Sober living homes are designed to help you learn how to maintain sobriety independently. They offer support and life skills training to ensure you have the tools necessary to avoid relapse. That said, you’ll experience triggers and cravings while you are living in a sober home.

While sober living homes are designed to keep you sober, you will be exposed to triggers during your time there. For example, you will be expected to obtain a job, which can lead to feelings of stress. Stress is a major trigger for relapse, so you’ll need healthy coping mechanisms to prevent yourself from returning to drug or alcohol use.

Some of the best ways to handle triggers and cravings in sober living include keeping a journal, challenging negative thoughts, setting personal boundaries, seeking advice from a therapist or mentor, educating yourself on how cravings work, and using mindfulness techniques.

In this article, you will learn:

• What triggers could you be exposed to during sober living?
• Why is it important to work through triggers and cravings while staying in a sober living house?
• How can you cope with cravings and triggers in a sober living environment?

What Triggers Will You Experience in a Sober Living Home?

Even though sober living homes are designed to help you stay sober, they do not shield you from every trigger. Instead, you’ll have to learn how to cope with triggers in a healthy way. Doing this while you are in sober living reduces your risk of relapsing, as you’ll learn how to keep yourself sober in a supportive environment.

Some of the triggers you might experience during a sober living program include:

• Discomfort from sharing a room with another person
• Feeling the burden of responsibility due to chores and other expectations in the home
• Stress from obtaining and maintaining a job
• Potentially watching your peers struggle with relapse
• Seeing drug or alcohol use in the community while you are outside of the home
• Experiencing drama stemming from relationships with your friends or family members
• Attending holiday parties, birthday parties, or other celebrations where alcohol use is occurring
• Seeing substance use in movies or TV shows
• And more

When you are in the early stages of recovery, experiencing a trigger can be scary. You might not have much experience yet in overcoming triggers and cravings. Thankfully, your time in addiction treatment has prepared you for these moments, and being in a sober living home ensures you have access to the support you need.

How to Cope With Cravings and Triggers in a Sober Living Home

Knowing how to cope with cravings and triggers in sober living will help you maintain long-term recovery. Some of the best tips include:

Keeping a Journal

When you experience a trigger, write it down in your journal. From there, you can write three different ways to overcome the trigger. Writing it down on paper makes it easier for you to organize your thoughts and come to a decision on how to deal with it in the best way.

Challenging Negative Thoughts

When you experience negative thoughts, take a moment to analyze them. Instead of allowing yourself to ruminate on negativity, think of ways to replace the negative thought with a positive one. For example, if you find yourself thinking that work is extremely stressful, reframe that thought into something like, “I’ve come so far in my sobriety that now I can handle working a full-time job.”

Setting Personal Boundaries

If you are feeling triggered by one of your roommates in sober living or a family member, it’s time to set personal boundaries. Let’s say your roommate is stressing you out by failing to clean up after themselves in your room. You can sit them down for a conversation and explain to them why it is important that they keep their side of the room clean.

Seeking Advice

Recovering from a substance use disorder can be hard. Sometimes, you’ll experience triggers and cravings that are hard to move on from. When this happens, it’s time to seek support and advice from a trusted source.

You can either talk about your triggers and cravings in a therapy session or seek advice from a mentor like an AA sponsor. Either way, you’ll receive real ways to overcome the struggles you are currently facing.

Educating Yourself on Cravings

Being educated on how cravings work can help you deal with them more efficiently. For example, if you know that your cravings are caused by chemical imbalances in your brain, it’s easier to cope with them. Being educated on how the disease of addiction works provides you with perspective.

Using Mindfulness Techniques

Another great relapse prevention tool that you can use during your recovery journey is mindfulness techniques. When you experience a trigger or a craving, you are likely worrying about the past or future. If you make the effort to practice mindfulness, you’ll be able to keep yourself in the present moment, preventing yourself from returning to substance abuse.

Get Connected to a Highly-Rated Sober Living Home

The recovery process can be difficult, especially if you are transitioning from treatment to independent living. At New You Sober Living, we help our residents maintain long-term sobriety through peer support and by building a support network in a recovery community.

Contact us today for more information on how our sober living home can help you stay sober.