Internal and External Triggers: Comprehensive Guide to Triggers

Internal triggers are cues within you—like the feelings of boredom, fear, or sadness—that prompt you to action, and often to distraction. The more strategies you have available to you, the better off you will be in managing your triggers. In addition, the more coping strategies you have, the more likely you will be able to prevent the development of unhealthy coping strategies, such as alcohol and drug use. You can do this process on your own, but working with a mental health professional can be helpful. Your therapist can help you figure out your triggers and come up with a plan for how to deal with your PTSD symptoms. Get out a sheet of paper and write down as many internal and external triggers as possible.

• Therapists and counselors can provide tools and strategies tailored to each individual’s unique circumstances and triggers.
• These triggers can be difficult to recognize and can completely disrupt a recovery if they lead to relapse.

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. There are two main types of triggers that can start someone towards the path of relapse.

Avoid tempting situations

Increasing attendance at mutual self-help group (e.g., Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous) meetings and boosting other personal support can exert additional positive effects. External triggers are factors outside of an individual that may provoke a craving or desire to return to substance use. These triggers can be diverse and vary greatly from person to person. Developing an understanding of these external triggers and learning effective strategies to cope with them is essential in preventing relapses.

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 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. Understanding these risk factors will help you to avoid the potential risk of relapse during or following recovery.

Plan ahead to stay in control

The chain reaction that starts a habit always begins with a trigger. It starts as a tiny irritant, like a piece of sand, triggering continuous layering of coats to produce a pearl (a fully formed habit). If you can find alternative https://ecosoberhouse.com/ routes to your next destination, try to map out your drive. McGeehan also recommends grounding techniques, including square breathing or finger breathing, to help people return to the present moment when a trigger strikes them.

I write to help companies design consumer behavior while educating individuals about behavior change and digital distraction. Mild acute stress can actually be beneficial — it can spur you into action, motivate and energize you. internal and external triggers This persistent stress can lead to health problems, such as headaches and insomnia. The chronic-stress response is more subtle than is the acute-stress response, but the effects may be longer lasting and more problematic.

Normal Feelings Trigger Relapse

There are two main types of triggers to be aware of — internal triggers and external triggers. External triggers are often easier to identify, as they are people, places, things and activities that make someone want to use drugs or alcohol again. Internal triggers can be more difficult to identify as they are feelings that are often complex. Addiction relapse triggers in drug and alcohol abuse recovery are quickly becoming a major concern for inpatient and outpatient treatment addicts. Substance abuse triggers are internal and external cues that cause a person in recovery to crave drugs and often relapse or lapse.

Anything that offers a little control over mental illness can help keep us well. On average more than 85% of individuals are susceptible to relapse in the following year after drug and alcohol treatment. Relapse triggers are far more extreme for recovering addicts in the early recovery months of addiction treatment. 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.

Today, much of our struggle with distraction is a struggle with external triggers. Whether designing customer behaviors or your own habits, you’ll benefit from understanding the research I share from user experience design, behavioral economics, and neuroscience. By beginning to identify and understand the sources of your stress, you’ve taken the first step in learning to better manage it.

In the process, you will be able to better maintain your abstinence and find it easier for you to recover. While some triggers may create a nearly-unavoidable craving, in many situations the trigger can be removed or escaped with enough time to stop potential use. Research suggests that people who have used drugs in order to mitigate stress in the past are likely to return to this behavior when future stressors arise. This would suggest that someone in recovery could be prone to relapse due to an elevated level of stress in life. Sometimes memories that we perceive to be happy are deeply intertwined with addictions or past addictive behaviors, which can lead to reminiscing about one-time use.