4 Tips for Identifying the Triggers that Cause You to Use
After recovery, it is important to take precautions to prevent potential relapse into your old lifestyle. With the right approaches, you can maintain a healthy new lifestyle free from addiction. How can you identify any of your potential triggers that may cause you to use?
1. Talk through What Has Triggered You in the Past
This can be done with a therapist in order to assess what may be potential risks to you. NIDA acknowledges that this can be an overwhelming process, especially if you have many triggers, so to begin you can start by addressing the triggers that have been the most problematic recently.
Once you accumulate a list of known triggers, you can begin to recognize where they might present themselves in your life and how to avoid that or deal with them.
2. Assess Future Situations
Make a list of specific holidays or anniversaries where you think you’ll be tempted to use.
It’s important to figure out what specific days you may be more susceptible to using, and these high-risk days could be anniversaries of loss, holidays where there is a lot to do, or other similar situations. SAMHSA suggests that you list the days that are possible or sure to occur, as these are the most likely scenarios you will have to face.
Anniversaries and holidays are yearly things, so you know that it is important to develop a plan for these. Other scenarios such as catastrophes or natural disasters are less likely to occur, and if they do then you can use the same plan that you developed for other scenarios.
3. Identify your Moods
There may be specific moods that you slip into that can lead you to use, and it is important to be able to recognize when you are in such a mood and address it. If you tend to use while feeling lonely or sad, then you should learn to recognize any signs of these feelings and find other ways to cope.
You can call a friend or contact your support group so that they can help talk you out of the mood or keep you focused.
4. Move on from People and Places
One of the aspects to recovering from an unhealthy lifestyle is making changes in where you go and who you spend your time with. In order to change your habits and promote overall well-being, this may call for an end to some relationships with people who would just pressure you to use.
It may also mean that you don’t visit your old favorite places, as they can take you back to the state of mind that believes it is okay to use. A new you means new places, and often new friends as well.
If you or a loved one are facing the struggles of addiction and are seeking a path of recovery, simply call 800-487-1890 (Who Answers?) to speak with a caring specialist who can answer any of your questions.
Recovery can be a long and daunting process, but you can turn your life around and give yourself a brighter future with the right support and advice along the way!