What Are the Most Common Relapse Triggers?

In a moment’s time, you may feel overwhelmed and simply unable to pull yourself together. When you’re once again exposed to those things, during your recovery and after detox, the brain brings back that association with drug use. It is essential to find physically and mentally engaging activities to help distract from addictive behaviors and keep individuals motivated in their recovery journey. At the same time, journaling can provide a safe space to document emotions, thoughts, and feelings surrounding the trigger to gain better insight into the triggers themselves. Behavioral triggers are activities and habits that can lead to relapse in recovery. These triggers can involve certain behaviors, such as going to a bar or club or even boredom.

External triggers often happen in situations you can remove yourself from, but that doesn’t make them any less difficult to deal with, nor is it always the case. Triggers are a normal part of addiction recovery, internal and external triggers but if left unchecked they can lead to a relapse. As a recovering addict or alcoholic, identifying what some of your triggers are and preparing to deal with them can help maintain long-term sobriety.

What Causes Triggers?

External triggers can be very powerful and sometimes, you may not be able to dissociate certain things with your past substance abuse. As a result, when you are confronted with those things, you may experience a very strong desire to drink or get high again. How far along someone is in their recovery, how stable they feel emotionally, and how strongly the trigger affects them should all be considered when deciding how to respond. When stressed and not letting out your bottled up emotions, this can develop many different mental health issues. Bottling up emotions is usually a sign that your worried people will see through your happy and carefree exterior. Keeping up with this persona will lead to stress and anxiety, which could eventually lead to abusing again.

It may be an essential oil (smell), a smooth stone (touch), or a favorite song (sound). Any of these can serve as a grounding for you when you feel your panic start to rise. The natural instinct when we’re experiencing a traumatic memory is to run. When we do this in the middle of a traumatic trigger, we don’t learn to make it through.

Making a Relapse Prevention Plan

Stepping outside to take a walk or do other activities may also help you relax. A massage is another great way if you have somebody https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/sober-life/ to assist you with it. Try a warm drink that does not have alcohol or caffeine in it like warm milk or herbal tea.

Visiting with a friend or loved one, going to a support group meeting, or even getting out and going to a coffee shop, can help you when you’re feeling isolated from the world. It is important to note the difference between a trigger and a craving. A craving is a physical feeling of want for drugs, alcohol, or any other thing a person was addicted to. When a craving happens there is a mental, and often physical, urge to start using again. It can remind you of your wedding day, when you went through a bad breakup, or a party you went to in college.

Falling Back Into a Crowd with Those Who Abuse Substances

Rather, what’s dangerous is that by doing them “for just a second,” we’re likely to do things we later regret, like getting off track for half an hour or getting into a car accident. If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at Internal triggers can occur for many reasons, or no reason at all.

By eliminating these people from the post-addiction life of recovery, many people are able to minimize the chance of relapsing due to associating with those who still use. A whiff of cigarette smoke, watching people sip cocktails in a bar or restaurant, or a couple locked in an erotic embrace are reminders that seem to be everywhere in the early stages of quitting. These, and countless other things, are prime examples of external triggers, and they are going to be largely unavoidable. For those struggling with substance abuse and addiction, it isn’t uncommon for the affected person to return to alcohol or drug use.