Relapse Risk Factors: Recognizing Internal and External Triggers

Your mood may have been down for days, even though you’ve taken care to watch for triggers and keep up with treatments. When you are exposed to a potential trigger, the cravings will pass within a few hours if you resist the urge to relapse. Having a plan to get through times when your cravings are triggered https://ecosoberhouse.com/ will be very helpful in avoiding a relapse. Both types of triggers present unique challenges that can derail a recovery process. Understanding how these triggers affect you is vital to avoid potential relapse. There are two main types of triggers that can start someone towards the path of relapse.

• Negative emotions like sadness, depression, guilt, loneliness, and anger can all be potential triggers for relapse.
• Second, recovery is a process of personal growth with developmental milestones.
• Cognitive therapy is one of the main tools for changing people’s negative thinking and developing healthy coping skills [9,10].
• They offer a sense of belonging and understanding, often missing from other social circles.
• You might be surprised how quickly your resolve and good intentions disappear once the party’s started.

Negative self-focus

The Recovery Village has a strong record of helping people with substance use disorders to achieve recovery. Reach out to one of our understanding team members today to learn how you can start on your path to recovery. A study from Marquette University pointed out that stress rendered people in recovery more vulnerable to other relapse triggers. Researchers followed the cocaine use patterns of stressed and unstressed rats and used a low dose of cocaine as a trigger. The stressed rats’ responses to the trigger mirrored those of people during relapse.

Relapse Prevention Strategies and Techniques for Addiction

Understanding relapse, triggers, and treatment are important steps toward relapse prevention. Long-term drug use creates an association in the brain between daily routines and drug experiences. Individuals may suffer from uncontrollable drug or alcohol cravings when types of relapse triggers exposed to certain cues. The cravings act as a reflex to external or internal triggers, and this response can even affect individuals who have abstained from drugs or alcohol for a long time. When it comes down to situations, everyone handles adversity differently.

Social Pressure

• Talking through the trigger and enlisting someone else’s help can provide you with the motivation and assistance needed to overcome the trigger and stay sober.
• Having people to relate to and share your story with can make all the difference.
• Self-care helps minimize stress—important because the experience of stress often encourages those in recovery to glamorize past substance use and think about it longingly.
• Firstly, it is a good idea to avoid people and places that remind you of or expose you to substance use.
• There are multiple reminders of substance use in a former drug user’s life, including people, places and things.
• Explain to yourself that you recognize the trigger, you’re taking steps to remove yourself from the situation and you don’t allow the trigger to have any power over you.

As clients feel more comfortable, they may choose to expand the size of their circle. In late stage recovery, individuals are subject to special risks of relapse that are not often seen in the early stages. Clinical experience has shown that the following are some of the causes of relapse in the growth stage of recovery. Another goal of therapy at this stage is to help clients identify their denial. I find it helpful to encourage clients to compare their current behavior to behavior during past relapses and see if their self-care is worsening or improving.

Everyone has had long, difficult days that end with the thought, “Why do I even bother? ” This can be a difficult question to ask yourself if you have a substance abuse disorder. Maybe right now you cannot answer the question of why you bother trying, but those answers exist, often in the form of children, a spouse, or a project or cause about which you are passionate. Again, this can be an opportune time to contact your 12-step sponsor. Many people with eating disorders consume food out of boredom, and boredom can allow your mind to drift to “what if” situations involving alcohol or whatever your drug of choice is.

• Discussing the relapse can yield valuable advice on how to continue recovery without succumbing to the counterproductive feelings of shame or self-pity.
• The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that 40 to 60 percent of people treated for substance use disorders relapse.
• Recovery from addiction comes with a variety of obstacles and challenges.
• These triggers can vary from person to person, but some common examples include stress, boredom, loneliness, and feeling overwhelmed.

External Triggers

• A basic fear of recovery is that the individual is not capable of recovery.
• It is possible to engage with people near you who are also going through the recovery process.
• Another is to carefully plan days so that they are filled with healthy, absorbing activities that give little time for rumination to run wild.
• Some people arrange a tight network of friends to call on in an emergency, such as when they are experiencing cravings.