Riding the Craving

A craving feels like a rising tide that will only get worse until you give in. But urges actually behave like waves — they build, peak, and fall, usually within minutes, whether or not you act on them. 'Urge surfing' means riding the wave instead of fighting it or drowning in it. For impulsive, novelty-hungry brains, having a plan ready beats trying to think clearly mid-craving.

My craving wave

What does an urge feel like as it builds in you?

How a craving shows up and builds for me

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Roughly how long until my cravings usually peak and start to fade

Rate from 0 (Minutes) to 3 (An hour+): ____

Ride it out

In the moment

• Name it: 'this is a craving — it will pass'
• Set a timer and delay (even 10 minutes)
• Change my surroundings — leave the cue
• Do something with my hands or body
• Ride the wave: notice it rise and fall without acting

My go-to moves to outlast a wave

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If-then for my risky moments

Link your highest-risk cues to a planned move, so it's automatic.

Example: 'If it's late and I'm alone and bored, then I'll put my headphones on and walk to the end of the street before deciding.'

My if-then plans for my risky times

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Lower the cues

What I can move, delete, block, or get out of the house to make the cue harder to hit

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Each wave you ride teaches your brain: Every craving you outlast — even sometimes — weakens the loop a little. You don't have to win every time for it to count. Slips are information, not proof you've failed.

Go deeper

Ready for more? These lessons pick up where this worksheet leaves off.

• Building Your Personal Regulation Toolkit, from The Neurodivergent Brain. The capstone: build a personal regulation plan around your wiring — name your state, match tools to it, catch overload early, design your space.
• Systems, Habits, and Self-Compassion, from The Adult ADHD Course. How to make self-compassion the engine that keeps your habits and systems running.
• BIS-11 — Impulsiveness, Measured Three Ways, from ADHD Self-Discovery. What the BIS-11 asks, why three of its six subscales read backwards, where the 72 cut-off came from, and what a high score cannot say.