Develop a Strategy for Dealing with Unhealthy Triggers
Having an informed and hopeful attitude not only creates but it sustains your new normal lifestyle (2 Corinthians 10:5, Ephesians 1:17-18, 4:22-24). It is necessary to adjust your expectations to understand that maintaining change means that you need to be "on guard" to fight off the everyday temptations that will trigger old behavioral habits; the same ones that you've committed to giving up and changing. Consistency in goal achieval is effective when attitude and behavior are both directed at overcoming obstacles that may sabatoge your success. A hopeful attitude that is backed by targeted behavior is the stance you need to take to complete the change process and create new habits (1 Corinthians 15:58, Ephesians 6:11-18).
Personal, interpersonal and environmental triggers are plentiful. Triggers can be anything in your surroundings that spark a desire to act when just seconds before, you weren’t even thinking about doing it. The thoughts aroused by triggers come from your memories, a visualization of the behavioral activity along with the emotions that accompanied the experience (Storbeck, J., & Clore, G. L. (2008)). Intense emotions set off the release of certain brain chemicals that further intensifies the thought. The stimulating thought could be a sight or smell, a picture or memory, or any type of emotion that drives you to act out a response. Physical or emotional cravings and environmental triggers are either helpful or harmful depending on the consequence of the reaction that comes from the decision to follow through (act) on the thought. Triggers can be haunting for a person trying to transition out of unwanted habits because they occur regularly and spontaneously. Uncontrolled triggers can reignite an unwanted habit. For a person dealing with an unhealthy addiction, an environmental, biological, psychological, economic or a social trigger can seem overwhelming and relapse can seem like a step in the (recovery) process instead of just a possibility, howbeit consciously unwanted (Alavi, S. S., Ferdosi, M., Jannatifard, F., Eslami, M., Alaghemandan, H.,& Setare, M. (2012), Hogarth, L., & Chase, H. W. (2011)).
Researchers report that relapse happens most frequently during the first year of recovery especially if you also battle a pessimistic attitude, if you also smoke, if you are unemployed and if you have another drug user in the family (Mohammadpoorasl, et al, (2012)). Upon leaving a residential recovery center, you may find that you’ll encounter many environmental and interpersonal triggers, like a certain neighborhood, a gas station, a friend, or even a family member. When deciding where to establish your home upon exit of the recovery center, you will need to consider separating yourself from known triggers until you’ve strengthened the new habits that you learned in the recovery center sufficiently enough to overcome the push-pull reality of change (see Appendix 1N). You will still need to ready yourself for the reality of triggers, wherever you decide to live, so you can respond intentionally. (You can lessen triggers, but never eliminate them.)
When you are faced with an unexpected trigger, immediately switch your thoughts and leave the scene, if you can (Philippians 4:8, 2 Timothy 2:22). For example, when a troublesome thought occurs, reframe it through the eyes of God’s love for you. Remember, God has already equipped you with the power to change your future (Psalm 94:18-19, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Timothy 3:17). Go for a walk and/or call a supportive friend, but don’t linger in a place that triggers the behaviors that you are trying to change. However, if you do cave into the pressure, all is not lost. In most cases, you do not need to start over in the recovery change process. Relapses can happen during any stage in the change process on your way to reaching “maintenance”. While a relapse is discouraging, don’t look at a relapse as a failure. Failure is a reason to continue practicing your skills; it’s a training ground for resiliency and stamina. Let hope, faith, trust for God fuel your passion to try again. Use the Capture your Vision workbook component (Section 3) of the CYNN program to plan your strategy to limit and deal with psycho-social triggers.
A relapse tests your commitment to change. It forces a decision to either move on or to stay stuck in your old habits. After a relapse, if you choose to persist and re-enter the change process, you can return to your recovery and continue practicing your new behavior. Relapses and learning to walking away from triggers are skills that you sharpen through the experience of trial and error. That is why the attitudinal component is just as important as behavioral effort. Proverbs 24:16 says, “For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.” With time, practice and repetition, your new skills will eventually become a habit in your new normal lifestyle. For more on understanding and sustaining change see Appendix 1O and Appendix 1P.