Managing Relapse Triggers: Key Strategies for Recovery

Self-care is difficult because recovering individuals tend to be hard on themselves 9. Self-care is especially difficult for adult children of addicts 27. The most important rule of recovery is that a person does not achieve recovery by just not using.

The Most Common Relapse Triggers in Addiction Recovery

Therapy not only gives people insight into their vulnerabilities but teaches them  healthy tools for handling emotional distress. Prolonged stress during childhood dysregulates the normal stress response and can lastingly impair emotion regulation and cognitive development. What is more, it can alter the sensitivity of the stress response types of relapse triggers system so that it overresponds to low levels of threat, making people feel easily overwhelmed by life’s normal difficulties. Research shows a strong link between ACEs and opioid drug abuse as well as alcoholism. The causes of substance dependence are rarely obvious to users themselves.

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At Discovery Institute, our team of professionals can help you gain some insight into how to recognize relapse triggers and what to do if you relapse after you’ve completed rehab and detox. If you have any questions or need additional treatment after a relapse, please contact us today. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses can be major relapse triggers.

Stages of Relapse

• Relapse prevention focuses on building the awareness necessary to recognize the early stages of relapse.
• Addiction often develops because people use drugs or alcohol to feel better about their current situation.
• Everyone will have different emotions that cause their substance use.
• Physical relapse is the third and final stage of a relapse, in which the individual uses the substance.
• As individuals go deeper into mental relapse, their cognitive resistance to relapse diminishes and their need for escape increases.

Unfortunately, you may come across situations in which you run into these people. To steer clear of these relapse triggers, make an effort to stay close with people in your support system who encourage your recovery and well being. You can also ask yourself if you have their phone numbers saved or how you can approach interacting with these friends if you run into them. However, people without substance abuse issues can take a step back during these difficult times and assess their situation, individuals in recovery may have trouble doing this.

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• This knowledge can then be used as a learning experience toward improved understanding and skills for relapse prevention in the future.
• It can engage what has been termed the Abstinence Violation Effect.
• Mental relapse, or relapse justification, is the continuous fight between wanting to use and knowing you should not use.
• Recovering from substance addiction is never easy, and the truth is, the risk of relapsing is always going to be there.
• Part of the recovery process includes talking about relapse, and learning healthier ways to cope with triggers that can lead to it.

Recognizing these triggers and learning how to handle them can help you regain and maintain long-term sobriety. Understanding the role of stress in emotional relapse and implementing strategies to manage stress during recovery can significantly contribute to a more successful and lasting recovery process. As we wrap up this epic journey through the world of emotional triggers and recovery, let’s take a moment to recap. These gatherings of like-minded individuals can be goldmines of insight and understanding. Sharing your experiences and listening to others can help you identify triggers you might not have recognized on your own.

What is the importance of a relapse prevention plan?

• It’s easy for an addicted individual to remember only the positives of their abuse and forget all the anguish it may have caused them.
• This helpline is answered by Legacy Healing Center, an addiction treatment provider with treatment facilities in California, Florida, Ohio, and New Jersey.
• A trigger is an emotional, environmental or social situation that drags up memories of drug or alcohol use in the past.
• Research shows that those who forgive themselves for backsliding into old behavior perform better in the future.

One of the important tasks of therapy is to help individuals redefine fun. Clinical experience has shown that when clients are under stress, they tend to glamorize their past use and think about it longingly. They start to think that recovery is hard work and addiction was fun. They begin to disqualify the positives they have gained through recovery. The cognitive challenge is to acknowledge that recovery is sometimes hard work but addiction is even harder.