Relapse Prevention
Once you have made a change, how do you maintain it? What is the difference between a lapse and a relapse? How can you recognize when a relapse is likely?
A lifestyle change is not easy to make or maintain. Lapses (a one-time return to addictive behavior) and relapses (a return to an addictive lifestyle) do occur. Some people relapse several times after drug and alcohol rehab before new behavior becomes a regular part of their lives. Thus, it is important to learn about and use relapse prevention techniques. Before discussing prevention, it is useful to understand the nature of relapse.
Relapse prevention requires that we develop a plan tailored to maintaining new behavior. The plan involves integrating into our behavior diversion activities, coping skills, and emotional support. Our decision to cope with cravings is aided by knowing: (1) there is a difference between a lapse and a relapse; and (2) continued coping with the craving while maintaining the new behavior will eventually reduce the craving. These coping skills can make the difference when cravings are intense:
- Ask for help from an experienced peer, or a parent in the case of teenage drug abuse, and use relaxation skills to reduce the intensity of the anxiety associated with cravings.
- Develop alternative activities, recognize “red flags,” avoid situations of known danger to maintaining new behavior, find alternative ways of dealing with negative emotional states, rehearse responses to predictably difficult events, and use stress management techniques to create options when the pressure is intense.
- Reward yourself in a way that does not undermine your self-caring efforts.
- Pay attention to diet and exercise to improve mood, reduce mood swings, and provide added strength to deal with stressful circumstances and secondary stress symptoms, including loss of sleep, eating or elimination problems, sexual difficulties, and breathing irregularities.
