Pros & Cons

Use pros & cons whenever you have to decide between two courses of action:

An urge is a crisis when it is very strong and when acting on the urge will make things worse in the long term.
Make a list of the pros and cons of acting on your crisis urges. These might be to engage in dangerous, addictive, or harmful behaviors, or they might be to give in, give up, or avoid doing what is necessary to build a life you want to live.
Make another list of the pros and cons of resisting crisis urges – tolerating the distress and not giving in to your urges.
Use the grid below to evaluate both sets of pros and cons.

Describe the urge you are experiencing or problem behavior you are trying to stop:

	PROS	CONS
Acting on crisis urges	Pros of acting on impulsive urges, giving in, giving up, or avoiding what needs to be done:	Cons of acting on impulsive urges, giving in, giving up, or avoiding what needs to be done:
Resisting crisis urges	Pros of resisting impulsive urges, doing what needs to be done, and not giving up:	Cons of resisting impulsive urges, doing what needs to be done, and not giving up: