Understanding Your Triggers
Triggers are the people, places, feelings, or situations that activate your urge to use or escape. They're not your fault, but recognizing them gives you power. You can't dodge a trigger you don't see.
Types of Triggers
Environmental: Locations, times, seasons | Social: People, interactions | Emotional: Stress, loneliness, shame | Physical: Hunger, tiredness, pain | Situational: Anniversaries, holidays, transitions
Your Trigger Map
Exercise 1: What Are Your Top 5 Triggers?
List the 5 situations/people/feelings that most reliably activate your urge. Rate each by intensity (1-10).
Exercise 2: Early Warning Signs
For each trigger, what happens first? Body sensations, thoughts, behaviors. The earlier you catch it, the more choices you have.
Exercise 3: Automatic Responses
What's your default response to each trigger? What do you do automatically? This is the habit pattern to interrupt.
Exercise 4: Alternative Responses
For each trigger + automatic response, list 3 different things you could do instead. Make them concrete and specific.
Pattern Breaking Tools
5-Minute Rule
When triggered: Wait 5 minutes. Do something else. Move your body. Call someone. Breathe. Often the intensity drops significantly.
Urge Surfing
Urges come in waves. They rise, peak, and fall. You don't have to act on them. Observe them like clouds passing.
