

Another strategy is to organize your problems with a long-term plan. I’ve adapted a method originally designed for children’s behavior problems by child psychologist Ross Greene, called Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS)

Greene’s philosophy is simple:

It’s not that kids do well “when they wanna” – kids do well if they CAN do well.

With that in mind, he encourages adults to list all of a child’s unsolved problems, and then categorize them into three groups: Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.

• Plan A: Problems that require immediate action. These are the issues that you handle unilaterally, often in the heat of the moment.

• Plan B:  These are the key issues you’ll tackle collaboratively. In Greene’s approach, the adult and child work together to solve the problem by sharing concerns and coming up with a mutually agreeable solution.

• Plan C:  Problems that are deprioritized for now. These are still important, but they aren’t causing immediate harm and can be set aside temporarily.

Applying This Model to Addiction

At the Life Process Program, we use a similar approach for adults struggling with addiction. When people come to us, they often have a long list of competing problems. For example, a participant might be battling for child custody, dealing with homelessness, struggling with finances, and caught in a toxic relationship—all while trying to manage an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

This list of problems can feel paralyzing. So, how do you start? The short answer is: Start somewhere.

We help people categorize their issues into Plans A, B, and C:

• Plan A: These are the problems that will continue to arise, and you’ll need to deal with them reactively, just as you have been. These problems are unavoidable right now.

• Plan B: These are the three most important problems to address. These should be issues that, if solved, will have the greatest positive impact on your life. Focus your effort here with actionable steps.

• Plan C: These are problems that can be deprioritized. Yes, they are still important, but if they stay unresolved while other problems are being solved, they won’t cause immediate harm.

 

The Benefits of Categorizing Your Problems

This process of categorizing and prioritizing problems does a few important things:

1. 1. Clarity: When you articulate your problems out loud, it brings clarity. Suddenly, the overwhelming chaos feels more manageable, and you start to see the possibility of solutions. This clarity is essential for anyone trying to break free from addiction, as it shifts the mindset from feeling powerless to feeling capable of change.
   2. Efficient Use of Energy: Instead of jumping from problem to problem, you focus your energy where it matters most. This efficient use of effort allows you to see real progress and prevents the burnout that can come from trying to solve everything all at once.
   3. Momentum and Hope: Perhaps most importantly, solving Plan B problems helps break through the mindset that nothing will ever change. Once people start to see that they can solve problems, they build momentum. And once you begin making progress in life, it creates the conditions necessary to address addiction in a meaningful way.

 

Moving Forward

The key takeaway is that you don’t need to solve every problem at once. The process of categorizing your problems into Plans A, B, and C gives you a structured approach for managing the overwhelming number of competing issues in your life.

It’s not a cure-all, and it won’t fix everything overnight, but it does help you focus your energy where it will make the biggest difference. Once you start organizing your thoughts and acknowledging that your problems are solvable, you can make serious headway—not only in life but in beating addiction as well.

And as the Life Process Program emphasizes, beating addiction is about more than just stopping the behavior. It’s about creating a life that feels worth living—one small victory at a time.