Understanding Cravings

Identifying your alcohol and drug use triggers

An urge to drink or use drugs can sometimes seem to come from nowhere. Looking more closely at what happened beforehand may help you identify patterns.

Understanding your triggers gives you useful information about when you may need additional support or a different response.

What is a trigger?

A trigger is something that brings on an urge or increases the likelihood of alcohol or drug use. It may be something around you, such as a place or person, or something you experience internally, such as a thought, emotion or physical sensation.

Triggers are individual. The aim is to understand the connections that are relevant to your own experience.

External triggers

External triggers are situations or reminders in your environment. Examples might include:

Spending time with people you usually drink or use drugs with.
Visiting a particular venue or passing a familiar location.
Finishing work, reaching the weekend or receiving your pay.
Having alcohol or drugs readily available.
Attending an event where drinking or drug use is expected.

Repeatedly using in a particular setting can create an association between that setting and the urge to use.

Internal triggers

Internal triggers involve thoughts, feelings or sensations. Examples might include:

Anxiety, frustration, sadness or loneliness.
Boredom or a sense of having nothing to look forward to.
Excitement, celebration or wanting a reward.
Physical discomfort or tension.
Thoughts such as “I need something to switch off” or “I deserve it.”

Triggers do not always involve unpleasant feelings. Feeling confident, relieved or celebratory can also bring on an urge.

How to recognise your patterns

A brief record made close to the time of an urge can help you notice connections. You could write down:

The situation: Where was I, who was there and what was happening?
My internal experience: What was I thinking, feeling or noticing physically?
The urge: What did I feel drawn to do?
My response: What did I do, and what happened next?

For example, you might notice that urges regularly appear when you arrive home after work. Looking more closely may reveal several contributing factors: feeling tense, being alone and expecting alcohol to mark the end of the working day.

If reviewing these experiences brings on strong urges, consider doing this with a clinician or someone you trust.

Turning awareness into action

Once you identify a pattern, you can develop a response that fits it.

If arriving home is a trigger, you might plan an activity for that time. If a particular social setting makes change difficult, you might meet friends somewhere else. If distress regularly precedes use, you may need support with the distress as well as the drinking or drug use.

You will not be able to remove every trigger. The purpose is to recognise situations earlier and build a range of ways to respond.

Understanding without judging

Identifying triggers is an exercise in curiosity. Ask, “What was happening, and what might help next time?”

A trigger does not make using inevitable. Recognising it gives you an opportunity to prepare, seek support and make a more deliberate choice.