When recovering from an alcohol addiction, learning to avoid alcohol addiction triggers is an essential strategy to help prevent relapse. BlueCrest Recovery’s alcohol rehab program in New Jersey can help you identify, avoid, and overcome or prevent alcohol triggers in your everyday life—putting you on the path toward a lasting recovery. Contact our team online or call 888.292.9652 to get started today.
Learning to Avoid Alcohol Triggers
To prevent alcohol triggers from interfering with your recovery, you need to put in some work. Stopping drinking isn’t enough. While staying abstinent for long enough can reduce your cravings, it doesn’t prevent addiction triggers from occurring in your everyday life.
Especially in early recovery, taking steps to avoid addiction triggers can make it much easier to stay sober, resist cravings, and spend less time fighting your addiction. It gives you the space to focus on the joyous work of recovery instead of devoting a significant portion of your time to resisting alcohol or battling symptoms.
Steps to Avoid Alcohol Addiction Triggers
To help prevent alcohol triggers, you should follow three key steps.
1. Identify Your Addiction Triggers
To avoid alcohol addiction triggers, you first need to identify what they are. Everyone has a unique set of triggers, but some common triggers may include:
- Places where alcohol is served, such as a bar or sporting event
- People who you used to drink with
- Mental health challenges, such as anxiety or depression
- Boredom
- Family members
You might also find yourself triggered when you are around other people who are drinking and when you have alcohol in the house.
Identifying your addiction triggers takes some self-reflection. You can start by writing a list of what you think your biggest triggers are or by working with a counselor or therapist to identify what triggers you to drink.
2. Make a Plan to Avoid Alcohol Triggers
Having identified your triggers, you can plan to avoid them so they don’t interfere with your recovery. Some triggers can be avoided entirely with minimal effort. Going to the bar, for instance, is likely an easy trigger to avoid.
But other triggers take more careful consideration. For example, if you are triggered by family members drinking during the holidays, you need to weigh the potential benefits and consequences of attending your family’s holiday party. Is it something you can avoid altogether? If not, can you still participate if you take certain precautions to avoid being triggered?
In early recovery, it’s often best to play it safe. The consequences of relapse may be severe, and the drawbacks of missing out on something can be temporary and comparatively unimportant. But making those decisions is up to you, your comfort level, and how secure you feel in your sobriety.
3. Focus on Positive Recovery Goals
Strictly focusing on how to prevent alcohol triggers can quickly put you into a negative mindset. If you put all your energy into avoiding alcohol or triggering events, you aren’t taking the time to focus on the positive aspects of your recovery.
But taking time to attend support groups, meet with your therapist, and do the things you genuinely enjoy are excellent ways of avoiding alcohol triggers. This also allows you to reap the positive benefits that these activities can bring. Remember, too, that recovery isn’t just about abstinence; it’s about building a life that’s worth living when free of alcohol and the consequences of addiction.
Get Help from BlueCrest Recovery Today
If you’re struggling with an alcohol addiction or can’t seem to avoid triggering events that spark thoughts of relapse, contact BlueCrest Recovery online or call 888.292.9652. Our comprehensive addiction treatment programs have several evidence-based and time-tested strategies to help you build a lasting and meaningful recovery.
