Therapy or treatment for distressing triggers can reduce the likelihood of one developing troubling compulsions and chemical use disorders. Therapists in rehab facilities can offer individuals tools and ideas that can be helpful while battling troubling emotions and compulsions. Additionally, individuals who suffer chemical use disorders can find help to decrease the risk of a relapse.
Risk Factors
This knowledge can then be used as a learning experience toward improved understanding and skills for relapse prevention in the future. Increasing attendance at mutual self-help group (e.g., Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous) meetings and boosting other personal support can exert additional positive effects. In the context of mental health conditions, internal triggers are the cognitive and emotional cues that lead to a relapse of symptoms. For example, negative thoughts and feelings might trigger a relapse of drug or alcohol use. Effective management of internal triggers often involves learning new emotional regulations and coping strategies. These may include mindfulness practices, cognitive-behavioral techniques, and self-care routines.
What is Relapse?
- Practices like mindfulness allow individuals to focus on right now, placing their mindset in the present moment.
- Internal triggers originate from within oneself, often linked to emotional factors.
- The solution to overcoming this relapse trigger is to learn how to channel your positive feelings in a positive way, without the use of substance abuse.
- For example, powdered sugar can elicit an urge for drugs in someone who used cocaine.
Stephanie Robilio is an accomplished Clinical Director at Agape Behavioral Healthcare. With a Master of Social Work degree, LCSW license, and extensive training in Rapid Resolution Therapy under her belt, she brings a wealth of expertise to her role. Her unique combination of education and experience allows her to provide exceptional internal and external triggers care to clients and lead her team with confidence. Stephanie’s joy comes from witnessing the moments when her patients creatively connect the dots and bravely move toward reclaiming their power. Her purpose is to help individuals understand their past so they can create a future full of hope, growth, and success.
Navigating External Triggers: Recognition and Coping Mechanisms
Researchers deduced that the amygdala played an important role in producing focused and exclusive desire, similar to drug addiction. Internal triggers act in reverse, associating these signals to the substances that elicit them. High-risk places remind former drug users of the times they engaged in substance use. Walking or driving through places where they used to drink or consume drugs can spark a memory connected to drug or alcohol use. You may have to try several strategies before finding what works best for you. If you’re ready to seek help, you can visit Psych Central’s guide to finding mental health support.
Recognition and avoidance of potential triggers will be a key part of any recovery process. One of the biggest risks during drug recovery is that someone who is recovering from https://ecosoberhouse.com/ using a substance will relapse and begin taking that substance again. To avoid relapse, it is important to understand the risk factors and causes that typically lead to relapse.
- Intrusive thoughts or other undesirable thought patterns are often the cause of relapse, particularly among those with diagnosed mental illnesses.
- Triggers refer to the experience of having an emotional reaction to a disturbing topic (such as violence or the mention of suicide) in the media or a social setting.
- Triggers may test your willpower and can be personal or shared with others in recovery.
- Each person must identify what works best for them through trial and error.
- Moreover, proper hydration plays a significant role in maintaining overall health during recovery.
Common External Relapse Triggers
- It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers.
- A trigger is social, psychological, and emotional situations and events that compel an addicted person to seek their substance of choice, eventually leading them to relapse.
- When you are exposed to a potential trigger, the cravings will pass within a few hours if you resist the urge to relapse.
- Learning to cope with external triggers involves developing strategies to avoid or deal with these triggering situations.
- 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.