Yesterday I made the point that after drug or alcohol rehab it is not a craving that leads to relapse so much as it stress. So what are all the common types of stress that can present a danger to relapse. While looking at the following examples think about weather or not they present a potential concern as a trigger that may lead to drug or alcohol abuse in your own situation.

The problem of other drivers
You are driving on a busy highway in the fast lane. The driver in front of you is driving a 10 miles per hour below the posted limit and refuses to get out of your way.

The problem of getting up
You have been having trouble sleeping and are very tired when you are awoken by your alarm clock.

We spend time trying to make hair we donâ??t like and a body weâ??re not too keen on, look good.
We look in a closet that doesnâ??t have the clothes we want or they are in the dirty laundry basket.
We are expected to work at a job which may or may not be satisfying but which is filled with difficulties.

The choices you make can:
Increase your anger, depression, anxiety and thus your stress.
Increase the conflict in your life.
Calm you and enhance your feelings of wellbeing,
Support you to find solutions that benefit you and your family.
Make it more fun to be you.
Help you to find new ways to solve problems .

Life is always filled with stressful situations. Learning to manage stress is about thinking and living with a different frame of mind. Take the time to write a real thorough list of some the types of stresses that may have really got to you in the past. Order them from most annoying to least annoying. Then start to come up with alternative ways to deal with it. Read your list and then re-read your choices for defusing the stress several times. Addiction is about repetitive behavior. Use the same skill to practice and learn new skills that will support your new choices. That way you can avoid the “bam” of life’s stresses gardually building up to a relapse and another visit to a drug or alcohol rehab.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 17th, 2005 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Drug Addiction, Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.