Preventing a relapse

A way to prevent a relapse is to be totally aware of what is involved, because relapse is a process, meaning that there are stages that you automatically go through on the way to recovery.   Emotional, mental and physical relapse are the three stages you can go through.

The emotional relapse signs which are also the symptoms of post acute withdrawal (read article on withdrawal), so if you understand the symptoms it would be easier to avoid relapsing.  Symptoms are anxiety, intolerance, anger, mood swings, isolation, poor eating and sleeping habits, etc.

In the early stages of preventing a relapse you are acknowledging that you are in an emotional relapse and that your behavior is changing which would involve isolation, where you should ask for help, anxiety, where you should learn to practice relaxation techniques, abnormal eating and sleeping habits, this is where you should exercise self care.

If at this point your behavior is not changed and emotional relapse is continuing there is a great chance of becoming frustrated and when you become frustrated you may start to use again, self care is essential at this phase of the process.

Mental relapse gives the feeling of a tug and war game in your mind, a tug and war between using and not using.  In the early stages of mental relapse, you are casually thinking about using and as time goes on the thoughts becomes stronger making the right choice difficult to choose, as some of the signs to use begins to surface, such as, thinking and fantasizing about the places where you used to use and the people with whom you used with.

In order to deal with the mental urges, you need to talk to yourself, for example, when you are thinking about using or taking that one drink, go a little further in your mind and see what happened before when you used or took that one drink, you know you’ll kick yourself in the morning, and the cycle would only repeat itself.  Letting someone know you are having urges is another way to deal with mental urges, by talking to someone, it decreases the urge and still another way is to distract yourself, find something to do to take your mind off using.

The worst thing to do is to sabotage you by thinking long term and forever substance free lives.  Somehow this type of thinking pushes you closer to using, why is that? Because, when you think long term, all the in between gives you leverage to use, because you believe one day in the future it will happen, you can use and that day will come and at the same time being totally ignorant to the negative consequences that could occur.

The best thing to do is to handle it one day at a time, challenge yourself, test your strength, if you are really sincere it should be easy to do.

A vital thing to do is to practice relaxation, because when you are relaxed, you are more open to the changes.  When you are tense, you want to reach out and touch something again.

Physical relapse is where you don’t want to get to on the road to recovery.  A physical relapse involves driving to the SAAQ (Liquor store) or going to see the dealer.  Once you reach this stage, it is more difficult to stop the process of relapsing.

So, once you’ve recognize the early warning signs of relapse and understand the symptoms of post acute withdrawal, you can deal with your road to recovery and help yourself so that you would not fall.

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