Coping With Relapse Triggers | Carolina Recovery Solutions

Preventing Relapse this Holiday Season

‘Tis the season where everyone around you is holly and jolly. Your schedule is likely to be filled with plenty of holiday dinners, gatherings, and holiday traditions. However, this season can also incite many negative emotions for those struggling with addiction.

Feelings of stress, anxiety, and loneliness can be triggering and can even result in an unwanted relapse. However, there are ways to manage these triggers and make it through the holiday season happily and healthily.

What is a Trigger?

A trigger is a person, place, smell, sound, or emotion that stimulates negative emotions leading to the use or impulse to use a substance. Just as no two addictions are alike, triggers also differ for everyone. For some, revisiting an old place they used a substance could be triggering. For others, feelings of overwhelming and unmanageable stress could trigger them to reach for a substance to help alleviate those emotions.

During the holidays, relapse triggers are likely to increase. There are generally more people indulging in alcoholic beverages at gatherings, or perhaps you feel the financial burden that the holiday season tends to bring.

Healthy Ways to Cope With Triggers

When someone is in recovery, it is vital to identify those triggers to help manage them and make them more manageable. Here are some techniques to help cope with triggers and prevent relapse:

1. Utilize Your Support System

Although the recovery process can feel like no one understands you, remember that you are not alone on your recovery journey. When you feel yourself struggling, lean on the people you love and trust to help hold you accountable in moments you may be uneasy.

2. Practice Self-Care

It is very easy to forget to take care of yourself, especially during the holidays. However, because this season brings added stress, it is vital to your recovery to schedule time for yourself. Some common ways to practice self-care include:

Taking a bubble bath.
Writing in a journal.
Going for a walk.
Doing yoga.

Make sure to plan some downtime into your days. Reducing your stress is pertinent to preventing relapse.

3. Practice Positive Self-Talk

It may sound silly and feel uncomfortable at first, but self-talk is a very powerful tool! If you encounter one of your triggers, talking to yourself empowers you to overcome any urges you may experience. This prevents the trigger from overcoming you and provides self-assurance and validation to your own emotions.

Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment at Carolina Recovery Solutions

At Carolina Recovery Solutions, we believe in a whole-person approach to recovery. Our facility offers various treatment programs and therapies to address your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.