Maintaining sobriety is a day-to-day challenge for those who struggle with addiction. Having an awareness of the triggers you have that might occur on any given day is vital to your recovery. It’s important to understand how you can avoid your triggers or gain the foresight to identify potential triggers before they occur to better prepare yourself. There are many warning signs associated with triggers that you can identify before the trigger arises.
In recovery, triggers are provoked feelings and scenarios that cause cravings. In life, triggers can be emotional or physical. Some triggers are unavoidable; however, coping with them and managing them helps you mitigate their effects. It’s worth noting that if a trigger occurs, that doesn’t mean that you will resume substance use or even be pushed to want to use.
Triggers can sometimes manifest as uncontrollable feelings and emotions, which makes handling them more challenging. Potential examples of uncontrollable physical triggers include your muscles tightening or your stomach flipping. On the other hand, emotional triggers show up in your thoughts and emotions. Due to the mental changes of recovery, your brain may experience unexpected triggers.
You can identify potential triggers before a craving arises by understanding yourself and acknowledging their symptoms. Some types of triggers remind you of the lifestyle you had during your substance use. Your brain activates when scenarios tied to your substance use occur. Many people experience different triggers. Understanding yourself on a deeper level can help you avoid them faster. Some things that may trigger a craving can include:
Everyone’s experience with triggers is not the same. There are still many challenging triggers that don’t appear in the list above. However, that doesn’t make it impossible to avoid cravings and triggers.
You can recognize the trigger before it starts by understanding the situation and your experience. You can identify the approach from an internal or external perspective. Some methods to stifle triggers include recognizing your cravings, reminding yourself that triggers don’t need action, and removing yourself from the experience or situation.
Finding a support system or accountability group is significant for the day-to-day trigger challenges. When you refocus your feelings and emotions on positive actions, you can avoid potential triggers and cravings. Some of the self-driven techniques to avoid triggers are exercising, reading, arts, music, movies, nature, meditation, and attending therapy sessions.
When you partake in positive actions, you refocus your mind to desire support over the trigger itself. Often triggers arise with extreme emotional moments or behaviors related to the previous life experiences from before treatment. When you regulate your approach and focus your therapeutic mindfulness and cognitive intervention, you learn to dismiss and avoid triggers.
In recovery, you maintain internal equilibrium by identifying and addressing different triggers associated with substance use. You also facilitate a heightened sense of self-control and push yourself to cope with negative or triggering thoughts and emotions.
You can train yourself to identify these triggering instances in or after treatment. It is not always easy to recognize the trigger before it occurs. Sometimes they occur out of the blue, and previous habits or thoughts cause the trigger to evolve.
Therefore, it is important to practice your coping mechanisms and to understand what happened and why the trigger occurred to prevent it from happening again. There are learning opportunities from trigger occurrences, and the more practice you have with identifying the triggers, the more opportunities you will have to avoid them.
Treatment helps you find problem-solving strategies to extend your commitment to recovery. However, there will be times when these challenges are difficult to manage on your own. When times like these occur, reaching out to your peers and support network is one of the fastest and most effective ways to help you manage triggers and cravings. You can also focus on hobbies to keep your mind distracted. If you’re willing and ready to manage your triggers and cravings, reach out and talk to your support system when a challenge arises.
There are many personal coping mechanisms to guide you through triggering episodes or scenarios that help you identify and overcome the triggers before they begin. It’s important to remove yourself from these types of scenarios for the better pursuit of a healthier lifestyle. Keep in mind to focus on other factors that may trigger you in the future and communicate with others who are in similar situations.
When you step back and consider your responses to previous triggers and practice methods to avoid them, you are re-engaging with your commitment and making the situation more possible to manage. The more you discover coping strategies and mindfulness exercises that you can use every day, the more help you have to minimize the impact and maximize your control over your triggers. However, identifying your emotional triggers before they begin and avoiding powerful reactions when they occur makes the management of the trigger less difficult. You will find it easier to direct your mindset and navigate tough challenges without extra stress when you focus on core aspects of the trigger. NorthStar Transitions wants you to manage your triggers efficiently, and we can help you spot all the triggers with coping mechanisms and therapeutic approaches during and after treatment. However, if you or someone you know is still struggling with managing your triggers, contact us at (303) 558-6400.
