When the substance addicted individual begins associating certain activities with the euphoric feeling of the substance induced state, a cognitive sensitization takes place. Here is an example. Let’s say there is a group of friends that enjoy going fishing every Saturday morning. Someone always brings a cooler full of cold beer. They enjoy sitting on their boat on the lake, drinking beer and fishing. A mind that is predisposed to addiction might start to associate cold beer and fishing. This can become very powerful. They might say something like “We can’t go fishing without a cooler of beer.” The trip could be delayed while someone rushes off to get the beer. We call this sensitization. The mind has become sensitized to that particular association which can be extremely difficult to break. The substance addicted mind can form many of these associations in all areas of life. The process of desensitization is simply learning to do certain specific activities again without using the substance. One activity at a time. One event at a time. This will become one of the main focuses of recovery. Keeping your disease of addiction in remission while slowly and methodically desensitizing your drug or alcohol using associations.