By Mary Reid 

Trigger Definition:

A stimulus that results in an urge or craving to drink.

Two Types of Triggers:

External:

People, places, things and times. Most often these are identifiable and can be avoided or planned for.

People-We all have those people who cause us to drink more either because we are uncomfortable around them or are too comfortable around them, i.e. drinking buddies.

Places-bars, concerts, our family room, our deck…

(One of our members found out he was miserable sitting home alone because he was avoiding his favorite pub. Being home alone, made him want to drink more! He decided he was better off going to his pub and drinking the NA drinks the bartenders were happy to serve him. Avoiding triggers doesn’t always mean abandoning our favorite places and people.)

Things/Times-Mowing the yard, fixing dinner, getting home from work, music…

Internal:

Negative Emotions, Positive Emotions, Ambivalent Emotions. Avoidance. Stress. The root cause of the trigger can remain a mystery if we mindlessly reach for a drink every time we feel triggering emotions.

Identifying Triggers

We may not even know what all of our triggers are because we drink mindlessly. By mindlessly, I mean we drink at certain times because that’s just what we do. Sure, we know that we have tendencies to drink more around certain people or when we’re stressed. But what about the other times? Are we drinking because we’re triggered or because it’s become a routine? Is routine a trigger? How does changing our routine make us feel? Triggered?

The best way to figure out what our triggers are is to track them. Every time you have a drink, honestly and non-judgementally write down why you’re having that drink.

Boredom.

You just got home from work and you always have a beer.

You have to do something that you don’t like doing, like cooking dinner.

You want to avoid a task. (This is a big one for me and it took me a while to figure it out).

Because you’ve already been drinking and you don’t really know how to stop.

It’s time to call your mom.

Abstinent days or longer periods are great opportunities to excavate our triggers, too. Every time you feel triggered to drink, figure out the stimulus and write it down.

Taming Triggers

Now that you’ve identified them, what do you do with them?

The good news is that triggers can be dealt with, and they lose their power as we increase our own power over alcohol.

Avoidable or Unavoidable? Many triggers can be avoided all together. If a certain person or place causes you to over-drink, you may want to avoid them until you’re more confident in your ability to moderate. If being alone at home is a big trigger, you may want to keep all alcohol out of the house.

This may seem extreme, but remember right now you are making a huge life-change and the easier you make it for yourself, the better. You will get stronger and you will become more adept at using your tools so that you do not have to avoid certain triggers.

Surf the Urge: You don’t have to do anything. Triggers don’t have to result in action. You can choose to do nothing but ride out the urge. Experts say urges usually last less than 30 minutes if you don’t feed them by giving them attention.

Distract Yourself: Pull out your distraction basket. Lose yourself in a worthier endeavor.

Change up Your Routine: Introduce new changes to your routine that are not associated with drinking. Drink while you’re fixing dinner? Schedule a healthy food delivery service or plan a non-cooking night (sandwiches, leftovers, salads) a few times a week that don’t require you spending time cooking (and drinking). Always head home right after work and grab a beer out of the fridge? Instead of heading right home, go for a run at the track or a walk in the park before heading home a couple of times a week.

Dealing with Negative Emotions

These can be the hardest triggers to ignore. Unfortunately, drinking doesn’t always relieve these negative emotions; it sometimes exacerbates them and can make even more negative feelings and situations occur.

Solutions

Recognize that drinking just postpones dealing with our emotions. Remember, our desire is to grow stronger and dealing with our emotions makes us stronger. It gives us confidence. It makes us reliable for ourselves and for others.

Prioritize triggers and focus on dealing with one emotional trigger at a time.

Accept that there are things (and people) that we cannot change and learn ways to protect ourselves and our feelings, i.e. avoid negative or critical people as much as possible for our own mental health. Put our well-being first.

Make a hard rule not to drink when we are highly emotionally triggered. We don’t have to deal with the situation right then and we don’t have to drink either.

Recognize that we have no power over some situations. They will either resolve themselves or they are someone else’s situation to resolve.

Responsible Drinking lists other triggers and solutions in Chapter 8.

Also, checkout Rethinking Drinking: Handling Urges to Drink