When you go through recovery at Bayview Recovery, you come away with skills to repair broken relationships, cull your social circle to avoid relapsing to drug and alcohol use, and allow you to understand the common triggers of addiction. Learn more about these triggers and how our addiction treatment center in Tacoma, WA, can help.

Common Addiction Triggers

It can be challenging to determine what will trigger urges to use substances again, but research has compiled many common reasons that people return to using drugs or alcohol again. Common addiction triggers after recovery include the following:

• Stress
• Negative emotions
• Locations
• People
• HALT – Hungry/Angry/Lonely/Tired
• Mental health conditions

Stress

Stress is one of the most common triggers for addiction relapse. Make reducing, avoiding, and learning how to manage your stress levels a priority. Mindfulness, yoga, meditation, and other therapies teach you to slow down your thoughts and reduce stress. For example, our yoga therapy treatment can improve your physical and psychological health and is especially beneficial to individuals in recovery. Yoga provides a healthy way to get your endorphins going without resorting to drugs and alcohol. As a result, yoga can counter the effects of stress, which causes depression and anxiety.

Negative Feelings

Grief, anger, sadness, and loneliness can trigger stress and cravings for drugs or alcohol. Substances can provide a rush of dopamine, which alerts the brain’s reward centers. However, the negative emotions won’t go away just because you ignore them. Try to find more positive ways to deal with things. Exercise, talk to a friend, or find a creative outlet to channel your energy in positive directions.

Locations

Physical locations often form a huge part of our memories of an event. If you return to a place where you suffered trauma, such as abuse, neglect, injury, or theft, it may trigger stressful memories and make you vulnerable to relapse. Learning to work through these triggers often requires the assistance of a licensed therapist.

Although this is beyond the scope of services at Bayview Recovery, our staff can help you continue your lifelong recovery journey through our aftercare program. We may also refer you to a qualified counselor who can return to the location of a traumatic event with you for a controlled visit to help you healthily process your memories.

People

If you run across someone who triggers intense negative emotions, it can trigger drug and alcohol cravings. Our addiction treatment therapy services include evidence-based therapies proven to improve your chances of long-term recovery. These approaches include individual, group, and family therapy for a comprehensive recovery strategy that lasts long after leaving Bayview Recovery.

HALT

Common addiction triggers include uncomfortable physical and emotional states. If you feel Hungry/Angry/Lonely/Tired (HALT) or even bored, it can trigger a relapse. To avoid these mentally draining conditions, eat nutritious meals, and lean on trusted loved ones to help you work through your feelings instead of resorting to alcohol or drugs.

Mental Health Symptoms

In some circumstances, individuals who began using substances to cope with mental health symptoms only get treatment for the addiction. As a result, they don’t know how to manage their mental illness healthily, so they return to using substances again as a last resort. Fortunately, with dual diagnosis treatment, we can address mental health conditions and addiction simultaneously. With the help of dual diagnosis treatment, you’ll learn to manage your addiction triggers and handle your mental health symptoms, ensuring long-term recovery. At Bayview Recovery, we address a range of mental health conditions, including:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Bipolar disorder
• ADHD
• Schizophrenia

Avoiding Common Addiction Triggers in Tacoma, WA

There is no shame in seeking help to make a positive life change. If you are ready to leave substance use disorder behind, contact Bayview Recovery at 855.478.3650 for addiction treatment services that can change your life and give you defenses against common addiction triggers.