Coping with cues and triggers when dealing with alcohol or drug dependence is crucial for maintaining sobriety and avoiding relapse. One effective technique is to develop a strong support network. Surrounding yourself with understanding friends, family, or support groups can provide a buffer against the temptation to use substances. Engaging in regular communication with your support network can offer encouragement, accountability, and a safe space to discuss challenges and victories. Support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA), SMART Recovery, and the ARMOR Program offer structured environments where individuals can share experiences and strategies for managing triggers, thereby fostering a sense of community and belonging.
Bud-be-wiser, stay aware of triggers
Playing sports requires vigorous rigors.
Watching sports are often tailgate triggers.
Pickup trucks serving up liquors.
The party has already started when you arrive.
Your host cautions you not to drink and drive.
But there are more than car crashes to survive.
An old song plays from your drinking days.
A time when the next day was often a haze.
Just keep telling yourself, “It’s a past phase!” Movies portray violence and drinking.
This reinforces our alcoholic thinking.
In turn, it can cause sobriety sinking.
Advertisements show a horse and a wagon.
Pulled by a Clydesdale, or is it a dragon?
Why is drinking such a national passion?
Many shopping stores display booze, late into the night.
Supermarkets, filling stations, and convenience stores alike.
Hard to go anywhere without triggers in sight.
Awareness about our own individual triggers is key.
They will always be out there; on this we can agree.
Your response is up to thee, and my response is up to me.
richard ebner 2024 aka: richdogbud@gmail.com
At Doc’s younger brother’s wedding, during the early 1980’s, he and Tim sparked up a joint out behind the rectory. Thinking they were being stealth, apparently someone was overhead in a window observing. It was probably open too, allowing their aromatic smoke-signals to enter. Doc recalls the featured photo being taken immediately after toking, clearly. Their window peering photographer was insistent on placing Doc and Tim in an exact specific location, just before marrying his brother and bride to be. He kept maneuvering them – a little left, a step back, and more to the right.
Not being sober minded for the next couple decades, Doc allowed that printed seedling to remain dormant. It was an intentional cue, a subliminal message left years ago to foster some contemplation. The following year, his beloved brother Tim died in an automobile crash. A dark cloud loomed overhead for a long time, a very long time. It wasn’t until after his last session of imbibing alcohol (September of 1997), that Doc realized what the positioning of the word between them meant.
Are you familiar with subliminal messaging? It’s sad how some people judge those afflicted with an addiction disorder as responsible for their predicament, while being clueless as to its etiology. You may remember when fingers pointed at peer-pressure or the gateway drug scenario (marijuana). These were supposed to be major etiological factors. Some believed them to be solely responsible for developing a person’s addiction disorder.
Do you know or recall how movie theaters were duping patrons into buying popcorn via subliminal messaging? Check out author Ebner’s sketch, it has a message within a message. Please take from today’s news brief our message: addictions are far more complex than an individual’s volitionally developed problem. Yes, there is a biological component.
Childhood sexual abuse, warfare trauma, mental illnesses: these are psychosocial contributors to the disorder’s development as well. Prescription drugs have a role in this too. And what about social systems, environmental influences, and interpersonal dynamics? During doctoral studies, Doc reviewed research indicating that addiction disorders can be cued or triggered into a lapse during early remission at a subconscious level. Hard to believe right?
One evening, just before midnight, Doc received a call to rush over and see a client. She was using her medication (buprenorphine/naloxone) and had not been using any heroin. She was curled up in a ball, tapping the TV with her hand, and bawling her eyes out. When Doc arrived, it appeared that this young woman was experiencing acute opioid withdrawals. This would be unlikely though, while on her medication. After taking another dose of her medication though, her symptoms subsided. Having watched a PSA earlier, about the opioid crisis, she observed the process (spoon, syringe, injection, etc.). It was the images that triggered her into experiencing physiological withdrawals. That was one heck of a powerful trigger and confirmed the research! It also served as a cue for desensitizing, an important feature during the ARMOR Program’s Intermediate Phase of remission. Join us and learn more!
What is a family?
Different strokes for different folks.
In my family, we had heavy drinkers and light drinkers.
My father was a light drinker who lived to be 96.
My mother was a heavy drinker who died before her time.
My oldest brother was a heavy drinker who died too young.
I have been; heavy, light and now non.
In 1956, the American Medical Association classified alcoholism as a disease.
I was just three-years-old then.
When I turned eleven, my mother gave me my firsts alcoholic drink.
Thanks Mom?
AA has helped many to become sober.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t help my mother or brother.
As atheists, they just could not get past the God thing.
Also, my brother had Multiple Sclerosis.
And he couldn’t call himself an alcoholic.
After all, no one called him an MS.
Since alcoholism is a disease, should we be labeling people as their disease?
Should we be treating them with distain?
Are they morally weaker?
This November, I am giving thanks to all who have helped me! My extended family.