How to Avoid Triggers in Addiction?
In recovery, triggers are things that produce a physical or emotional response related to addiction. If you don’t learn how to avoid triggers and addiction, they can be one of the biggest contributing factors to poor mood, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and relapse.
How to Avoid Triggers in Addiction
Learning how to avoid triggers and addiction is a key lesson that is taught to you during your treatment program. As you participate in individual and group therapy, you’ll acquire lifestyle skills, coping skills, and other behavioral modifications that you can apply to stressful or triggering situations.
Have a Routine
Having a routine is an essential part of learning how to avoid triggers in addiction. You are more likely to succumb to triggers if you don’t have a routine. A routine gives you structure to your day, something that you can reliably do without giving it much thought.
Willpower is much like a muscle that needs to be exercised every day, but it also has a limited amount every day. If you spend all of your willpower trying to decide what you are going to do, if you face a trigger later in the day, you won’t have any willpower left to address that trigger in a healthy way.
By comparison, if you have a set routine where you get up at the same time, eat the same breakfast at the same time, have your clothes set out, exercise first thing in the morning, and have the rest of your day planned, then when you come across triggers you will have spare willpower so that you can apply healthy coping mechanisms.
Get Outside
Getting outside is a great way to avoid triggers in addiction. When you step outside, you can figuratively clear your brain of whatever intrusive thoughts were starting to take hold. spending time in nature has been scientifically proven to moderate levels of feel-good hormones like serotonin. A simple walk in a local park or in a green space can give you a chance to distance yourself from any negative emotions associated with things like stress.
Even if you are learning how to avoid triggers and addiction, stress can be a big trigger for many people, and unfortunately, stress is something that you cannot prevent. However, it is something to which you can control your reaction.
Tip: When you notice uncomfortable feelings or stress building inside of you, set the alarm for 5 minutes and step outside, preferably in a place where you can at least walk around.
Be Physically Active
Learning how to avoid triggers in addiction might mean being physically active so that your mind and body are healthy enough to reduce the impact that stress and triggering circumstances have.
Physical activity releases chemicals that:
- Control your perception of pain
- Boost your mood
- Help you sleep
- Improve blood circulation and heart rate
The physical activity you do might differ from one day to the next.
If you are at risk of being triggered because you had a particularly stressful day, ran into an old friend, or found yourself in a circumstance that reminded you of a difficult time when you struggled with addiction, the activity you choose might be something like weightlifting or rock climbing that requires all of your focus. On other days, however, what you do might be a little gentler with things like yoga, swimming, or bike riding.
Tip: Find an activity that you like, no matter how physically demanding it is or isn’t, and make time for it everyday. Start with a small amount of time like 10 minutes and as this becomes a routine over the course of several weeks, increase the amount of time incrementally until you are achieving a good balance for your physical activity level.
Getting Treatment with Ritual Recovery
With Ritual Recovery, we offer addiction treatment in Asheville, where clients can develop personal plans for dealing with triggers. Our program specializes in a broad range of therapies to help individuals meet their needs in a healthy way without turning to drugs and alcohol.
As part of individual and group therapy, you will learn healthy coping mechanisms, ways to identify personal triggers, and adjusted responses to those triggering circumstances or situations. A big part of recovery is learning to adapt your behavioral responses or regulate your emotional responses to triggers so that they don’t control you or consume you.
Overall, learning how to avoid triggers comes down to things like setting a schedule, being physically active, recognizing when you are triggered and stepping away from the situation or circumstance, and getting the right level of support from a professional treatment center.Let Ritual Recovery help you find specialized addiction treatment in Asheville today.
