Amber HollingsworthRecovery Conversation Simulator, Amber's Recovery Practice Lab · Interactive learning tool trained on Amber methodoloy

Positive Emotions and Relapse:What You Need to Know #relapseprevention #addictionrecovery #triggers

19 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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This content was created by Amber Hollingsworth. This content was uploaded by Amber Hollingsworth. This is a YouTube video titled "Positive Emotions and Relapse:What You Need to Know #relapseprevention #addictionrecovery #triggers" (published 2026-01-19T17:15:03+00:00) featuring Amber Hollingsworth delivering a solo talk about relapse prevention in addiction recovery. Amber explains that positive emotions—excitement, pride, celebrations or holidays—can act as unexpected triggers for people in early recovery, describes why those moments are risky, and advises viewers to remain mindful during positive life events. The excerpt appears to be an educational/self-help segment aimed at clinicians or people in recovery.

Chapters

Another emotional state that's a big trigger for people in early recovery that we actually— most people don't even realize is when they're excited or they're really proud of something like they got a promotion, something really great happens, or it's a holiday or it's a special event, something that they're excited about. Just the same way as being under a lot of stress and emotional turmoil can be a trigger, being excited and wanting to celebrate, that's another time when people usually engage in their addictive behavior. So that excitement feeling That looking forward to something that actually gets us out of our sort of normal baseline of the way we feel and the way we operate. That can also be a huge trigger for a lot of clients I see. That's a bigger trigger. And I think the reason it's a bigger trigger is because people know to have their guard up towards difficulties. Like they know to have their guard up when they're having conflict with someone or they're stressed at work. They don't even realize they need to have their guard up for the really great positive things that happen. Maybe they've been working on a really hard project for a really long time and finally they finish it. There's this celebration urge that happens. And if they're in early recovery, all the ways they know how to celebrate probably have to do with the addiction.