Man­ag­ing sub­stance use dur­ing spe­cial events

February 07, 2025

Attend­ing spe­cial events can be trig­ger­ing from past expe­ri­ence and bring about oppor­tu­ni­ties for you to relive thoughts and habits that no longer serve you. This can be dif­fi­cult for some­one strug­gling to main­tain their sub­stance use goals. Here are a few tips we find may be help­ful as you are plan­ning ahead to attend the event.

Bring a sober friend

Bring a sober friend who can assist you in hav­ing an account­abil­i­ty part­ner and an oth­er indi­vid­ual that is also present and in the moment with you. 

Devel­op an exit strategy

Bring your car so if you get trig­gered you can leave. You can also make sure that you have the option for Uber or some oth­er way of being able to escape sit­u­a­tions that do not serve you. 

Bring your own beverages

Always have a non-alco­holic drink in your hand, so no one offers you one. If you don’t know if they will have any at the event, you can bring some with you to con­tribute to the party.

Attend a meeting

If you go to recov­ery sup­port groups, such as Alco­holics Anony­mous or SMART Recov­ery, it can be help­ful to go to a meet­ing before or after for extra support. 

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter has sev­er­al SMART Recov­ery meet­ings avail­able at no cost to you. To learn more about SMART Recov­ery, vis­it our SMART Recov­ery page.

Remem­ber your sup­port network

Have a cou­ple peo­ple who you can step out­side and call if you get trig­gered. A few indi­vid­u­als that you can text dur­ing the event can be very help­ful as well. If pos­si­ble, let them know ahead of time that you might be reach­ing out about this, so they know to be available.

HALT (Hun­gry, Angry, Lone­ly, Tired)

Check in with your­self about self-care. If you are hav­ing a lot of crav­ings or strug­gling a lot with some­thing else, it might not be a good time to go to an event that could be trig­ger­ing or risky. This does­n’t mean that you’ll nev­er be able to do fun events. It just means right now might not be the best time.

Remem­ber your cop­ing skills

Have a cou­ple cop­ing skills you can use. You can excuse your­self to the bath­room to prac­tice deep breath­ing. You can prac­tice play­ing the tape through, remind­ing your­self of what might hap­pen if you do end up not stick­ing with your sub­stance use goals.

Remem­ber your values

You can remind your­self of your val­ues. What are the things that moti­vate you not to con­sume sub­stances? Think about your fam­i­ly, work, your health, or any­thing else you care about and remind your­self why you are try­ing to stay on your recov­ery plan.

Devel­op or review your Relapse Pre­ven­tion Plan.

If pos­si­ble, cre­ate a relapse pre­ven­tion plan with your ther­a­pist or recov­ery sup­port sys­tem ahead of time. This will assist in you being able to have indi­vid­u­al­ized cop­ing strate­gies and sup­port sys­tems in place. 

Car­ry a ​“touch­stone” with you.

This could be an index card with your list of cop­ing skills or moti­va­tion­al phas­es that you can car­ry in your wal­let. It could be a pic­ture of some­one you care about or some­thing that grounds you.

Sub­stance Use Treat­ment and Recov­ery at Ken­neth Young Center

Ken­neth Young Cen­ter offers both indi­vid­ual and group sub­stance use treat­ment and recov­ery ser­vices for adults and adolescents. 

To learn more about our sub­stance use ser­vices,
vis­it our Sub­stance Use Treat­ment and Recov­ery page.

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