HALT: 4 Common Early Sobriety Triggers That Slip People Up
What Is HALT in Recovery?
H.A.L.T. – Hungry , Angry, Lonely, Tired . HALT is one of the most widely used tools in recovery. It simplifies something complex: why early sobriety feels harder than expected.
While often taught in recovery programs, HALT applies to anyone rethinking their relationship with alcohol. This is especially true during the vulnerable early weeks and months after stopping drinking.
Why HALT Is Especially Dangerous in Early Sobriety
I have heard it said that stopping drinking and staying sober “is not about willpower.” But what does that mean actually? If not picking up a drink when you’ve promised to stay dry is not about willpower what is it about?
I tried to stop drinking unsuccessfully for years. I would start the day determined never to drink again. By 5 pm, I found myself lifting a glass to my lips. I felt absolutely certain that I needed that bottle of wine. I believed I deserved that bottle of wine. I convinced myself I can handle that bottle of wine. All too often that single bottle became two. The next morning, I would wake in disbelief. I had not had the “willpower” to resist again. The cycle would renew with my promise “never to drink again”. I struggled with feelings of guilt, shame, and disappointment. I repeated the same routine, week after week, like a hamster on a wheel.
If you are trying to stop drinking and can’t make it past the first few days alcohol-free, or if you’re struggling to find the momentum to stay sober for a month or more, it will help tremendously if you understand these 4 triggers – Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired – HALT
We often over complicate what cravings mean when we stop drinking.
I was concerned that I was “psychologically” addicted to alcohol. I also worried that I craved alcohol because I fit the profile of an addictive personality. It never occurred to me that I had created a need for alcohol simply by using it every evening. I used alcohol to satisfy every need after 5 pm. When I removed alcohol from my life, I craved it for every need. That is addiction.
If you are a habitual drinker, you feed your needs with alcohol. This usually starts after 5 pm. You start to feel hungry after work so you have a cocktail. When you walk in the door, you open a bottle of wine. This helps you relax. It shifts up your energy to your after-work routine. You have a tense moment with your partner. You don’t want it to escalate, but you’re angry. So, you have another drink to mask the emotion. You’re feeling bored or lonely so you seek comfort in yet another drink. It is all too easy to become accustomed to feeding your needs with alcohol. You filter your feelings through a rather steady stream of it.
Changing this routine is difficult. It involves moving from the natural rhythm of what many adults do every night to a new alcohol-free lifestyle. It is not as simple as saying “I will not drink tonight.” You can’t rely solely on the power of will you use for other challenges in your life. It won’t simply “make it happen.”
When I first stopped drinking, I succeeded by removing my drink of choice from the house. Not just my drink of choice but the accessories that went with it. All of the corkscrews and wine glasses disappeared. Evening television shows full of drinking culture also went out of my line of view. I changed my environment and my behavior and I began to work on identifying what I actually needed. Did I need rest, food, distraction? The need was the trigger that set off the alcohol craving. The alcohol was not actually the thing that I needed.
To stop drinking and stay sober you need to have a plan and an understanding of HALT.
Let’s break down the ACRONYM HALT into its components
Hunger
Anger
Loneliness/Boredom/
Tired
HUNGER – How Physical Depletion (or that empty feeling at 4pm) Impacts Sobriety
Why do you crave a drink when you are Hungry and what can you do about that?
Several triggers spark cravings to drink in the late afternoon. The easiest to counteract is hunger!
If you have decided that you want to stop drinking, make sure you eat something in the afternoon. A hearty snack at 4 pm or an early dinner can make all of the difference. Afternoon snacks and early evening meals are a lifesaver in the first weeks sober. Many find it helpful to use L-glutamine powder as a supplement. It helps counteract the afternoon blood sugar crash. This crash often triggers an alcohol craving.
Please talk to your physician before adding supplements to your daily routine
For more in-depth information on using L-glutamine in early sobriety, and the connection between hypoglycemia and alcoholism, please open these articles from our Boozemusings blog :
Alcohol Cravings and Hypoglycaemia
Alcohol sugar cravings (managing them) and the whole Gut-Brain health connection thing.
and this article from inside our BOOM Rethink the Drink Community :
ANGER – Emotional Triggers That Increase Relapse Risk
Anger is one of the trickiest triggers when you stop drinking . It is challenging not just in the first days after you stop drinking, but also in the first months sober. Most of us who are habitual drinkers have learned to drink at people when they make us angry. Anger is a powerful emotion. It can literally knock you off your game. This is true no matter how committed to staying sober you are.
There is no one easy solution to the anger trigger. Think back and remember that drinking never did make the anger go away. Drinking most likely inflamed the anger and left the problem unsolved. Don’t judge it. Just identify it and lean into it. Allow the feeling to wash over you, like a wave coming onto shore. It won’t knock you off your feet if you lean into it. The feeling will subside, much like the wave.
If anger is a trigger for you, please read the next posts from our Boozemusings blog. These posts are written by three different people. They are in different stages of living life alcohol-free and have found solutions that worked for them.
Anger Management in Early Sobriety – Facing Your Feelings Alcohol-Free
Diffusing the A in HALT or How to Stop Drinking AT people
Not My Circus Not My Monkeys – How to Stop Drinking at the Problems of the World
And BREATHE: I use breath to help calm my racing mind or emotional distress. I breathe in what I need and breathe out what I don’t need. Breathe in slowly through the nose, hold, then breathe out through the mouth. Do this in a rhythm that suits you. I choose exactly what I need, in that moment of time.
Breath in Hope – Breath out Despair
Breath in Joy – Breath out Sorrow
Breath in Peace – Breath out War
Breath in Acceptance – Breath out Rejection
Breath in I Can – Breath out I Can’t.
Lonely – The Hidden Social Trigger in Early Sobriety
There is a quote by Caroline Knapp who wrote a wonderful biography called Drinking a Love Story
“To a drinker the sensation is real and pure and akin to something spiritual: you seek; in the bottle, you find.”
Emptiness, boredom, and loneliness, are very common feelings in the early days and weeks of sobriety. Many people experience pain during the first few weeks without alcohol. It feels like the pain of a love lost. It can seem like this is because life is indeed empty without the drink. But, nothing is further from the truth. I had to stop drinking to see that life is better, fuller, and richer without booze. I had to stay stopped long enough to start to feel it.
Sometimes it seems that getting numb is the only way to soothe life’s pains but the opposite is true.
Groups like AA are effective for several reasons. One key reason is that they offer community and connection. This support fills the void in early sobriety. Our online community serves the same purpose of replacing the isolation of addicted drinking with connection. Not just connection to other people within the community, but reconnecting with yourself through writing out your story.
The emptiness, loneliness, and boredom are not there because you stopped drinking, they were created by the addiction. Reaching out to others can help you beat those triggers. Looking within yourself can also contribute. Together, these actions build back a better life than you ever had before you started drinking.
For more thoughts on the Lonely/Bored trigger and how to beat it here are several posts from our Boozemusings Blog:
Alcohol Takes – Thoughts on Fear, Loneliness and Living Sober
Filling the Empty Space in Early Sobriety
Loneliness and Meditation- Just Say “YES” to Sunday Morning Calm
Join Us In Discussing Drinking a Love Story by Caroline Knapp
Distractions when the Lonely ( and bored) in HALT hits
25 Things to do With Your Alcohol-Free Time!
6 Documentaries to Help You Rethink Alcohol Use and Abuse
A Question a Day for 31 Days to help You Quit Drinking
30 posts for 30 days To Help You Quit Drinking
TIRED- The most misunderstood of the HALT triggers.
Most of us know that alcohol is a depressant. We know that drinking slows you down, makes your speech slurry, and knocks you out. Why would you crave a drink when you are already tired? Although Decision fatigue is important to understand, the tired trigger is not just about exhaustion weakening decision-making.
Only after I stopped drinking did I learn something important. Alcohol creates a cocktail of chemical reactions in your brain. A cocktail of reactions that lifts you up and then brings you down. The perfect drug for the end of a long hard day when decision fatigue sets in.
We crave the adrenaline that alcohol triggers when we’re tired. Learning to let yourself relax is key when you stop drinking.
There are some thoughts on that chemical cocktail in this post from our Boozemusings blog
The alcohol effect on middle aged “fun” sensors
thoughts on decision fatigue
The Magic of the Sober Toolbox to Power Your Will
And thoughts on
It’s Simple but Not Easy
There is a saying among people in our community, stopping drinking is SIMPLE but NOT EASY. The simple part is deciding that you will not drink. The “not easy” part is doing something about that. Understanding HALT will give you a good foundation to fight the fight.
The reason it took me so long to quit alcohol was that I truly believed that drinking was giving me something that I needed. I believed that life would be too painful and to colorless without it. The only way that I got to the point where I KNEW that life was better without the booze was to stop drinking and to stay stopped long enough to begin to feel it.
More thoughts from me at four months alcohol-free The Beauty of Life Alcohol-Free , from two years alcohol-free Sobriety Offers Everything that Alcohol Promised – Except the Hangover! , Finding the Cure for Alcoholism , and now 9 Years Sparklingly Sober – Becoming Winged Victory
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