How To Stop Triggering Your Addiction: Feeling Overwhelmed

It's important to learn how to avoid feeling overwhelmed in addiction recovery. (Overwhelmed by Stress and Anxiety? How to Deal with It). Feeling overwhelmed was one of my major triggers while in my addiction. Whether I felt overwhelming sadness, fear, or worry, these feelings were often a trigger for addictive behavior. Feeling overwhelmed is an almost universal addiction trigger; here's how to avoid feeling overwhelmed and stop triggering your addiction.

Feeling Overwhelmed Triggers Addictive Behavior

Even before I started drinking, I did not know how to avoid feeling overwhelmed. I thought I knew how to handle it--by throwing myself into accomplishing tasks. I might have been productive, but in an unsustainable way.

I exhibited obsessive and compulsive symptoms about my studies and grades, perhaps even addictive. I barely slept, had no social life at all, and was generally crabby and short-tempered to my family. Then, once I sank into my addiction, I used alcohol, or whatever I could get my hands on, to escape the overwhelming feelings.

The Feeling Overwhelmed And Addictive Behavior Cycle

Of course, feeling overwhelmed and triggering addiction is a vicious cycle. The deeper I fell in my addiction, the more I felt I could not come back from it. I behaved in ways I never could have imagined. I was overcome with remorse and fear. In order to deal with that overwhelming powerlessness, I drank more.

A major part of recovery for me was learning to cope with these unpleasant feelings without drinking or engaging in other addictive behavior. Prayer and focusing on the "next right thing" saved me on many occasions.

How To Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed: The Next Right Thing

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