The Rubber Meets the Road

Goal

To be able to manage cravings and triggers

Cravings, Urges, & Triggers

A craving is a longing for or a desire to use a substance. They can be mild or very strong; they can be a desire for the good feelings that come with using or a desire to avoid bad moods or withdrawal symptoms.

An urge is your intention to use substances once you have a craving. You can have a strong craving with very little urge to actually use or drink. But if your intention to use or drink is high, this makes you more vulnerable to relapse unless you use active coping strategies to help you through your craving and urge.

Identifying the people, places, events, and situations that trigger your cravings or urges helps you anticipate triggers, which can in turn help you plan coping strategies. This is one of the most powerful steps you can take toward reaching your goals. Sometimes cravings and urges happen randomly without any trigger. Other cravings are more likely to occur at specific days or times. Think about your triggers and what kind they may be:

External Triggers

• People
• Places
• Events
• Situations
• Objects

Internal Triggers

• Feelings
• Thoughts
• Memories
• Physical sensations
• Negative emotional feelings (most common reason people relapse)
• Positive thoughts and memories of using/drinking

Coping with Triggers

There are different coping strategies for corresponding triggers.

Environmental Coping Strategies

• Reduce environmental cues by getting rid of the substances you are trying to quit using. If you are quitting smoking or drinking, there is no need to keep cigarettes or alcohol in your house for other people.
• Get rid of paraphernalia used to prepare or ingest drugs (lighters, ashtrays, needles, mirrors, papers)
• In early recovery, when possible, avoid people, places, events, and things that you feel represent a high risk of relapse.

Cognitive coping strategies

• Talk yourself through the craving
• Tell yourself that you are capable of coping with a craving no matter how strong it is
• Remember that cravings always pass in time
• Buy yourself time by saying you’ll put off using for a few hours
• Remember the troubles caused by using alcohol or other drugs
• Ask for help and strength from a higher power
• Imagine the cravings as a wave that you are surfing to safety. Rather than fight against the wave, you ride it to shore without getting engulfed in it. “Ride out” the craving and it will eventually leave you.
• Delay you decision by telling yourself you’ll wait until later in the day or tomorrow before you use. By that time, your desire may have decreased or left completely

Behavioral Coping strategies

• Distract yourself with an activity
• Do something physical, such as take a walk, jog, or work out to release tension
• Write in a journal or complete a daily craving record
• Read recovery literature for help and inspiration

Internal Coping strategies

• Talk to friends in recovery
• Talk to family or other supportive people
• Go to a self-help recovery meeting and share your cravings
• Leave situations immediately if the pressure to use feels too strong to resist
• Avoid interpersonal “set-ups.” These are relationships or encounters that influence you to use.
  • Example: dating someone who gets high on alcohol and drugs…you may not feel like using at first, but later your desire to use may increase as you spend time together and the person may invite you to use or may use in front of you.

Substitute Coping Strategies

• Smokers find it helpful to chew gum or eat mints or hard candy when they feel like having a cigarette
• Substituting a soft drink or other non-alcoholic drink is helpful during times or situations associated with alcohol use, such as the pre-dinner cocktail hour

Watch the following video for more information about triggers and cravings and how to cope with them:

Daily Craving & Trigger Record Exercise

Instructions: Use the rating scale and table below to daily record level of intensity of your cravings, triggers that most contributed to the cravings, level of threat presented by each trigger, and strategies for coping with each trigger. You’ll need one table per week. Keep track of your progress. You may be surprised which triggers show up most. These are the ones that are most important to get rid of or find ways to cope with. In identifying and implementing coping strategies, you may benefit from getting input and support from your supporters.

Tip: It might seem like a waste of time to write down things you already know happen, but most people underestimate the power of recording progress over time. It will point out things you may not otherwise notice, such as which habits trip you up most or what thoughts always show up before you start to have trouble. Just try it for a month and see what happens! If you are suspicious, that’s fine, but we think you will be surprised.

Managing Thoughts that are Triggers

If thoughts are a regular trigger for you, here are some tips for overcoming them:

• Complete the Managing Thoughts exercise below. This will help you begin the process of monitoring your thoughts of using.
• Devise counterstatements.
• Don’t act on your thoughts. There is a big difference between thoughts and actions. Just because you think it does not mean you have to act on it! Sometimes you just have to ignore your thoughts, and other times you have to fight them and change your thinking.
• Remember the benefits of not using.
• Remember the problems you circled from your past use.
• Think all the way through using the drink or drug. Remember how it felt, but remember how you felt after, and what led you to try and stop. Thinking through the whole process in a rational way can help you see the negative outcomes of using and the positive outcome of not using.
• Practice positive affirmation. Repeat to yourself statements such as, “I can choose not to use,” “I’m capable of staying sober,” “I control my thoughts; my thoughts don’t control me,” or “I want to avoid (smoking, drinking, doing drugs).” Even if you don’t believe them in the moment, just repeating them may help you believe them eventually, and they can be true.
• Think of yourself as a sober person. Start each day with the thought that you are sober from alcohol or other drugs. See yourself as capable of getting through another day without using alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. View this as a normal part of who you are.

Managing Thoughts Exercise

Instructions: Review the list below of common, harmful thoughts that are often associated with relapse. Add some personal thoughts to the list. Then, list counterstatements and strategies you can use to change these thoughts in order to control them and prevent them from leading to substance use.

Tip: Review the counterstatements you have written down. Try saying them to yourself in the mirror. Sure, it feels stupid, but say them until you believe them. These are the thoughts that will pull you through the hard times, the times you are tempted and stop believing it is worth it.

Managing Emotions that are Triggers

Upsetting, negative feelings are perhaps the number one reason why people fail to reach recovery. Many people use alcohol/drugs to cover up their feelings or make them less painful, but these substances can exaggerate feelings and make them worse than they actually are (example: turning frustration or anger to violent hatred). Here are some tips:

• Recognize your emotions or feelings. If you catch them early, you can do something with them before they pile up and become a big problem (example: something annoying becoming a thing you hate)
• Know the causes of your feelings. This will help you know what to do about them.
• Challenge your thoughts.
• Share your feelings with someone you trust.
• Build structure in your life. This can reduce boredom, depression, and anxiety, especially if you fill your time with pleasant activities. Having structure helps you stay strong when you feel weak and keeps you going when you feel like giving up.
• Use physical or creative activities. These help reduce stress, anger, depression, and anxiety. They also improve self-image and help you express your feelings. Try them! You’ll see.

Managing Emotions Exercise

Instructions: For each emotion below, rate the degree of difficulty you have dealing with these feelings without using alcohol or drugs. Then, choose the two emotions that present the most difficulty in your recovery and identify strategies for coping with them.

Next Step

To learn more about avoiding urges cravings, feel free to watch the following videos: