Every addict knows that being sober is a choice you make, at the beginning of addiction recovery, every moment. As time progresses, that conscious decision will become less and less conscious. You’ll slowly get used to saying yes, and it won’t be such a tug of war within your brain. One of the ways that kind of contention in your mind can be quieted is by understanding your triggers better: what they are, and how to calm them and process them.
Determining Your Triggers
To better understand what your triggers are, start concentrating on being aware of what is happening in your everyday life as much as possible. I suggest tracking your triggers. Tracking is sort of a soap box of mine. It’s just that you can learn so much about yourself by actually physically keeping track of your moods, your medication, your interactions, your food and liquid intake. You may think it’s not all connected, but that’s where you’re wrong. You may not be a medically licensed clinician, but paying attention and tracking trends gets you one step closer to understanding your addiction the way a doctor can.
Tracking Your Feelings
When you’re actively paying attention to your own actions, it will become significantly clearer to you what sorts of activities or people make you want a drink, or a hit. Here’s a suggestion, at the end of the day, don’t just check some boxes off in your bullet journal to track your triggers, actually write about the way you were feeling when you were tempted to use. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of getting a moleskine and colored pens, there are tons of phone apps that will give you shorthand to do all of this kind of tracking and will even give you notifications if you forget to track.
Once you know your triggers, the next step is learning to cope with them in a healthy way.
If you or anyone you know is suffering right now from drug or alcohol abuse in Florida please call us at (833) 596-3502 to discuss how we can help you in one of the best drug rehab facilities in South Florida.
