"Triggers" are rehab/treatment centre speak.

Any alcoholic who has been through the programme of recovery in AA knows that they don't exist.

My opinion no such animal.

They are excuses, but they are also comfortable old habits that we refuse to put down......even though the habit always leads to a drink.

I don't mind the idea of identifying a trigger so that I can avoid it - or to avoid a sequence of issues several steps in advance. If I do this, I'm much less likely to have a drink.

I agree with replies #1 and #2.

If I am suffering from untreated alcoholism I will drink without the need for anything to cause it.

If I am well nothing will cause me to drink.

It is about my internal condition not about external events.

Wow, so you guys are saying there is no sequence of events or activity that would ever tempt you to drink? Sounds unlikely to me. Actually, I can see the point if you are way down the road of recovery, but I think so-called triggers are more of an issue for the newly sober.

I do understand what you are all saying, but I think we're playing games with semantics here. I would agree that there is no such thing as an event that will FORCE you to drink, but there are old events that led you to drink in the past and they could tempt you in the future.

When I first quit drinking, I could not go into a particular Convenience Store after work because taht's where I always bought my beer. It was a "trigger" so to speak, and going in there for a can of soda was too much for me to handle. I had to change my behavior. Call it what you will, but avoiding it helped me until I was stronger.

Triggers was Roy Rodgers horse. Yea what Gaily said.

There are all kinds of "triggers" but it still takes a decision to pull it.

The only triggers I've had are the ones I pulled and shot myself in the foot.

When I first stopped drinking I thought my drinking was caused by external forces (people,events,etc).

Imagine my surprise when I learned that it was my own right arm that kept getting me drunk! I had never accepted responsibility for my choice to drink. I blamed others. The way they talked to me, or treated me. And God help whoever said something that struck a chord of truth about me! I used to say,"if you were married to that SOB, you'd drink too!". That was the best I could do at the time. My first spiritual awakening was when the "thought" came to me for the first time that no one else was responsible for me choosing to drink but ME.

I'm so grateful for the people in AA who loved me enough to be honest with me. There were plenty of people who would stroke my hand and tell me what I wanted to hear. They were loving me to death, although, not intentionally. Triggers? Life was a trigger LOL

I agree with Nod- any trigger is something you pull yourself, BUT sometimes you have to make sure that you don't go near the gun.

External foces don't make you drink, but there is nothing wrong with avoiding the things that were likely to make you drink in the past.

goodtwin - that was me too, life was a trigger - if i was breathing and conscious I was drinking!!

Jacker, only speaking for myself but having worked a program of recovery there is only one chain of events that would lead me to picking up a drink. That is me failing to do what I need to do to keep myself spiritually fit and therefore internally well. If I failed to do that i have absolutely no doubt that i would drink.

While I am in that condition all sorts of things have happened and havent lead me to a drink. If I wasnt in that condition, anything and nothing would lead me to a drink.

For me it was a good idea to avoid high risk situation in early recovery until I dealt with that internal condition, which is why it was important for me to deal with it quickly - up until that point i was always at risk. But managing the external world would never have worked as a long term solution for me.

I can relate to Jacker

In my first year, I refused to go down the soda aisle cuz that's where the mixers were. I didn't want to tempt fate! Call it precaution or trigger or whatever, I just didn't want to do anything I thought might "trigger" the craving.

Triggers are as real to me as being an alcoholic. Thing is, it turns into an excuse if we pick up.

Prior to recovery caution is good. I was cautious too and with good reason because I knew I was prey to my own failings

I cannot agree with saying there is nothing wrong with avoiding the things that used to make you drink in the past.

Nothing ever "makes you drink" apart from yourself and avoidance is fear based.

I do not fear wet places or associated things that I used to use as excuses to drink in the past. If I did, I would know that I had not recovered.

in my opinion triggers are what we're left with after we quit drinking and drugging..i've learned from them and from that i can tell u..if im not loaded..my trigger has no bang..i have choices and im not quick on the draw..so to speak..with recovery i unloaded my gun ..now i have clarity i dont have to pull any triggers..even though theyre there.

Don't believe in them - as far as I am concerned they are simply excuses renamed to make them sound more acceptable. It goes along with all the other nonsense that we are always recovering - we're never recovered. I hear it meetings all the time 'We're all still sick!' and all the heads nod and all the mouths murmur agreement!

Get an alkie to write a list of triggers and they will have a long list. they consult it to see if anything they are going to do that day, or any place they're going to be that day might be a trigger. Their life gets ruled by the list.

if life happens and something on the list happens to them, they check their list 'Oh shit, that's a trigger and down they go for a bottle of vodka. As far as I am concerned trigger lists are a menace - they are dangerous.

these discussions are on here all the time and I tell the same story:

When I go speak to local high school students I ask them what they think causes alcoholism, they come up with very similar lists - they are all wrong! I explain about the 3-fold illness - I tell them it's an internal thing and has nothing to do with external factors.
Then I ask them 'if it was about bad stuff happening that causes me to drink what do you think would happen to me if something bad happened in my life?' They say 'You'd get drunk' I say 'My husband died, I got cancer - I didn't drink therefore alcoholism has nothing to do with external triggers - yes?'
'YES' they chorus in unison - these kids get it what is so hard for people on here??

There is NOTHING - no trains of circumstances that can 'trigger' drinking in me. The ONLY thing that can 'trigger' drinking in a recovered alcoholic is failing to maintain a fit spiritual condition.

if you still believe that you are alcoholic and drinking can be 'triggered' by walking down the liquor aisle in the supermarket or something else of a similar nature, I invite you to work Steps 1-12, you will then achieve the same freedom that I and several others on this site have!