Dealing with Relapse Prevention - Part II

Dealing With Triggers

How to Deal with Triggers?

Many people contend that relapse is a forgone conclusion – this is NOT true! First, a person needs to be aware of their relapse triggers. These triggers can be categorized in a few groups: environmental, mental, and emotional. One of the easiest ways to start addressing possible relapse triggers is becoming aware of HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired). This acronym describes the feelings a person gets when they are in high-risk situations. When these feelings arise it is a sign to HALT or stop whatever you are doing, take a few deep breaths and remember that just for right now everything will be ok. Other ways to help prevent HALT is to get sufficient rest, eat meals regularly, take breaks during the day, and attend support groups frequently when you are first recovering (Gorski & Miller, 1986). The HALT acronym addresses stress, uncomfortable situations, and emotional restlessness.

One of the first things that addicts learn is that they need to change people, places, and things (not keeping drug paraphernalia or bottles in the house, keeping house clean, making new friends, going to work, and attending meetings). Once a person stops using, they need to make new friends. Hanging out with the old gang will only trigger a person to want to use and it will be too easy just to say “OK” (Best & Lubman, 2012). At 12-Step meetings people can meet others like themselves that are seeking recovery and a new way of living.

Most importantly, a person needs to join the appropriate 12-step fellowship (i.e., AA, NA, or SA) and begin going to meetings as often as possible. It is suggested that a newcomer attends 90 and 90. This means going to 90 meetings in 90 days, or 1 meeting a day for 90 days. This will help make the 12-step meeting a habit and even if you want to use it, a person usually ends up in a meeting sharing about rather than picking a drug or alcohol.

There will be times and places that will remind you of use and cravings might seem unbearable. Especially since most newly recovered people want to fall right back into their old life. This is the time to focus on building a new life that contains many healthy alternatives. Some of these new behaviors might include attending a yoga class, taking a long bath with nice music, or learning to meditate and do relaxation exercises. All these new activities will help resist the initial cravings and continue building solid recovery which is the best defense against relapse (Priddy et al., 2018).

Finally, a great way to avoid relapse and deal with triggers is doing things that you love to do. Some examples include jogging or exercising, reading a book, watching a movie, listening to music, calling a friend or sponsor, or taking up a new hobby. In recovery one of the new tasks is learning how to deal with free time and occupy yourself with healthy activities. This is where creating a new life can help supplant old behaviors and lead you down a new sunny road (Hartney & Umhau, 2020).

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—Dr. Yaacov Rosedale, LPC, PhD, CASAP

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