Understanding Triggers and Cravings: Counselor Education Webinar

Hey there everybody, and welcome to this presentation on understanding triggers and cravings. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this video, we're going to define triggers and cravings. We'll explore ways to identify your particular triggers and cravings and discuss methods to cope with triggers and cravings to prevent them from leading to impulsive behaviors. Why is it important to know about triggers and cravings? Well, people, places, things, sensations, Triggers are everywhere and they can trigger things like the desire to use or engage in an addictive behavior. They can trigger feelings like anxiety, depression, grief or happiness. And they can also trigger sensations like relaxation. So some triggers are good. Some triggers are going to help help you move toward that rich and meaningful life. Other triggers are not so helpful. Understanding your triggers is the first step in being able to address them. So relapses don't sneak up from out of the blue. So let's start out by just kind of thinking about some examples. What are triggers? Triggers are anything that prompt a rewarding or survival response. Now you may think to yourself, well, getting angry isn't necessarily rewarding. When something triggers my anger, how is that rewarding? Anger is your body's response to a threat. When your body perceives because of something in the environment, some trigger in the environment, your body perceives a threat, you feel angry. It triggers that fight or flight response to help you stay safe. Now what you do with that anger is what we're going to talk about later in the video. So let's explore some of these various types of triggers. Touch, for example, can be a trigger. Touching a hot stove, you feel the heat. What is that a trigger for? Moving your hand, I hope sounds when your alarm goes off. What does that trigger? You know? And triggers can trigger a variety of things, not just behaviors, they can trigger emotions. So your alarm clock, when it goes off in the morning may trigger you to wake up and get out of bed. It also may trigger a feeling of excitement because you're going to the theme park today or trigger a feeling of dread because you've got a God awful meeting that you've got to go to. So remembering that triggers are not just behavioral, they can trigger lot of other things. Sights, seeing your child smile is a trigger for hopefully you smiling and a feeling of happiness. Smells, a smell that reminds you of fall is a trigger for now. This is one of my big ones. I love fall. It's my favorite season in the whole world. My wedding was actually done in the colors of fall leaves for that reason. Fall for me when I smell the air that reminds me of fall, it triggers me to take a really deep breath. I don't even think about it. It's one of those automatic reactions. When I smell it, I'm like, oh, I want more of that time. The sun going down is a trigger for. In most people, that's a trigger for your body to start making melatonin and begin that readying for sleep. Process, process places. Being at the dentist is a trigger for, for some people it's anxiety. For other people, maybe they love their dentist and it triggers happy feelings. I don't know. Person seeing someone when you're out that reminds you of somebody from your past who abandoned you can trigger feelings of anxiety, abandonment, anger, grief, a whole range of things. And it's not even the person who abandoned you, it's somebody who reminds you of that person. Maybe they walk the same way or use the same perfume, or have the same haircut, or look similar in some way, or even sound similar situation. Starting a new job or a new school is a trigger for, for some people it's anxiety. Change is really difficult. But for others it's enthusiasm. It's like, okay, I'm getting ready to start over again. I get an opportunity to start fresh. And they're really excited about the possibilities. These are just a few of the examples. I wanted to help you see that triggers aren't just sights. It's not just seeing a bottle of alcohol or seeing a computer that reminds you that you can go to pornography sites or what, whatever the case may be. There are a lot of different types of triggers out there. Triggers have four components in general. Awareness, cognitive, sensory, or what I call systemic awareness. When your body, your brain becomes aware of a stimulus, becomes aware of something in the environment that is a sensory awareness. And so your body becomes aware that, oh, I see this thing. What does that mean? So the body takes that sensory awareness and it sends it up to the brain. And the brain sorts through all the files and it finds a schema that most closely matches it. And it says, ah, this is what it means. This is how to interpret this situation and this is how to handle it. Okay, so that schema gets activated. If it's a threat, the body will release neurochemicals. It'll trigger the fight or flight response, the HPA axis. If it is something pleasurable or relaxing, then the body will start secreting dopamine and serotonin and endorphins. So depending on the schema that are retrieved, the body responds differently. But the neurochemical release basically Says, let's do this. If it's stress, if it's the fight or flight reaction, let's do this. Let's get the heck out of here. Let's protect ourselves, or let's escape because it's by using substances, because whatever's going on, I can't physically remove myself from. Or if it's positive, you know, let's do this. And then you engage in an automatic or intentional response. For a lot of people, their responses to what their schema tell them to do, the schema says, this is how you interpret this situation. It triggers a neurochemical release. And without thinking about what is the best option in this situation, they do what they've always done. They're operating in that default mode network. And one of the things that we talk about a lot in relapse prevention and handling triggers is the need to switch from the automatic response to an intentional response. The need to become aware, more mindful of triggers in your environment. So when that schema is triggered, you can say, okay, is this a schema that's accurate at this point, point in time? Or when that neurochemical release happens, you're able to stop and say, okay, is this feeling that I'm feeling? Is this feeling of fear or anger accurate in this situation at this point in time? And then choosing a more appropriate or helpful response. So that's sensory cognitive awareness. This is what I refer to for things like flashbacks and intrusive thoughts. Sometimes you may just be minding your own business, and all of a sudden you have this intrusive thought or this flashback that happens again. That thought or that flashback will be transported up to the brain. And the brain says, okay, how do I handle this? What schema do I use in order to cope with this? Or what does this remind me of? There's a corresponding neurochemical release, so let's take care of this problem. And then often an automatic response. And the third type of awareness, if you will, is what I call systemic. And this is when your body notices that there is an imbalance somewhere. You may have. You may get triggered because there's an imbalance in your blood sugar, or you may get triggered because there's an imbalance in your dopamine levels. So your brain starts saying, I need more of that. I need somebody to turn up the volume a little bit. So when your dopamine gets low or when your blood sugar gets low, your body through your nervous system registers that looks for a schema and says, okay. In the past, when I felt this way, how did I handle it? What's the best way to cope with this? To make this unpleasantness stop? Stop. Neurochemical release and then the response. My point being that not all triggers are going to be necessarily immediately apparent. Now, a craving, as opposed to a trigger, A craving is a repetitive consuming thought or desire for something caused by triggers. So, so you may be triggered by seeing something or hearing something, and that activates that schema. When that schema is activated, then the brain is saying, okay, I know what to do. This is what we need to do. I know what to do. And it's gonna keep saying that. Kind of like the Chihuahua that's biting at your ankles. In order to help you, motivate you, annoy you into engaging in the automatic behavior, Commercials use the trigger craving concept to motivate you to buy things. When they have a commercial about food at night, they use particular colors that stimulate your appetite. They use particular images to make something look really, really good, to make you think, ooh, I need to have that now. And so that sight triggers the thought, triggers the craving. And you're sitting there at 10 o' clock at night going, pizza sounds really good. That's that craving. Now how do you respond to that? Your craving is your body's saying, okay, I know what to do. Now. Do you tell it, that's not what we're going to do right now, or do you give in to the automatic behaviors? So let's start out with identifying your triggers, because everybody's triggers are different and, well, I'll get into that a little bit more in the next video that goes more deeply into the neurological basis of triggers. So let's learn to recognize your triggers for particular feelings, for particular thoughts and particular behaviors. Now, why do I have all these, all three of these things? Because it's important to know feelings, thoughts and behaviors. If you think back to the cognitive behavioral therapy triad, they work together. When you have a particular thought, it is going to trigger a particular feeling and potentially trigger a particular automatic behavior. When you do something, when you engage in a particular behavior, maybe you get upset and you just lose your temper and you start screaming. Okay, that's a behavior. What triggered that? Now you can work backwards and say, well, I got angry. So that was a feeling and the thoughts associated with it, but they're intertwined. I encourage you to write down on a piece of paper somewhere a variety of feelings. Each paper has its own feeling. Happy, in love, sad, angry, anxious, grieving, overwhelmed. Those are just some of them. And then identify what your Triggers are for those things. What triggers you to feel happy? And what does happiness trigger in you? Does it trigger a smile, or does it trigger a feeling of dread? Does it trigger the desire to do something positive, or does it trigger the desire to celebrate by going out and drinking? What does happiness trigger in you? When you're in love, you know what triggers that? And what does being in love trigger in you? Does it trigger a sense of calm? Does it trigger a sense of happiness? Or does it trigger a sense of intense freedom? Fear? Depends on the person. It may also trigger old memories that have to be dealt with that may trigger grief for some people. Sadness, angry, anxious, grieving, overwhelmed. All of these things. On one side of the paper, you're going to identify what triggers that feeling for you. On the other side of the paper, you're going to identify what that feeling, feeling triggers for you. So when you're feeling happy, when you're feeling grief, what does that trigger for you? What behaviors and what thoughts does that trigger for you physically? When you're hungry, tired, in pain, or just experiencing physical tension? What feelings are associated with each one of those things? What thoughts are associated with each one of those things? What behaviors are associated with each one of those things? In addiction recovery, we have a mnemonic called Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired. Because it's so important to pay attention to your sleep as well as your nutrition when you are in the recovery process. Both of those things can contribute to inflammation, which can contribute to emotional as well as physical distress, which can contribute to the desire to escape or engage in behaviors that you don't want to environmentally think about. What people in your environment, the people in your environment, do they trigger feelings of happiness and contentment or unhappiness and unsafeness? The places that you go, what do they trigger in you? When you go to the grocery store, when you go to the doctor's office, when you go to work, when you come home, when you go to your family's house, what feelings and thoughts and behaviors do those places trigger in you? Recognizing those things and then getting curious, why does it trigger this feeling? You may not know right away, but why does it trigger this feeling? And what can I do to enhance it? If it's a positive feeling or get rid of it if it is an unpleasant feeling or an urge to engage in a behavior that's unhealthy? Times are also important. And you may be going times. Yeah, times a day. My mother used to be a three pack a day smoker. She would roll out of bed and without even thinking about it. In her default mode, she would light up a cigarette the minute she got out of bed before she had her first cup of coffee. It's just what she did. She didn't actually think about it. Right after dinner, she would light up a cigarette when, you know, obviously three packs a day. There were a lot of different triggers for her lighting up. But it's important to recognize that certain times of day may trigger certain behaviors or certain things. Feelings in you. Evening time for some people, if they're home alone, may trigger feelings of anxiety or loneliness or despair. Recognizing what times are good for you, what times are bad for you. Sensations can also trigger particular feelings, thoughts, behaviors, urges. And what I mean by sensations are sights, sounds, smells, when you hear certain things, when you hear the sirens going by, when you see Christmas lights, when you see letters from the irs. I don't know what feelings, thoughts and potentially behaviors do those things trigger. What you want to start doing is increasing the things in your environment, people, places, things, sensations that trigger positivity, that trigger a feeling of safety and empowerment and relaxation and minimizing the things that trigger distress. You may not be able to get rid of it, but minimizing it or figuring out how to cope with it. And again, we're going to talk about that. In relationships, when, when you get into a new relationship, whether it's a romantic one or with a friend, there's something called NRE or new relationship energy. When you feel that, that flood of newness, what does that trigger for you? This is a huge trigger for a lot of people in recovery because they associate these feelings with the quote, inevitable crash when the relationship ends. Other people get swept up in it and quit paying attention and quit engaging in self care behaviors. So they start to become hungry, tired, let other things go and then that sneaks up on them. So what, how do you behave? What are your feelings and thoughts when you're in a new relationship? Other things in relationships, when you feel invalidated or you feel like somebody violated your boundaries, how does that impact you? How does that, what feelings, thoughts and behaviors does that trigger? Some people will get extremely defensive and push others away. Some people will get extremely defensive and get angry. Other people will withdraw. What is it that you do? Communication styles, depending on your prior experiences. Now remember, all of these triggers are associated with prior experiences. And if you've had prior experiences with somebody who communicated aggressively and it was a unpleasant situation, which aggressive communication usually is, then when somebody communicates aggressively, you may not only be reacting to the feeling of Threat in the moment, but also to prior experiences of threat. Maybe this person is just boisterous, we'll use that word. And they're not trying to be hurtful. They're not actually a threat. They just are extremely opinionated. Whereas people in your past were hurtful. And so you may react to this person the same way as you reacted to them in the past. Recognizing that, how do you feel when you interact with somebody who is aggressive? Likewise, you may have been in relationships with people who are passive aggressive or passive and passive aggressive. They were nice to your face and they would pull the rug out from under you as soon as you weren't looking. And that can trigger, if you feel like that that's happening again, or you get reminded of somebody who did that to you, even if they're not communicating in the same way. Maybe it was a prior boss. Now you may, when you're interacting with your current boss, even if that boss doesn't behave that way, you, a schema in your brain is telling you, yeah, you might want to be on the lookout for this. You might want to expect this. So it's important to examine those schema, examine those thoughts, identify those feelings. If you're feeling distress, especially if you're feeling distress, get curious, what is this associated with? What past experience? What thoughts am I having now that are contributing to my distress? What are the facts for and against those thoughts? And in this context, at this time, you may still have to process some grief or anger or trauma from the past. I'm not saying that you can just ignore that, but asking yourself at this time, is this schema accurate? Sometimes triggers are not super obvious habits. When you get up in the morning, and I think most of us are on default mode autopilot, we when we get up in the morning, when you get up in the morning, what do you do? Do you have a routine, a habit that you do without even thinking about it? When you're watching television, do you have particular habits that you engage in? Some people eat. They just, when they sit down to watch television, that's what they do. They take food with them, even if they're not hungry, because that's the spirit associated with television. So if they sit down to watch television and they don't have food, they feel like something's missing. That gets triggered, their schema gets triggered by watching television. That, that's the trigger. And they start craving food. And they may have a hard time not thinking about food. When you hear a certain song on the radio, you know, sometimes we engage in particular behaviors as a result of memories associated with songs. Random associations, especially if your memory is painful or traumatic. When we're in the stress state, we become hyper aware. Our orienting reflex becomes much more open, if you will, and we take in more of the stimuli in the environment when something is happening in order to help us identify and prepare and protect from that ever happening again. So something unpleasant may have happened to you. Maybe you were at the hospital and something unpleasant happened to you or somebody you loved, and you were at the hospital and there was a phone ringing in the background at the nurse's station, and it had a particular telephone ring. You may be triggered by that telephone ring two, three, four years down the road if you hear it. Because it was unique, it had nothing to do with your experience, but it was part of the environment. It was part of the sensory stuff that your brain recorded in that schema. The smell of exhaust fumes. If you've been in a traffic accident, for example, smelling exhaust fumes may trigger a feeling of panic in the present. Even though the exhaust fumes may not be directly related to your accident, you are probably smelling them afterwards. Football games. Now, I come from Florida, and football's big in Florida, and a lot of people get together to watch football games on the weekend. And when they watch football games, they drink. That used to be one of the first things. A lot of the people who went through our residential program would start decoupling because you didn't not watch football in Florida. It's just one of those things. Somebody wanted to watch football on the television and learning how to be able to watch football without being able to consume alcohol or was a new experience for a lot of people. And so there's random associations. You wouldn't think of football triggering an urge necessarily, but it can. What can you do? Well, start being more mindful. Practice being aware of your surroundings. You know, remember, awareness is the first of those four parts. The sites, the, the smells, the sounds, even the time of day and how you feel internally. Are you hungry? Are you tired? Are you in pain? What's going on? What's your breathing like? What's your muscle tension like? What are you thinking about? Are you in a optimistic, cheerful mood or a pessimistic mood? How are you feeling emotionally? And what is your gut telling you? Sometimes we may, you know, not really feel much at all, and our head may be thinking about a lot of other things and our guts going, yeah, something, something's hanky here. Becoming more aware can help you identify early warning signs. You may not have really even realized that you encountered a trigger, but your body does. And if you're more aware, then you can identify it early when your body's going, yeah, this reminds me of a really bad situation. Or you start feeling stressed out and you're like, I don't really know why I'm stressed. Okay. Noticing early is helpful because then you can look back and that trigger was probably pretty close by, pretty proximal in time, and you can start getting curious about what might be causing this. Journal. About the last three times that you were triggered. Whatever your behavior, whether it triggered your depression, your anxiety, your anger, addiction, what were the triggers associated with it? Really think about the situation. What were the triggers in the moment? And then look backwards a couple of hours and see if there were other things that also triggered that, the culmination of what happened. What were your early warning signs of being triggered when maybe you got triggered, your anger got triggered by somebody that you work with. What were the early warning signs of being triggered? Did you start to feel that gut feeling as soon as they walked in the room? And you're like, oh, this is going to be bad. Okay. That's important to notice because you can stop your automatic reaction at any point in time. If you're aware of it, you can say, okay, what do I do? This is probably going to be bad. What are my options in this situation? Instead of just ignoring it and then waiting until you have a negative interaction with that person and it escalates? You see, you can intervene way early in order to try to prevent or at least mitigate the outcome. For example, practicing foursquare breathing in order to trigger your relaxation response and deactivate your stress response. That's something you can do. Taking a minute and going through the loving kindness meditation. That's another example of something you can do. If you encounter somebody that maybe you know you've got to deal with, however, they're just seeing them, triggers that stress response in you increase things that help you feel physically safe. That can be blinds on the windows. That can be mirrors. I've talked about this before, and I'll say it again. Feng shui has a lot of really good ideas with the use of mirrors. We are naturally more stressed in environments in which people can sneak up on us. So if we can't see all of the entrances and exits, like in this room right now, I've got a window behind me and a door behind me. So it is a more stressful environment than if the window and the door were up Front. Now what do I do? I close the blinds and I lock the door. That way I have awareness if somebody is going to come into the room. In feng shui, they also indicate or suggest putting up little mirrors, whether it be at your office desk, if you've got a setup like I do, or even at the stove, if you're looking at a backsplash, people can come up behind you. Just being aware of those situations can help you reduce your HPA axis, your stress response a little bit more. What else makes you feel unsafe and what can you do to address it so you feel more safe in your environment? You feel more safe physically driving your car, walking to the office. Walk. When you're in your office, whatever. Comfortable. And you're like comfortable? Yeah. Pay attention to ergonomics. When you have physical stress, when you have physical pain, it tends to have a negative impact on your mood, have a negative impact on your other physical parameters, as well as have a negative impact on your ability to think clearly and maybe even your attitude. You may turn into somewhat of a pessimist. So what can you do in your environment to help you feel not only safe, but also comfortable? It doesn't have to be an oasis, but what can you do in offices? For example, not every office allows you to do it, but if you do have the ability in your office, bringing some things that you can have in your office that you can look at that make you feel feel happy, safe, nurtured, can be great and rested. What can help you feel rested? Now, obviously getting good sleep is one of those things, which means addressing the things that are keeping you from getting good sleep, but also figuring out are there times during the day where you may need to take a little 10 minute power nap, if you will, or maybe it helps you to go out and walk around the building once or twice and in order to get your blood moving, what helps you so you're not feeling tired and groggy? Affectively, what things help you feel happy, content, joyous, loved? There are a lot of positive feelings, curious. And how can you put them in your environment? When I was in graduate school, they had posters on the wall in the main reception area, if you will, where the secretaries were. And they were all filled with inspirational quotes and cute little kittens and puppies and things. Both of those things, the inspirational quote as well as the cute little animal always made me happy. And to this day they. They were potent enough that I remember them. And it's been 20 years since I've set foot in that office. What can you do to help you help yourself feel positive or optimistic and clear headed? And that one's a little bit more difficult. But that is where encouraging quotations may come in. That's where journaling may come in, where you can just write things down and get them out and then see them in black and white or purple and white, whatever color ink you use and be able to more effectively deal with what's going on. In my office, you can't see it from here, but I've got a big whiteboard to my right that I use a lot. So I'm not using paper because I make a lot of lists. Environmentally, what can you do to help yourself feel relaxed? And that kind of goes with safe, comfortable and rested. And relationally, what can you do to increase your sense of security and feeling of being loved and accepted in your relationships? And I'll give you a hint. Assertive communication, boundary management and love languages are all right up there on my list of things for improving relationship quality. So when you see people instead, instead of fearing abandonment or rejection, you feel accepted and nurtured, if not loved. Decrease things that trigger feelings of hunger, pain, exhaustion or unsafeness. If there are certain things in your environment that make you feel unsafe, like a broken lock on a door or. Well, you'd have to figure out what it is for you. What can you do to address those things? Maybe you have to walk to your car after dark in the parking lot and that can be really intimidating. That can be anxiety provoking. There is no reason to trigger that anxiety. There are things that you can do to feel safer. How can you manage your hunger and your exhaustion Affectively, when you feel dysphoric, you know you want to figure out what is it that is contributing to making me feel depressed, grief stricken, anxious, angry. The list goes on. Remember that list I had talked about at the beginning? Identify how many of those things can you eliminate? Maybe it's the color on the walls in your office are a color that just doesn't sit well with you. I like warm colors, butter, yellows, coffee colors, those sorts of things. You know, kind of going along with the fall leaf schema. But it's important to figure out what's triggering that feeling and what can you do to feel happier? Do you need to put up pictures? Do you need to put on headphones? So noise canceling headphones or listen to more positive music? What can you put in your environment to trigger feelings, to actually override and trigger feelings of happiness? Now, it doesn't mean that your grief and Your anger and that other stuff is just going to poof, go away. What we're trying to do is balance it out. Hopefully you're not always angry all the time. That's pretty hard to do. So in those little intervening times, are there times when you can throw a little splash of happiness in there? Are there times when you can start balancing out the distress with what we call eustress or positive feelings environmentally? Look at those ergonomics and anything else you can do to release tension. Some people when they get stressed, one of the first things they do is they tense their muscles up. So whenever they feel tense all over, it causes pain. It contributes to exhaustion because that takes a lot of energy. What can you do to help yourself feel less tense? Maybe that means having a push notification to remind yourself every two hours, for example, to get up and stretch or to take some deep breaths or to go through some progressive muscular relaxation. And relationally, what can you do? What do you need to decrease in your environment or in your life in order to address feelings of being rejected, abandoned, invalidated. Now remember I talked about some of those triggers are cognitive triggers. You may have intrusive thoughts, memories from times in the past when you've been rejected, abandoned or invalidated that just pop up. Okay, well, they did. How do you cope with them? Do you hold on to them? Do you dwell on them? Do you hang them around your neck and carry them around with you the rest of the day? Or do you unhook from them and recognize, okay, that was then, this is now? Or develop some other coping strategies? Some triggers cannot be eliminated or avoided. The cognitive ones, some of the physical ones, and even some of the environmental ones, the sensory ones. You can't keep a plane from flying overhead. You can't keep sirens from going by, you can't keep your boss from coming into your office. So it's important to recognize that life brings with it some distress and to empower yourself to develop skills to deal with that. Talked before about distress tolerance skills. Distract, don't react. That means recognize, become aware of the trigger, become aware of your feelings. You're like, okay, you know, activated some schema. My urge is to do this. However, I don't have to. I can use my distress tolerance skills. And the mnemonic tags stands for thoughts that are distress tolerant. Like I can get through this or this too shall pass, or this does not have to consume me or I don't have to act on my thoughts. A stands for activities, and that is simply doing something that is going to divert Your attention to something else. Until you can get down into your wise mind. That can mean four square breathing. That can mean meditation. That can mean dropping and doing 20 push ups, going on a walk, calling a friend, whatever it is you can do. Until your brain can get down into your wise mind, out of that stress response and into the thinking response. G stands for guided imagery. Maybe you go to a safe place place. Or you envision that you've got a protector or a guardian angel that is at your side, that is protecting you and helping you through the particular challenge and sensations. The most common one that I remember from even when I was knee high to a grasshopper was splash cold water on your face. That actually does trigger the vagus nerve. Remember, the vagus nerve is connected to your trigeminal nerve which is in your face. When you splash cold water on it, that cold sensation is registered and it actually can help trigger the relaxation response. Change your dialogue. Instead of saying, I have to do this, I need to do this. I am overwhelmed. I am this. I am having the feeling that I'm overwhelmed. I'm having the feeling that I'm angry. I'm having the thought that this person is really obnoxious. I'm having the desire to do this. All of those things I'm having. When we have something, it's to have and to hold. So you've got it. Now what are you gonna do with it? Are you gonna carry it around with you? And if you do, you know that's your choice. But holding your, hold your hands out here for, you know, the rest of this slide. By the time we get through this slide, your shoulders are going to start saying, yeah, I really don't want to hold that anymore. So you've got to decide what to do with it. Are you going to make it part of you? Are you going to disperse it? And by disperse, I don't mean just ignore it. I mean what are you going to do with this? Can you put it in a cubby if you will and deal with it later? Or is it something that just doesn't deserve your energy recondition, whatever it is, to trigger something positive or make it even more unpleasant? Payday. For example, for people who are in addiction recovery, sometimes payday triggers a desire to use. It's like, ooh, I got money. Or for some people, they may dislike their job and payday. Yeah, I got paid. Whatever. I'm stuck at this dead end job. It's not real rewarding. So changing your association with payday, maybe it means you have the ability to pay bills. Or maybe if you really dislike your job, you're able to set aside $10 of your paycheck in order to go do something that you want to do. Now, $10 doesn't go real far these days, but it can maybe help you go to a matinee on a particular, on a particular day. I know there's a theater here in, in the Nashville area that Tuesdays, the tickets are $6. So you could do that. Sporting events. I mentioned before, the sporting events can be triggering for a lot of people with addictions. For example, because they used to drink, whenever they were at a sporting event, they would drink. And it may trigger being at a sporting event, may trigger the desire to drink, or it may trigger regrets because they were the star quarterback in high school and now they're still stuck in a dead end job. Or it may trigger the regret because of friends that they lost when they were in their addiction. There's a lot of things that it can trigger or you can reframe it and focus on what is in the moment and that it can be a time to have fun with your current friends. In terms of making something even more unpleasant, ant abuse is kind of the textbook example. And some people will argue about Antabuse and its effects. However, in theory, ant abuse makes you very, very sick if you are taking Antabuse and you drink alcohol at the same time. And therefore people who are not wanting to drink alcohol may take ant abuse in order to make it very unpleasant when they do. Is important to notice and validate yourself when you successfully manage a trigger. If you are feeling, if you get triggered and you start feeling a craving or an urge and you don't act on it, give yourself a pat on the back, give yourself kudos, make a note of it in your journal because then you can look back over time and see how much more frequently may not be every time. You may not be perfect, most people aren't. But you can see how much more frequently you're able to manage those triggers. And that will help you develop a sense of empowerment over your automatic reactions. Identify what you really need or want and find an alternative. I had a therapist that I worked with in Gainesville who used to tell his clients, stop, look, listen and feel. And that's great because cravings are often clues. Cravings tell you that you just got triggered by something and there's a need that may need to be met. For example, when you feel hungry, that's a craving. You may have a craving for food. Well, That's a clue that your body may need fuel and your blood sugar is low. Now, I'm not talking about the desire to eat. I'm talking about actual hunger. That's one of those systemic or internal sensations that may trigger a craving which will motivate you to do something. It's important to pay attention to what our cravings are and say, maybe you have a craving to eat and you're not hungry. All right, well, I'm having this craving. What's that about? What am I hoping to resolve by eating? Is it loneliness? Is it boredom? Is it habit? Is it what's going on here that I might need to address? Sometimes you can think about cravings that are like the four year old in the store who wants kids candy. They start out by saying, can I have some candy? No. Well, I'll give you a perfect example. I haven't used this one in years. My son, when he was about five, we were in a store called Publix. And their motto is Publix, where shopping is a pleasure. And we had gone to the store, it was after school, he was hungry, no doubt. And we got into the aisle where we were checking out and they have all the bubble gum and the candy. And he wanted candy. And I said no. And he, he started pleading with me, can I have candy? And I said, no, we're going home to eat dinner. You'll ruin your supper. We're gonna, you're not gonna get candy right now. He looks at me and with no volume control at all, says, well, so much for Publix, where shopping is a pleasure. I was mortified. However, that was his tantrum. He wasn't one to throw himself on the ground and kick and scream, but he knew how to embarrass mom really well. Unfortunately, if you give in to a child during a temper tantrum, they recognize that you're gonna give in. So the next time they won't give up so easy. And then they will proceed. If you win then or you don't give in to their temper tantrum, then they recognize that, yeah, maybe that's not worth the effort or that's not gonna work. Cravings are kind of the same way. Cravings are like that five year old that's wanting candy and if you give into it, then it'll come back just as strong if you don't give in to will eventually dissipate. Humans are responsive organisms. There are triggers for like literally everything. You can create positive triggers in your environment, like funny pictures, favorite songs, aromather therapy, paint the walls, whatever, in order to create a more positive, healthy environment. Cravings are often clues telling us that something may need to change. So pay attention and identify what needs to change specifically. You know, like I said, if you're craving food, but you're not hungry, then that's not what needs to change. What is it that. That you actually need at that moment? And then find a way to try to meet that need or get yourself to a place where you feel safe and comforted.