People who struggle with addiction often wrestle with certain ‘triggers’ which make it more likely they will engage in using substances. These triggers may be understood as points of vulnerability in the war against relapse. Triggers are anything that make a person want to use again, including emotions, feelings, thoughts, places, and even people. Recognizing these triggers may save a person from relapse, and it may even save their life.
Common Triggers
To help people better understand and make sense of their own triggers, there are five common relapse triggers to know and how to manage them:- How to manage stress: when asked, the majority of people with addiction feel as though they are under lots of stress. The world we live in and the stress people have is universal, but there is a certain amount people in recovery experience in their bodies, minds, and spirits after dealing with addiction and recovery. To cope with pressure in a new way is challenging in the sense of staying sober and present. The key is learning to focus on what is under a person’s control and what is beyond control. Understanding stress can calm a person’s anxiety so they can focus
- People or places associated with addiction: social contact with people who use substances is a challenge. They could be old drinking buddies, friends with whom a person did substances, or those who used to go out on weekends socializing. It is hard to hang around people in early recovery who remind them of what they used to do. Sometimes these people show up unexpectedly or on the street just walking to work or an event. It helps to think ahead, plan, and have a response. Even at the risk of offending people they are with, it helps to avoid embarrassment if it means avoiding relapse.
- Difficult emotions: people with addictive behaviors have a pattern of using substances to disconnect from everything. Though it may help to cope, they drift further from real self-awareness when they don’t allow their feelings to be felt. Learning to encounter the feelings without numbing can be liberating. Feelings are important parts of being human but learning to cope with those that are hardest is one of the more difficult parts of feeling everything without it being clouded by substances.
- Happy times: there were good times with friends, even family, when under the influence. It may be hard to go to special events like parties or holiday events without being triggered to want to use. Perhaps others are also using. It is easy to become overconfident and think it is manageable. A good safeguard against relapse is to have someone to keep a person accountable handy or right there in the room. It is possible to have a good time and stay sober, with some preplanning and extra work.
Steps in the Right Direction offers structured, gender-specific sober living in the San Fernando Valley, with pet-friendly homes for women in Northridge and men in Winnetka. For more information, call (818) 231-1400.
Looking for a safe, structured place to live while you rebuild? Steps in the Right Direction offers gender-specific sober living in the San Fernando Valley: Aura House for women in Northridge and Arminta House for men in Winnetka. Both homes are pet friendly. Call (818) 231-1400 or apply online.
About the author: Linda Butler
Founder, Steps in the Right Direction
Linda Butler founded Steps in the Right Direction in the spring of 2000 and has spent more than 25 years helping women and men find lasting recovery through structured, pet-friendly sober living in the San Fernando Valley. Learn more about Linda.