Coping with Cravings Worksheet: Build a Personal Plan for the Moment an Urge Hits
A coping with cravings worksheet helps you prepare for urges to use alcohol or drugs. Write down distractions, coping skills, and support contacts before an urge becomes hard to manage.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
About this tool
A coping with cravings worksheet helps you prepare a practical response to urges to use alcohol or drugs. It gives you a place to name triggers, choose coping actions, and record support contacts while you can think through your options. A craving can feel urgent, but feeling an urge does not require acting on it. Urges can rise and fall, and their duration varies. Use the plan to respond to what is happening rather than waiting for a guaranteed deadline when the feeling should end.
Several strategies can give you options when a craving appears. Delay: pause before acting and use that pause to start a coping action. Distract: choose an absorbing activity that fits your setting. Cope: try a grounding skill or address a need identified by a HALT Check-In. Reach out: tell a trusted person what is happening and ask for specific help. Recall: read your reasons for change. If a situation puts you at risk of using, leaving it may be more useful than staying to test your coping skills.
Practicing a different response gives you an opportunity to learn which actions are usable in your own circumstances. It does not guarantee that the next urge will be weaker, and recurring cravings do not erase previous effort. The goal of this worksheet is to have your personal actions written down in advance. After an urge, note what you tried, what got in the way, and what support you would want available next time. Bring these observations to a clinician if the plan is hard to use.
This approach draws on G. Alan Marlatt's relapse prevention work, which examines high-risk situations and coping responses. Bowen, Chawla, and Marlatt later described mindfulness-based relapse prevention, including observing urges without automatically acting on them. The Urge Surfing Worksheet offers a related reflection exercise. Miller and Rollnick's motivational interviewing work informs the emphasis on personal reasons for change. These are approaches used within broader care; a completed worksheet is not equivalent to participating in a treatment program or evidence that substance use will change.
There is no score to interpret here. What matters is whether the plan you write down actually matches how a craving shows up for you: where you feel it, what usually triggers it, and which actions (delay, distract, cope, reach out, recall) you could realistically use when support is harder to reach A common mistake is writing a generic plan with vague coping skills and no specific names or numbers under 'people I can contact.' A plan you have to think hard about under pressure is a plan you probably will not use, so be as concrete as you can.
If cravings are frequent, intense, or leading to use despite your best efforts with a plan like this one, that is a sign to bring in more support rather than a sign the plan failed. A therapist who specializes in addiction and recovery can help you build on these skills and address what is driving the urge, and you can search a directory of therapists at Psychology.com's therapist directory. If a craving ever comes with thoughts of harming yourself, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text at any hour.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommends recognizing triggers, avoiding risky situations when possible, and planning coping strategies for urges to drink. Its planning guidance also notes that recalling an urge can itself trigger an urge. Keep descriptions brief if detailed memories make the exercise harder. Your written plan should help you take a practical next step, such as leaving a setting or contacting support, rather than requiring you to stay absorbed in the craving.
In a randomized clinical trial by Bowen and colleagues, mindfulness-based relapse prevention and standard relapse prevention showed benefits over usual aftercare on some substance-use outcomes. Results differed by outcome and follow-up point. Participants received structured care after initial treatment, so those findings cannot establish the effectiveness of this standalone worksheet. Use the page as a preparation and discussion aid alongside the level of care appropriate to your situation.
Make the contact section usable by checking whether the person is willing to help and how to reach them. A possible request is, 'I am having an urge to use. Can you stay on the phone while I leave this situation?' Decide what you will do if they cannot answer. You might contact another agreed support or move to a safer setting. Avoid making the entire plan depend on someone who has not agreed to be available.
Cravings and withdrawal require different responses. Stopping alcohol suddenly after prolonged heavy use can cause dangerous withdrawal, so ask a health care professional about a safe plan before making an abrupt change. This worksheet cannot assess withdrawal risk or provide detoxification care. If symptoms are severe or you believe you are having a medical emergency, seek emergency care rather than trying to manage them with distraction or breathing alone.
Use the Addiction Recovery Worksheets library to explore related planning tools. The Relapse Prevention Plan Worksheet can connect your immediate coping actions with warning signs and longer-term support. The Drug Addiction Test offers screening for concerns about drug use; a result cannot diagnose a disorder or decide what care you need. If a strategy repeatedly proves impractical, bring that information to your care provider so the plan can change with your needs.
References
- Marlatt GA, Donovan DM. Relapse Prevention: Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors. 2nd ed. Guilford Press; 2005.
- Bowen S, Chawla N, Marlatt GA. Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors. Guilford Press; 2011.
- Miller WR, Rollnick S. Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change. 3rd ed. Guilford Press; 2013.
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. How to Stop Alcohol Cravings. Rethinking Drinking. https://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/tools/worksheets-more/how-stop-alcohol-cravings
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Handling Urges to Drink: Plan Your Strategies. https://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/tools/worksheets-more/handling-urges-drink/plan-your-strategies
- Bowen S, et al. Relative efficacy of mindfulness-based relapse prevention, standard relapse prevention, and treatment as usual for substance use disorders: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24647726/
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Should You Cut Down or Quit? https://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/thinking-about-change/cut-down-or-quit
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 16). Coping with Cravings Worksheet. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tools/coping-with-cravings
Coping with Cravings Worksheet FAQ
How long do cravings last?
Cravings vary in duration and can return when a trigger is still present or appears again. There is no time limit that everyone should expect. Focus on actions you can take while the urge changes: leave a risky setting, use an absorbing activity, or contact support. Seek professional help when urges remain difficult to manage or lead to use despite your plan.
What is the best way to cope with a craving?
A useful response depends on your triggers, surroundings, and available support. Try pausing before acting, moving away from an avoidable trigger, choosing a practical distraction, and contacting someone who has agreed to help. Keep your reasons for change accessible. If the urge stays strong, use your backup plan or seek additional support instead of assuming you must manage it alone.
Why prepare a craving plan in advance?
Preparing while calm lets you check that your coping actions are practical and your contacts are available. Write down what you will do, where you can go, and whom you can reach if your usual support is unavailable. When an urge arrives, you can follow those concrete steps and revise the plan afterward based on what happened.
Is my information saved?
No. Everything stays in your browser and nothing is uploaded. The PDF is created on your own device.
Is this worksheet only for drugs and alcohol?
The worksheet is designed around substance-use cravings. Its planning format may also help you reflect on urges such as gambling or compulsive scrolling, but that does not establish that the same strategies work for every problem. Food-related urges need particular care: hunger and nutritional needs should not be treated as something to suppress. Seek appropriate support if eating or another behavior is causing distress.
How is this different from urge surfing?
Urge surfing is one coping skill you can use inside this worksheet, noticing a craving like a wave you ride out rather than fight. This worksheet is the fuller plan around it: naming your craving, choosing distractions, listing people to contact, and writing down why you are doing this, so urge surfing is one tool among several.
How do I identify my triggers?
Look back over your last few cravings and write down, for each one, where you were, who you were with, what time it was, how you felt just before, and what you had been doing. Patterns usually appear within a week: certain people, places, moods such as boredom, anger, or loneliness, and routines such as payday or the drive home. Sort them into triggers you can avoid for now and triggers you have to face, then attach one coping action from this worksheet to each unavoidable trigger.