12 Coping Skills & Strategies For Addiction Recovery
We recommend this worksheet as the basis for a group discussion about triggers. Most people who make their way into recovery have left a lot of pain and suffering in their wake. Feeling guilty or ashamed of past behavior or actions during active addiction is natural and healthy.
What Triggers Lead to Relapse?
Balance is key, and recreation helps people achieve a sense of balance in their life instead of feeling overwhelmed. One of the main signs of a developing substance use problem is much time spent on drug or alcohol intake. Recreational activities are healthy means of coping that help replace the time spent on substance use.
What if a Trigger Leads to a Relapse?
A therapist can help you work out complex emotions that may arise as you go through recovery. Your therapist can also teach you tools and strategies for coping with cravings and triggers. For people with past substance use disorder, triggers can be any internal or external stimulus that intensely and often uncontrollably reminds them of using drugs or alcohol. Warren is a Licensed Master Social preventing nicotine poisoning in dogs Worker, who specializes in substance abuse and mental health treatment. Clinically, Warren has developed a therapeutic skillset that utilizes a strengths-based perspective, Twelve Step philosophies, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing. These triggers can vary from person to person, but some common examples include stress, boredom, loneliness, and feeling overwhelmed.
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Let Little Creek Recovery Center guide you down the right path to recovery, personal growth, and long-term sobriety. Memories can also give rise to intrusive thoughts and emotions, which can be triggers themselves. It’s important to recognize when your thoughts are leading in a direction that could make sobriety more difficult. Triggers can be powerful because they are linked to intense emotional needs. They often arise when a person feels a need for acceptance, security, or control.
People or Places Connected to the Addictive Behavior
You may also find yourself feeling short-tempered, on edge, and emotionally unstable. When you are already struggling with regulating emotions, this can feel overwhelming. It’s also important to construct your support network of people you know you can be honest with. These people can help keep you accountable, encourage clindamycin hcl oral your recovery, and share their experiences as well. Surrounding yourself with positive, honest people helps to minimize the triggers you may face and gives you the security that when triggers do occur, there’s someone you can turn to. Mindfulness can take practice, but it can be a valuable tool when handling triggers.
Understanding Triggers
When a person does not know how to cope with these feelings or situations in a healthy way, he or she may use drugs to feel some relief or to escape. Hence the phrase, “drowning our sorrows” – or, taking to the bottle when things get tough. Avoiding triggers is only one part of the puzzle when it comes to addiction and recovery. As we’ve mentioned a few times, it’s important to learn healthy coping mechanisms to help you handle yourself if you happen to encounter one of your triggers while you’re out in the world. Avoiding all of your triggers isn’t always an option, but running into one when you’re going about your daily business doesn’t necessarily have to trigger a relapse. A high-risk situation involves stress that may push a person to want to use drugs or alcohol again.
People in recovery can experience a lot of shame simply for having become addicted in the first place. People in recovery from a substance use disorder frequently have problems meeting work-related responsibilities, maintaining employment, and managing money. If you were active in your addiction for a period of time, you may have developed financial problems. A mental health professional can help you cope with some of the challenges you’ll face on your path to sobriety. Identify what internal triggers — emotions, thoughts, or memories — are liable to trigger cravings.
Fortunately, most of the acute symptoms of withdrawal pass within a week or two of quitting. However, some people who quit an addiction find that certain withdrawal symptoms seem to go on and on. This is known as post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS), and it can continue for weeks, months, or even years in some cases. It is better to set a goal that you will actually achieve than to plan to quit “cold turkey” and end up relapsing, which can be more dangerous than simply continuing without any changes. Once you make that decision to change, however, you can begin the process of preparing to take action. You’ll be glad you did, and we’ll be with you every step of the way.
- However, learning the tools to cope with triggers is possible with the right support.
- However, the word is often used in different ways in different contexts.
- By being aware of your triggers and taking conscious actions to limit your exposure, you can stay on the path of recovery.
- Regardless of the situation, making the decision to be honest will help maintain your sobriety.
- For many experts, the key components of addictive disorder are compulsive drug use that continues despite detrimental consequences, and the development of cravings with the inability to control use.
They allow for emotional expression rather than bottling emotions up. What is most important is identifying your unique triggers and learning to cope with them in a way that is healthy and positive. As someone on a lifelong sobriety journey, I can attest to moments where triggers still pop into my life. Our ability to overcome and stay focused minimizes the impact these triggers can have. A therapist or counselor can help you learn to listen to your mind and body to identify when you’re feeling stressed as well as help you develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Facing triggers — which can be anything that brings up thoughts, memories, or feelings that remind you of past substance use — can be some of the toughest challenges for someone in recovery. Try to focus on the new life you’re building and the changes you’re making. Think about the negative consequences that you experienced while participating in your addiction—the people you hurt and the relationships you lost. You may think you miss your old life when you see these reminders, but remember the pain and hardship your addiction brought you as well.
Some triggers can be especially hard to face, but attempting to ignore them can lead to relapse and more pain. It can be difficult at first, and you’ll likely have some tough truths to face, but over time you’ll learn to show hydrocodone and alcohol yourself some grace and compassion. In addition to being honest with yourself, you should strive to be honest with others. Triggers are dangerous because they can increase the risk of relapse if not appropriately addressed.
Realizing you are capable of doing great things can help decrease high blood pressure, relieve anxiety and depression, ward off chronic pain like headaches and migraines, and lengthen your life, too. A great way to help another addict is to become a sponsor in a 12-step program yourself. The other important aspect of avoiding replacement addictions is to address any underlying mental health problems. Substance use commonly occurs alongside other mental health conditions. Once you are clear on your goal, you may still need to prepare to change. Preparations include removing addictive substances from your home as well as eliminating triggers in your life that may make you more likely to use those substances again.
While it can be disheartening and frustrating, relapse is quite common. However, as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) explains, relapse does not mean that treatment has failed. The chronic nature of addiction means that relapsing is often part of the quitting process. Medications can be utilized to treat symptoms of withdrawal, help people remain in treatment, and prevent relapse.
Additionally, setting boundaries in relationships can help protect against overwhelming emotions that could lead to a relapse. Coping mechanisms are strategies that people use in order to deal with illness, stress, or trauma in their lives. There are different ways to cope, and people can do them consciously and unconsciously. For example, people who feel nervous before a performance may pace back and forth in order to get rid of stage fright. Although these new activities are healthy and productive, they can be a stumbling block to lasting recovery if they become a transfer addiction to fill the void left by the original addiction. Some of the immediate changes you will need to make will be obvious—like not hanging around the people that you used with or obtained drugs from.
Alcohol, drugs, or addictive behaviors may have provided temporary relief from those feelings in the past, but you can’t rely on them anymore. Knowing these triggers and high-risk situations is critical to avoid relapse. Talk to your support system and healthcare providers about your personal triggers and how to manage them.