Subconscious Signals Trigger Drug Craving
The word “trigger” is a common one heard in drug rehab and support group settings and refers to just about anything that makes you want to get loaded, get drunk or get high. It could be something negative like dealing with family members who stress you out or something positive like a New Year’s Eve celebration where everyone else is under the influence. New research on brain imaging, however, says that triggers to use can start in addicts even before an obvious stressful trigger event happens.
Controlling the desire to use, or the mental addiction to drugs, starts long before you end up in a situation that causes you to falter. Something that everybody knew intuitively has now been proven scientifically with brain imaging technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Images that are associated with drugs—say, a syringe, a sign for a bar, a pill bottle—even when seen for as few as 33 milliseconds can evoke the desire to use subconsciously.
Dr. Nora Volkow is the director at the National Institute for Drug Addiction (NIDA). She says, “This is the first evidence that cues outside one’s awareness can trigger rapid activation of the circuits driving drug-seeking behavior. Patients often can’t pinpoint when or why they start craving drugs. Understanding how the brain initiates that overwhelming desire for drugs is essential to treating addiction.”
This is an especially important point to absorb when you are undergoing Suboxone detox and treatment at home. You won’t have the benefit of isolation provided by inpatient treatment or the built-in benefits of support groups unless you choose to find it on your own in the community. You may not have even realized that you were mentally addicted to the prescription painkillers you’ve been taking until the haze they provide starts to lift. If you find yourself having cravings that you’ve never had before, call the Meditox center any time of the day or night for support and ask for assistance finding local resources that will help you remain drug-free.
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February 5th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I agree that relapse starts way before the end result of using a substance. Identifying the warning signs before you get to the using part is key to a successful recovery.
Being able to identify these signs such as isolating, cravings, and avoidance when they are happening is how someone avoids the ending result which is using again. This is easier said then done and it takes self awareness.
Having your primary focus be on your sobriety makes this self awareness a lot easier.
February 6th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
That’s true. Sometimes the symptoms sneak up on you and before you realize it, you’re searching out your connection or calling the doctor to re-up. Or someone offers you something and you find yourself accepting it without thinking. It’s good to have a partner in sobriety, so that they can call you on it before the problem gets out of hand.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
You should take down the photo you have posted. That in itself is a trigger, just seeing that setup. But there is great information here on this Web site. Right now, I am in the middle of detoxing myself and heading back into being clean. I went eight years clean after my first bout with heroin, then used for a year, then went clean for a year, then moved to a new town where I knew no one but my ex-wife and three-year-old son. The isolation and loneliness set me up for a relapse and I did. This time around I’ve been “on it” for just three months. But I got myself a four-day supply of methadone and will start taking them as soon as I start experiencing withdrawal, which should be sometime tomorrow morning, or in the middle of the night.
I never have trouble getting off dope, I just have a hard time staying clean forever. It’s those triggers that do it every time. I went to a rehab facility this week to check out their outpatient program, but I really don’t want to go through all of that again - the paperwork, the homework, the weekly three-hour classes that don’t do anything but define addiction, writing your biography, etc. NA is OK, but it’s never there when a trigger comes along. Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with those triggers that come out of the blue? I’m talking years or months into the future out of the blue?
May 10th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Meetings may not always be an option, but if you have a sponsor, they’re supposed to be available so that you can call them any time of the day or night if you’re feeling triggered.
It’s different for everybody, but some people find that something physical helps like lifting weights or running on a treadmill while others prefer to “fool” themselves by telling themselves that they’ll go use or make the call in 30 minutes and 30 minutes later, they give it another 30 minutes and then they say, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” That kind of thing. Anyone else have any ideas?
May 11th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I think that the best way to deal with cravings is to get used to weighing the consequences of using.
I think about what would happen if someone found out like my husband or my parents. I think about losing my child.
I think about how long I would actually feel effed up off of using and if that is worth the consequences I could face for it.
The answer is always that it’s just not worth it.