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Perhaps high levels of stress at work lead you to fall back into substance abuse. Or maybe problems with your spouse seem unmanageable, so your tendency is to rely on alcohol to help you through it.
Clinical experience has shown that the following are some of the causes of relapse in the growth stage of recovery. On the other hand, you must also make an effort to remove yourself from social situations or harmful relationships that may serve as a trigger. Whether it’s a friend you used to use drugs with or an ex-girlfriend who simply can’t enjoy a night out without a drink—these types of relationships are toxic to your sobriety goals. A common mental urge is that you can get away with using, because no one will know if you relapse. Perhaps your spouse is away for the weekend, or you’re away on a trip. That’s when your addiction will try to convince you that you don’t have a big problem, and that you’re really doing your recovery to please your spouse or your work. Remind yourself of the negative consequences you’ve already suffered, and the potential consequences that lie around the corner if you relapse again.
How to Replace Unhealthy Behaviors with Better Coping Habits
A relapse can even occur sometimes as long as months or years into recovery. This can be particularly dangerous for someone who has maintained a lengthy sobriety and lost their tolerance for the substance they previously had been abusing. This means that if they relapse and take the same amount they were accustomed to before, they could easily overdose, potentially fatally.
In fact, according to statistics, between 20 and 80% of people who get help for addiction through treatment will relapse eventually. Therefore, people who get help for addiction through treatment must protect their recovery at all costs. Furthermore, people who have recently detoxed and gone through treatment are more likely to overdose when relapsing as their tolerance levels in the body decrease. Unfortunately, as overdose death rates continue to rise, it’s more important than ever that people in recovery understand the risks they take if they relapse. So, preventing relapse by relapse prevention planning is a vital part of the addiction treatment process. A relapse prevention plan usually entails a personalized set of tools, coping skills, and strategies that help you deal with cravings and life stressors. A relapse prevention plan should be created in collaboration with your treatment team at the end of rehabilitation.
Get Help for You or A Loved One
A relapse prevention plan is not only for you, but can be shared with your family members and friends so that they know what to do in case a relapse occurs. In addition to outlining the signs of relapse, have steps for dealing with the physical return to drug use.
What are the three levels of prevention in addiction?
Based on a public health model, three types of strategies to prevent drug abuse can be discerned: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.
Write down things that cause you stress, worry, anxiety, or any other negative emotions. Relapse Prevention is considered among the most important clinical innovations in the substance use disorder treatment and recovery field, and continues to be one of the most widely practiced. When clinicians and scientists refer generally to CBT for substance use disorder, it is often Marlatt’s RP model or some related approach to which they are referring. Numerous studies have shown that mind-body relaxation reduces the use of drugs and alcohol and is effective in long-term relapse prevention . Relapse-prevention therapy and mind-body relaxation are commonly combined into mindfulness-based relapse prevention . More broadly speaking, I believe that recovering individuals need to learn to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. They often assume that non-addicts don’t have the same problems or experience the same negative emotions.
Step 3 | Self-care & Lifestyle
These signs are also several of the same symptoms of post-acute-withdrawal syndrome. If these signs can be recognized and dealt with before the next phase, a potential relapse can be stopped dead in its tracks. relapse prevention plan Pick up the phone, call a friend and share with them what you are going through. Sometimes, the simple act of sharing the unhealthy thoughts and exposing your negative energy demolishes the urge to use.
Relaxing and taking time to do things that make you happy is another important part of self-care. Acknowledge that recovery is a difficult process and you’re doing the best you can. Support groups and 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous can also be very helpful in preventing relapses. When the urge to use hits, remind yourself why you started down the path to recovery in the first place.
Follow a model
Take up a creative outlet like dance or painting, attend a yoga class, and find ways to help yourself relax. Decide how to take care of yourself physically and emotionally, and make plans to schedule this practice into your daily life.
COLUMN: All is not lost: relapse and hope – Castlegar News
COLUMN: All is not lost: relapse and hope.
Posted: Sat, 17 Dec 2022 21:00:00 GMT [source]