When your addiction first began, it filled you with a sense of confidence and hope. You believed that something outside of yourself could actually make you whole, make your days easier, and help you achieve true happiness.
Over time, you’ve learned that addiction only brings a false sense of hope. You’ve created a scenario in which the control you thought you had transformed into uncertainty and self-destruction.
While addiction can feel overwhelming and consuming, achieving sobriety can be attained through comprehensive therapeutic interventions and personal motivation. Once you’ve achieved your sober objectives, maintaining abstinence requires commitment to avoid relapsing into past behavioral patterns.
Why Does Relapse Happen?
Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this question. While the process of addiction and rehab has been studied extensively, the exact reason behind high relapse statistics is hard to pinpoint. The best explanation is that every individual has different experiences that impact their rehab journey.
From undiagnosed co-occurring disorders to past personal traumas, the various life experiences affecting a person’s treatment journey make a potential relapse impossible to gauge. However, by surrounding yourself with supportive and sober peers, you greatly increase your chances of mitigating a relapse.
With these facts on relapse in mind, it is important to focus on the things you can control and take every necessary proactive step to avoid a relapse. At Covenant Hills, we follow the Gorski Relapse Prevention Model, but there are other coping skills that can help you maintain your recovery, as well.
Relapse Prevention Coping Skills
Here are three effective relapse prevention coping skills that you can implement to increase your chances of attaining sustained sobriety.
1. Get Active
One of the major downfalls of a recovering addict’s relapse prevention plan is that they wait until they’re experiencing triggers to implement their prevention techniques. Learning to proactively address addiction cravings and triggers may mean the difference between sobriety and addiction.
Getting into the habit of exercising each day allows you to engage your body and brain in a healthy manner. Physical activity stimulates the brain’s reward center, releasing dopamine and satiating your need for substance use.
2. Try Mindfulness Activities
Relapse triggers and substance cravings will find you no matter how well you avoid them. This is why learning to proactively calm your mind and body is an essential component when avoiding relapse. This type of internal palliative can be achieved with a few simple mindfulness techniques rooted in primal self-maintenance.
- Deep breathing exercises flood your body with oxygen and create a sense of calm within your mind.
- Behavioral practices such as yoga or meditation allow you to center your perspective and slow your thought process.
These types of meditative efforts decrease impulsive decision patterns and aid you in avoiding moments of temptation.
3. Build a Positive Support Network
Numerous studies have shown that a healthy and supportive social network can reduce feelings of stress and increase your ability to cope with difficult situations.
By taking the time to reduce maladaptive peer affiliations and replace them with positive social supports, you establish an effective safety net to catch you if you fall. This type of proactive effort creates a situation in which you are supported through both good times and bad.
By surrounding yourself with people who encourage your sobriety, you increase both your level of accountability and likelihood that you will be able to avoid relapse.
Life-Changing Addiction Recovery and Relapse Prevention at Covenant Hills
While relapse may be common, where you seek addiction rehab support can be the difference between life-long sobriety and relapsing. Indeed, when you find the right recovery facility that is focused on healing your mind, body and soul, you will be better prepared to prevent relapsing.
At Covenant Hills, we take a whole person approach to drug and alcohol rehab. We work with every aspect of an individual to ensure complete care and healing. Additionally, we guide each client through relapse prevention therapy to help them identify their stage of recovery and establish a sound relapse prevention plan.
With our Recovery Assurance Guarantee, we promise that our clients will never experience relapse upon successful completion of treatment. If for any reason your loved one does relapse within one year of completing treatment, they can return for a week of stabilization and evaluation at no cost.
Learn about our faith-based treatment programs, or contact us for a free and confidential assessment.
