welcome back to part two of happiness
isn't brain surgery with Doc's nights
practical tools to improve your mood and
quality of life we're going to continue
in this section to talk about triggers
and cravings will explore how triggers
develop learn ways to recondition them
and we talked a little bit about that in
the first segment and learn how to scan
prompt obsessive thoughts and compulsive
or escape behaviors which is what a lot
of us are really watching this
presentation for is to understand you
know why do triggers make me suddenly
get depressed and feel stuck in that
depression or why do triggers make me
want to go out and use or smoke or go
gambling or whatever it is you're
escaping whatever your escape behavior
is so where do triggers come from we
talked about the fact that triggers are
visual things you see things you hear
things you smell things you taste but
also times a day people that happen to
be in your presence and there are a
variety of other thoughts that you might
have such as all-or-nothing thinking
that can trigger depression anxiety and
potentially the desire to escape so
where do these come from well some of
them are inborn like we learned but a
lot of them are conditioned and we can
get them from experience through trial
and error for example and remember how
in the first segment we talked about
some things can be positive for one
person and negative triggers for another
person so let's look at that for a
second in this particular scenario if
you have brownies it may produce a
positive feeling you know you associate
that with holidays you like brownies
whatever if you are diabetic
hypoglycemic or gluten intolerant then
eating brownies may cause a blood sugar
crash or an upset stomach so it could be
a negative trigger so every time you see
or smell brownies you start either
getting excited about getting have
brownies or wanting to get away from it
going now not something I want to eat
today another example would be getting
good sleep if you get good sleep and you
have more energy and a better mood then
you're going to be more inclined and
more motivated to make sure getting good
sleep is a priority for you if on the
other hand you get good sleep but it
means you're spending a lot less time
with your friends because your friends
all go out after work and nobody gets up
at 6:00 in the morning like you do then
it can be less rewarding and it can be
more of a negative trigger because
you're like get good sleep would be
great but I really enjoy spending time
with my friends more so you need to look
at the power of the reinforcer we can
also conditioned stimuli through
learning
if for example a child's dad drinks
after a hard day and gets less angry you
know just kind of turns into this chill
dude sitting on the sofa then the child
may learn hey you know when I get
stressed having a few beers might be the
way to go on the other hand if the dad
drinks after a hard day and gets a
hangover and gets grumpy the next day or
turns into a really angry drunk person
then the child is going to think you
know what alcohol is a really scary drug
or it has a lot of negative effects I
don't see the point so when they see
alcohol or Expo are exposed to it
they're not going to be as inclined to
want to drink it the other example if
dad exercises after a hard day helps him
relieve stress he comes home he's in a
great mood then the child might go okay
there's something to this exercise thing
after all on the other hand if dad
exercises after a hard day and over does
it you can't move the next day and every
morning after he works out he gets up
and he's sitting at the breakfast table
and he's just out cranky pants then kids
are gonna go you know what exercise yeah
you know I see how it makes dad act why
would I want to do that so we learn by
servation that if you do this activity
or have this thought it produces a good
thing or it produces a bad thing and
then that tells us do I want to do that
the other way we learn or conditioned
stimuli is just through education so if
you go to a course that teaches you that
mindfulness increases awareness and
helps you reduce stress you might be
like yeah that's what I want to do score
I want to go there but if you also learn
that mindfulness can be really stressful
if you have a hard time controlling what
we call monkey mind you know your minds
all over the place you've got a DD
something like that then you might think
about mindfulness and go you know what
now that's not something that sounds
like something I want to try so the way
instructors teachers people who are
educating you about anything
parents pastors presented can help you
decide or can set the tone in your mind
about whether it's something you want to
pursue or something you don't want to
pursue another example you know
education itself if you go to school and
you have a really awesome primary school
experience then you may want to go on to
college and graduate school on the other
hand if you struggle all through school
then you may not want to go on to
graduate school or or college because
that's just not a good fit for you so
it's important to understand the way we
interact with things in our environment
and the way we experience experiences
help us decide if you will what we're
going to be motivated to do another
example sunlight increases vitamin D and
improves mood and so if I tell somebody
that they might be like great I'm going
to get 15 minutes of sunlight every day
or whatever so educating them that that
is an intervention for depression may
motivate them to want to try it on the
other hand if you know like in my
family's case we have family member
after family
after family member who's had skin
cancer so I hear about sunlight and I'm
like yeah it might increase vitamin D
but you know at what risk so when I hear
about the benefits of sunlight I also
hear about the negatives and the
negative stand out more for me so I'm
less likely to be basking in the Sun
every day you know a few minutes here
and there no big deal not going to be
out sunbathing so we have all these
triggers but how do they make us have
obsessive thoughts or engage in
compulsive behaviors well the first
thing to realize in is a trigger reminds
you of something it brings up a memory
and if the memory is strong then and
it's strong and positive then you're
going to keep thinking about it so think
about if you smell brownies and you love
brownies and you can't wait for them to
be done or you even you're thinking
about making brownies when you get home
and you start really salivating over
them and you just can't wait until
they're done that's sort of an obsessive
thought you're continuing to think about
it over and over and over again and
getting more and more excited and
motivated to access whatever that is new
relationships are often the same way
when you're in a new relationship and
you know you have to go to work or
something you just can't wait to see
that person again and they're on your
mind constantly and you know it's not
necessarily a bad obsessive thought but
it's constantly there you're thinking
about it a lot it doesn't become bad
until it starts interfering with other
aspects of your life but it can be kind
of obsessive gambling and addictive
behaviors are the same way because you
start thinking about whatever that
escape behavior is and how good it made
you feel and then you start
romanticizing it and really wanting to
feel that way again so the obsessive
thoughts come can come around or center
around engaging in something that
provides pleasure or makes pain go away
and then the compulsive compulsion is
the only way to stop this thought is to
engage in that behavior so once I eat
the brownies or see this person or get a
big win then I'll have some relief from
this thought because you know I'll be
satisfied for a little bit of time the
trigger can also be an actual memory of
pain or distress that produces a sense
of hopelessness and helplessness which
can intensify depression anxiety anger
or addictive behaviors so a trigger can
trigger pleasant memories or you know
like in the case we talked about in the
first segment in the case of my
stepfather when he encounters Christmas
lights because his family was in a house
fire on Christmas Eve that trigger
reminds him of the pain of losing his
family in the house fire intensifies the
hopelessness and helplessness and he
gets stuck in this feeling of depression
and hopelessness so understanding that
triggers can get you stuck in obsessive
thoughts and even today 4050 years later
he still goes over in his mind what
could I have done differently what
should I have done differently um and
you know he doesn't have any compulsive
behaviors that he engages in to stop
those obsessive thoughts he has other
coping skills but for a lot of people
they might develop unhealthy reactions
in order to make those unpleasant
thoughts stop that reminded them of
something that was like the worst day in
their life so knowing triggers for the
behavior to be eliminated whether it's
depression anxiety anger outbursts or
addictive behaviors can help prevent you
from being triggered and moving on to
obsessive thoughts or the behavior so if
you know the things in general it's
you're going to be an ever evolving list
but if you have a general idea of you
know the big 10 things that really get
you anxious or really tick you off how
many of those can you eliminate think
about it ahead of time
how can you eliminate them if you can't
eliminate them how can you deal with
them make a plan ahead of time so
they're not as impactful on you because
if you can do that then you you won't
move on to the obsessive thoughts and
get stuck in that sense of being
powerless knowing positive triggers can
help create a change plan that increases
triggers for positive emotions and those
which prompt you to use the new skills
you generally can't be miserable and
happy at the same time there's that
weird little bittersweet thing where
it's happy and sad kind of at the same
time but that's better than clinically
depressed so know the things that make
you happy and do those you know so you
wake up in the morning and you've got a
smile on your face before you walk out
the door it's a good start to the day um
and if you're doing something that makes
you happy it's harder to continue to
stay upset because you're focusing on
that thing that makes you happy and use
triggers that prompt you to use your new
skills mindfulness the stress tolerance
skills what can you put in your
environment that reminds you to breathe
that reminds you to be mindful that
reminds you to maybe eat if that happens
to be something that you forget to do
and you get low blood sugar figure out
ways to improve the good things and
enhance and increase the frequency of
the good things in your life
all of these segments are put together
on our podcast that is released every
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