Relapse Prevention – What Makes It So Important?

Relapse Prevention & Rehab

Drug addiction rehabilitation is one step in a larger process. Tackling substance use disorder, for many people, a lifelong battle and a daily struggle. Relapse prevention is key to successful and sustained addiction recovery.

Rehab is the place where you build your stepping stones to a healthy and full life. It’s not a band-aid that will stay on forever.

You need to do constant work to make sure the habits and routines you develop in rehab stick and stick well. But this also means you will not face relapse.

Relapse is when an person who has previously been on a course of abstinence and sobriety finds themselves giving into the temptation of using again.

It is a step many people in rehabilitation programs often face when they leave in-patient rehab for the first time. When they are thrust back into a world where the substances they abused are readily available.

Avoiding relapse is a hugely important step in making the work you do in rehab stick. 

Practices that Help Avoid Relapse

Relapse is, ultimately, about choice.

While you will always have cravings for the substances you’re addicted to, you won’t have the same biological need the way you did when you first went through the detox portion of your treatment. So relapse is up to you.

That doesn’t mean avoiding it is automatically easy. But there are great and proven ways you can tackle it.

The first step is to make sure that you know and understand it. As well as understand that relapse it is a real danger and possibility.

While you may have no intention of relapsing, you may still find yourself struggling with it.

Relapse Prevention Is Key

Some of the topics that are covered in continuing care to help prevent release include:

  • Outpatient Counseling Services: you’ll likely be going to personal or group therapy regularly where you will be held accountable for your actions now that you are out of rehab and will have a place to share any struggles you’re facing.
  • Avoiding Triggers: many relapses happen when someone puts themselves back into a situation or environment too early and familiar emotions and habits start to come back. Knowing your triggers and avoiding them is incredibly important.
  • Recognizing Pre-Relapse Behaviors: relapse does not happen suddenly, you can feel it coming on and certain behaviors are indicative of a potential relapse.
  • Maintaining Routines: while your routine out of rehab is going to be different than your routine in rehab, you still need to establish routines and habits to keep you accountable throughout your day.

Common Dangers in Relapse

While you may avoid the bar where you used to get drinks or the drug dealers you knew, you can still be in danger in your everyday life.

Television shows and movies can have triggering material that’s as simple as a depiction of someone being drunk or high.

Friends and families may drink or smoke around you casually without understanding the damage it can do.

Your vigilance will be key to maintaining your sobriety after leaving rehab.

The only surefire thing you can do is prepare and know how to respond. And we can help.

Contact us here at Mile High Recovery Center or call us at 303-268-2144 today and jump-start your road to recovery while learning your own relapse prevention skills.


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