Understanding Environmental Triggers and their Impact on You

Personal, interpersonal and environmental triggers are plentiful. These are people, places or things that jolt you into thinking and doing something out of a habit, a habit that you may have decided to give up, but because of the conditioning of the trigger, you react and the unwanted behavior follows (unless intentionally shifted). The human brain is an efficient organ and communicates signals through your body so that you’ll act in the most efficient way to the stimulus. Expect certain places, things, people and emotions to stimulate your old instinctual reactions to trigger these old habits so you will not be surprised by this tendency to react in ways that you no longer want to behave. For example, you may be aware of some social triggers that might stimulate you to take a drink, but there are other associated triggers that are harder to discover - such as your psychological patterns. In this case, you may have known not to take that first drink, but looking back after you did it, you still can't put your finger on why you actually did it and why you continued. The interplays and science behind action taken as a result of instincts, impulses and intentional thoughts (that will help bring you to implement goal directed behaviors) is not the point of this section. Instead, you need to be aware that there is more to your addiction recovery than meets the eye. When you do the work to discover why you acted as you did and what triggered the action, you can train yourself to override these old habits with new ones.

 

Harness Your Reactions with Intentional Decision-making

Awareness is the stimulus for goal setting and intentional decision-making. It is choosing a response that will override your impulsive habits so you can reach your goal of a new normal).​​​​​​ To act purposefully, the brain must be harnessed by intentional thinking that is stimulated by long-term goal achievement. This is why goal setting must be a conscious, thoughtful, value-based decision, otherwise, by default, efficiency and immediate satisfaction become the short-term goals established by your mind. Impulsive behavior needs to be taught and tamed by the decision to use self-control so that a new goal can replace the conditioned response that the impulsive behavior generated (Ainslie, G. (1975)).

 

After your reconditioning in a recovery/rehabilitation program is over, you need to stay vigilant (aware) of these hidden triggers and the potential setbacks they may bring. You’ll need to practice (over and over again) the responses that you learned in rehabilitation so these new effective intentional habits will become efficient and conditioned in your new social environment and they become second nature (they will eventually replace the old, impulsive habits, 1 Peter 5:8). Impulsivity automatically reacts, but intentionality responds (because to employ it requires you to want to delay short term rewards for longer-term goal achievement, and learning this skill requires the use of different* behavior, Ainslie, G. (1975)). Acting differently causes you to feel discomfort, mentally and physically, until it becomes your new normal. 

• A word of encouragement when experiencing relapses; when practicing the new/replacement skill and you become aware that you've relapsed again, remember, you have not failed, you are just building/strengthening your skill to overcome next time you get the desire. By staying motivated to reach your new skills/goals, you'll be able to avoid the hole in the sidewalk, because you have faith to believe that with God and your commitment to developing new skills, you'll overcome! Never give up; it's never too late to try, try again!

• The efficiency of the learning process is detailed in Appendix 1F.

• Read more about resiliency in the section titled, "Choose an Attitude of Capability along with Practicing Coping Behaviors!" and in Appendix 1Q; Resiliency to Overcome Setbacks​.

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Intentionally Choose to Delay Fulfillment

Choosing a new normal requires the strength and the skill of implementing delayed gratification (the desire to look past short-term results for longer lasting goals) and this determination is rooted in self-worth (Crocker, J., Brook, A. T., Niiya, Y., & Villacorta, M. (2006)). Insecure people tend towards instant gratification because of the energy they gain from an immediate, but phantom boost on self-worth. A phantom boost to self-worth happens when instant gratification is used to measure sucess and it's generally used by people with undeveloped trust or a lack of confidence in the source of outcomes (Michaelson L, de la Vega A, Chatham CH, Munakata Y., (2013). 

 

The strength to do this comes from a renewed sense of self. "Renewed" because you need to consult a source of truth to assess your relative reality and redirect it. You gain this awareness through self-reflection, comparing your behavior to a desired standard and from your experiences and the results they produced. This is when intentional decision-making begins. The knowledgable hope that is associated with the Christian faith is needed to willingly make the choice to persist through the change process required to leave your unproductive habits and, instead, to honor God (Isaiah 40:31, Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 6:19, 11:1, Romans 15:13). Doing this isn't just a psychological consideration. It unveils your real heart attitude about changing. If you are sensitive to others opinions of you and/or are easily offended by the feedback you get from others, then you might find yourself stuck in a tug of war that takes place between the psycho and the social aspects of change. This stagnation typically occurs because of defense mechanisms that that surround your self-image so you do not allow truths to get inside your heart for fear that the truth may hurt (which further thwarts your sense of self and continues a negative cycle of the Self-fulfilling Prophecy).

 

Defense Mechanism are Inherent in Human Culture

Your self-concept will be restricted by defenses such as false pride, denial, or blame and will result in insecure feelings like feelings of fear, worry, arrogance, shame, or guilt. Defense mechanisms are meant to guard your self-image (your opinion of yourself) so you remain secure, maintaining your self-worth which provides you stability throughout life. Defense mechanisms maintain your status quo by becoming habits that bound your life. Until you become aware of and accept God's love for you, you'll be burdened with a self-concept instead of gaining your true self-worth from your decision to take on Christ's through (Galatians 3:27). Learning God's Word helps you discern truth and when you learn the loving character of God, you awaken to a new identity that isn't built on yours or someone else's evaluation of you. It's based your acceptance of God's love for you, as you are. 

 

Failing to accept this truth, prevents you from walking in the freedom Christ died to give everyone who believes in Him (Galatians 5:1, Romans 10:12-13, 1 Timothy 2:4).​ The blockage to becoming a new creature in-Christ is within you. It's your sense of self - your personal assessment of your worth* that fuels your self-image. Think of your self-image as the vulnerable core that lies beneath your expressed personality. It's vulnerable because it is the authority of self-direction. If you stand on the false hope that you are strong enough to be successful on your own, you'll fall victim to stagnation from false pride (Galatians 6:7-9, James 2:17-20). ​