Relapse Prevention Strategies That Work

When you feel strong and you’re motivated to not use, then tell yourself that you won’t use for the next week or the next month. But when you’re struggling and having lots of urges, and those times will happen often, tell yourself that you won’t use for today or for the next 30 minutes. Do your recovery in bite-sized chunks and don’t sabotage yourself by thinking too far ahead. What many do not know, however, is how much control you have over your life by simply changing your breathing patterns. Breathing is not only connected to various essential functions throughout your body, but it also has a large effect on your brain chemistry.

Deep breathing releases neurotransmitters in your brain, many of which trigger feel-good chemicals resulting in relaxation, happiness, and pain reduction. Deep breathing, and the resulting increased oxygen flow, also encourages your body to exhale toxins. Take four deep breaths in through your nose and hold, then release for four seconds. You should feel your diaphragm moving in and out while you breathe.

How to Replace Unhealthy Behaviors with Better Coping Habits

Helping patients develop coping skills, resilience and relapse prevention skills during treatment. And, many people who struggle with addiction turn to their substance or activity of choice as a maladaptive way of coping with it. In fact, research indicates that there is an increased «wanting» for the drug, alcohol, or addictive activity during stressful situations—especially if the substance or activity was the person’s primary coping mechanism. The caring team of specialists at Opus Health are committed to helping you transition to a healthy, productive life – free of drugs and alcohol. By providing you with unparalleled support while you progress through the rehabilitation process, you will experience a premium level of comfort – so you can focus on getting the most out of your treatments.

Whether a high-risk situation culminates in a lapse depends largely on the individual’s capacity to enact an effective coping response–defined as any cognitive or behavioral compensatory strategy that reduces the likelihood of lapsing. Is a set of treatment strategies taught to the client in addiction counseling to help the client avoid a relapse to substance use. relapse prevention is also a cognitive behavioral model in itself, but the basic concepts are widely used in addiction counseling. These strategies help the client by identifying and managing high-risk situations, including negative emotional states, and interpersonal situations, such as social pressures to use. Treatment involves helping the client reduce relapse risk by examining which emotions or interpersonal situations are perceived to be high risk for relapse, and then, specific strategies are taught to reduce risk in these situations. Ultimately, individuals who are struggling with behavior change often find that making the initial change is not as difficult as maintaining behavior changes over time. Many therapies have been developed to help individuals cease or reduce addictive behaviors and it is critical to refine strategies for helping individuals maintain treatment goals.

Mindfulness-Based Techniques for Addiction and Recovery

A trigger is an event or situation that leads the person to relapse. The most common triggers include interruptions in taking regular medications, experiencing an increase in stress and substance use. For individuals with COD, resuming or increasing the use of substances as a response to stress often leads to an increase in their mental health symptoms and vice versa. Exploring these issues allows the practitioner to have a robust conversation with the individual and discuss specific coping strategies.

• Most studies of relapse rely on statistical methods that assume continuous linear relationships, but these methods may be inadequate for studying a behavior characterized by discontinuity and abrupt changes .
• These initial warning signs are critical to recognize as early and as quickly as possible.
• Take care of yourself and find healthy alternatives to past habits that revolved around drinking.
• While maintaining its footing in cognitive-behavioral theory, the revised model also draws from nonlinear dynamical systems theory and catastrophe theory, both approaches for understanding the operation of complex systems .