The emotions that may act as internal triggers are negative feelings, positive feelings, and frustration feelings. Therefore, it is very important to have a plan of action when such feelings occur. The key to suppressing these feelings is being aware of the internal triggers and the ability to seek support whenever needed.

For example, you may drive past a bar you used to frequent and suddenly get the urge to drink again. Or, you might see an advertisement that makes you want to get drunk with your old friends. Internal triggers are thoughts or emotions that make you want to use drugs or alcohol. For example, you may feel a lot of anger when you run into your ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend at the store, which may make you want to drink. Or, when you’re out having fun with your friends, you may feel confident and in control, so you may permit yourself to smoke marijuana because you convince yourself that you deserve it.

Trigger Management: Healthy Coping Skills

However, this might not work for all of your friends, stay resilient, and refuse to give in. Some people won’t understand the importance of living sober, regardless. Coping skills are techniques you use during the moment to deal with a stressful or difficult situation. Coping skills may not solve long-term problems, but they’ll assist with your deal with painful experiences, thoughts, or triggers that happen throughout the day. Nutrition is essential to the recovery process not only to feel better but to avoid further damage to your body.

Feelings of anxiety or depression can also act as internal triggers and cause poor decision-making as someone attempts to feel normal again. It is important to practice self-care by engaging in healthy activities such as exercise and meditation to reduce the risk of relapse due to emotional addiction triggers. Building a solid support system with friends and family who understand your recovery journey is also beneficial. Triggers are social, environmental or emotional situations that remind people in recovery of their past drug or alcohol use.

Negative Emotions

This ongoing fight increases their vulnerability to cravings, which may result in a potential relapse. It’s important for people in recovery to be aware of the internal triggers they struggle with the most and have a plan in place to seek support when needed. Friends and family may not understand the consequences of negative behaviors toward people in recovery.

These may include shutting family off, denying issues or justifying substance use. Healthier practices need to replace these negative internal processes in order to help people succeed in their path to a substance-free life. Managing your relapse triggers is a process that takes time and a skill that you will develop and strengthen with practice.

Seek Help for Addiction Triggers from FHE Health

This will not only help sober people stay sober; it will also educate those who don’t fully understand the disease of addiction. Triggers are a normal part of addiction recovery, 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.

• These routines may have included specific people, places or experiences.
• People who feel them may seek to return to their habits as a way to escape their feelings.
• If you are starting to consider relapse, you may find that you are exposing yourself to possible triggers, even subconsciously.

Common examples include childhood abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Memories are often involuntary, being sparked by sights, sounds, or smells. People who feel them may seek to return to their habits as a way to escape their feelings. Physical relapse may also occur when the individual thinks they won’t get caught. It’s essential to have strategies in place and recognise when one is in a vulnerable situation in order to avoid physically using again.

How to Identify Triggers Before You Relapse

This can lead to you, as the storyteller, to get more out of the person listening if the external triggers are exhibited correctly (pre-story, during the story, and post story). What are internal and external triggers and how can they help you hook more customers for your product or service? https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcohol-allergies-symptoms-and-signs/ Good, we have a question, but before we get to the answer we must understand the concept of getting people HOOKED onto something. Learning to cope with the stresses of daily living without turning to alcohol or drugs is not easy for someone who has repeatedly used these substances.

While hungry, stay focused, and sustain going back to destructive habits or negative people. Find something wholesome and nutritional to eat with a good friend or loved one. Remind yourself not just to eat regularly, but to eat tasty nutritional meals.

People may be one of the more easily-avoided external triggers, mainly if they are people that used to be involved in substance use with the individual. 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. For those struggling with substance abuse and addiction, it isn’t uncommon for the affected person to return to alcohol or drug use.

About 40-60% of those struggling with addiction relapse following treatment. An internal trigger is something going on inside our minds or bodies that promotes the urge to relapse. Whereas external triggers are defined as people, places and things; internal triggers generally fall under hunger, anger, loneliness or fatigue. internal and external triggers Substance addiction relapse occurs in 3 distinct stages or phases – the emotional stage, then the mental stage, and finally, the physical stage. Contrary to what you may think or have heard, relapse is far from quick – it is a slow process, where the individual goes through each stage, as opposed to a rapid event.