What is relapse prevention?
Relapse prevention is a plan that helps you stay sober after undergoing alcohol withdrawal or drug withdrawal treatment. Relapse prevention plan indentifies the areas that you must focus on stick to your recovery and stay sober. Addiction is a disorder which should be treated as any other chronic disease. People who struggle with substance abuse require a long term plan to stay sober. Alcohol rehabilitation centre or drug rehabilitation centers will provide you with a plan after the treatment plan to prevent relapses.
Relapse prevention is an important component of addiction treatment. The Relapse Prevention model i.e. the RP model proposed by Marlatt and Gordon suggests that both immediate determinants and covert antecedents can contribute to a relapse. Immediate determinants are coping skills, high-risk situations, outcome expectancies, and the abstinence violation effects. Covert antecedents are the lifestyle factors, urges and cravings. The Relapse Prevention model incorporates a number of global and specific intervention strategies that allow therapists and clients to deal with each step of the relapse process.
Specific interventions include identifying specific high-risk situations and enhancing the skills for coping with those situations, increasing the self-efficacy, eliminating myths regarding substance effects, managing lapses, and restructuring the perceptions of the relapse process. Global strategies comprise balancing the lifestyle and helping her or him develop positive addictions, employing stimulus control techniques and developing relapse road maps. Several studies have provided practical and theoretical support for the RP model.
What is a relapse?
Relapse can occur immediately after treatment, after a few months or even after a long period of abstinence. Addiction is a chronic disease; the nature of addiction is such that it returns if not treated. It is very essential to have a recovery plan. Relapse occurs when a person has recovered partially and stopped using substances but then beings to use again. A person is said to have relapsed when the condition is worsening after seeing improvements.
The best way to prevent a relapse is to have a relapse prevention plan.
Why do people relapse?
If you or someone around you is addicted to a substance you are going to use again if you don’t undergo treatment. Addiction has been deemed as a chronic disease and if it is not treated constantly then it leads to relapse. When you understand an addict’s mentality it seems hopeless for an addict to stay stopped. Like any other chronic illnesses substance use requires repeated treatments before abstinence is achieved for sustaining the recovery.
According to the literature of alcoholics anonymous people that suffer from addiction have a different body and mind than others.
What is a relapse prevention plan?
Addiction is a chronic disease that comes back if no treated it requires a good amount of time and effort to stay on top of your mental health so that you don’t relapse. A chronic relapser knows that he cannot stay stopped. It is observed that addicts and alcoholics are unable to differentiate the true from the false and for them their alcoholic life seems normal. Many people
There are four main ideas in relapse prevention. First, relapse may be a gradual process with distinct stages. The goal of treatment is to assist individuals recognize the first stages, during which the probabilities of success are greatest. Second, recovery may be a process of private growth with developmental milestones. All stages of recovery have their own risk of relapse. Third, the foremost tools of relapse prevention are mind-body relaxation and cognitive therapy, which are used to develop healthy coping skills. Fourth, most relapses are often explained in terms of a couple of basic rules. Educating clients in these rules can help them specialize in what’s important:
1) Change your life (recovery involves creating a replacement life where it’s easier to not use)
2) Be completely honest
3) Invite help
4) Practice self-care
5) Don’t bend the principles.
A relapse prevention plan is a plan where you must continuously enact to stay sober and on top of your treatment for staying sober which identifies the list of activities you must do and the follow up by professional services you must use consistently. You must go through your treatment discharge plan with your mental health professional or treatment centre representative before you leave the centre. The discharge plan breaks down to what you are required to do to keep yourselves from relapsing. It ranges in specific forms like fear of engaging in a conversation with other people, addressing your personality flaws and fears or addressing social stigma or shame associated with your family. A relapse plan tells you what professionals you need to see for instance for substance abuse a recovery coach or a substance abuse counselor might be a part of your plan. A relapse prevention plan involves preparing for the likelihood of a relapse and therefore ways of identifying a relapse. If your relapse prevention plan or a discharge plan is not followed it means your mental health would degrade and suffer once that happens it becomes really difficult to abstain from the substance.
Relapse prevention plan involves identifying ways to avoid a relapse and preparing for the possibility of a relapse. A successful relapse prevention plan entails networking with every possible and available resource. A relapse prevention plan differs from person to person the plan might include attending the Alcoholic Anonymous meetings ,the 12 steps program, family support and assistance and all the measures that help to your recovery on track, This also may include regular contact with sponsors, individual sessions or group therapy sessions.
Mostly relapse plans involve addressing the following areas:
- Using the new life skills- This involves using the new skills that you have acquired in therapy during your program, replacing your old behavior patterns which contributed to your addiction.
- Adjusting environment- Adjusting your environment might require changing your friend circle, residence, neighborhood or residence. Basically this is addressing all the environmental factors that could lead to a relapse
- Sticking to the winners- Develop a network of support communities. Assessing the individuals and processes who understand addiction will help you to stay sober and prevent a relapse.
- Identifying shortcomings- This includes identifying the short comings of your previous relapse prevention plan. If the old methods did not work for you it is essential to address the issues and develop a new relapse prevention plan.
Recovery is indeed difficult alone. Seeking help and having follow-ups is vital to stay in recovery. To learn more about recovery and relapse prevention contact Zorbacare Rehabilitation centre.