Day 3 - Monitoring the moments (What are your triggers?"
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 36
Day 3 - Monitoring the moments (What are your triggers?"
Day three was actually yesterday but posting now.
Yesterday I was thinking a lot about triggers and mastering each moment at a time.
A number of things happened yesterday that usually would have caused me to move into that cycle of thinking about having a drink, it wouldn't have happened yesterday but if I didn't monitor these moments it would have happened at some point in the week.
These triggers included:
a) a heated discussion with my business partner
b) Me worrying about money
c) Me worrying about my parents (I am in Australia, they are in the UK)
Each of these things in and of their own are no issue but I have noticed that combined they are the trigger, the trigger that makes me go screw it I am going to have a drink.
I am focusing on motioning these moments, being aware of them and most crucially allowing them to simply pass.
It's okay to feel what we feel. We have to acknowledge what we feel and how that impacts us but after the acknowledgement we can simply move on.
What moments trigger you to think about drink?
I have debated whether I should ask that question because, what if it causes you to think about them, and then that leads to drinking but the reality is that the awareness is key.
Respect you all so much, thank you for all being on this journey together.
#wecanandwilldothis
Yesterday I was thinking a lot about triggers and mastering each moment at a time.
A number of things happened yesterday that usually would have caused me to move into that cycle of thinking about having a drink, it wouldn't have happened yesterday but if I didn't monitor these moments it would have happened at some point in the week.
These triggers included:
a) a heated discussion with my business partner
b) Me worrying about money
c) Me worrying about my parents (I am in Australia, they are in the UK)
Each of these things in and of their own are no issue but I have noticed that combined they are the trigger, the trigger that makes me go screw it I am going to have a drink.
I am focusing on motioning these moments, being aware of them and most crucially allowing them to simply pass.
It's okay to feel what we feel. We have to acknowledge what we feel and how that impacts us but after the acknowledgement we can simply move on.
What moments trigger you to think about drink?
I have debated whether I should ask that question because, what if it causes you to think about them, and then that leads to drinking but the reality is that the awareness is key.
Respect you all so much, thank you for all being on this journey together.
#wecanandwilldothis
AA Member
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Silicon Valley
Posts: 2,983
Originally Posted by MelbourneHelp 
What moments trigger you to think about drink?
not calling my sponsor
not being of service to others
not asking God for help
not doing the next right thing
oh yea great job on 3 days !
All is Change
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,284
I've recently quit smoking so the triggers for that are current and they are being satisfied, being shocked or nothing at all. For example something has gone well and is completed. Smoke. Something went wrong and I'm shaken. Smoke. There is nothing much happening or to do. Smoke.
If I don't have access to tobacco and I develop a habit of accknowleding the impulse to smoke while carrying on doing whatever I need to do in the moment, from moment to moment, I thwart the bad habit and eventually begin to replace it.
If I don't have access to tobacco and I develop a habit of accknowleding the impulse to smoke while carrying on doing whatever I need to do in the moment, from moment to moment, I thwart the bad habit and eventually begin to replace it.
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
Today, nothing triggers me to think about drinking. The problem has been removed. In the old days triggers hadn't been invented. Instead we had alibis and excuses which I used to disguise the real cause, selfishness and selfcentredness.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 36
Originally Posted by january161992
not going to meetings
not calling my sponsor
not being of service to others
not asking God for help
not doing the next right thing
oh yea great job on 3 days !
not calling my sponsor
not being of service to others
not asking God for help
not doing the next right thing
oh yea great job on 3 days !
Absolutely love your focus. And thank you on the congrats! Long way to go, but at the beginning of the journey!
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 36
Originally Posted by Gottalife
Today, nothing triggers me to think about drinking. The problem has been removed. In the old days triggers hadn't been invented. Instead we had alibis and excuses which I used to disguise the real cause, selfishness and selfcentredness.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,445
A lot of folks don;t believe in triggers but I'm not one of them 
I see it as a valid psychological phenomena - an emotional situation evokes memories of other emotional situations and we instinctively go to the coping method we most use...
the key to change is finding new tools, new strategies, and changing the way we react to given situations
by the end of my drinking waking up was a trigger, but I fought through it, found support, learnt some new ways to do things - like urge surfing
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html
and making a recovery plan
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ery-plans.html
and started the process of change
It can be done
D
I see it as a valid psychological phenomena - an emotional situation evokes memories of other emotional situations and we instinctively go to the coping method we most use...
the key to change is finding new tools, new strategies, and changing the way we react to given situations
by the end of my drinking waking up was a trigger, but I fought through it, found support, learnt some new ways to do things - like urge surfing
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html
and making a recovery plan
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ery-plans.html
and started the process of change
It can be done
D
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 36
Originally Posted by Dee74
A lot of folks don;t believe in triggers but I'm not one of them
I see it as a valid psychological phenomena - an emotional situation evokes memories of other emotional situations and we instinctively go to the coping method we most use...
the key to change is finding new tools, new strategies, and changing the way we react to given situations
by the end of my drinking waking up was a trigger, but I fought through it, found support, learnt some new ways to do things - like urge surfing
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html
and making a recovery plan
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ery-plans.html
and started the process of change
It can be done
D
I see it as a valid psychological phenomena - an emotional situation evokes memories of other emotional situations and we instinctively go to the coping method we most use...
the key to change is finding new tools, new strategies, and changing the way we react to given situations
by the end of my drinking waking up was a trigger, but I fought through it, found support, learnt some new ways to do things - like urge surfing
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html
and making a recovery plan
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ery-plans.html
and started the process of change
It can be done
D
So powerful.
Thank you for sharing your awesome truth.
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