One of the most dangerous things a person of recovery can experience is relapse. Relapse can come suddenly. In most cases, a relapse is an event that occurs over a period of time. There are times when a tragic event occurs and sends a person into an unemotional whirlpool that they get sucked into. For the most part, relapse is a process that is rooted in denial. Relapse is deadly and if not avoided can kill you. For the most part, we know how relapse occurs. We also understand how to prevent relapse. Let’s look at what the relapse process looks like and how to prevent relapse from moving forward.
Relapse is defined as the act or an instance of backsliding, worsening, subsiding, or a recurrence of symptoms of a disease after a period of improvement.
Relapse Process
The relapse process occurs in a series of steps and in the direction of a return to addictive or other self-destructive behavior. Along the way, there are opportunities to use new ways of thinking and acting to reverse the process, but we don’t implement them. We have diluted our thinking to the point of ignoring people, places, or things that we once considered dangerous or unsafe. We stopped doing the things that got to a position of recovery.
Now that we have a better picture of what relapse is and how dangerous it can be, let’s look at preventing it. Once again, to underestimate the destructive nature of relapse is to do so at our own peril.
Preventing relapse requires that we develop a plan tailored to maintaining new behavior. We also need to develop a deep sense of gratitude for pulling ourselves from the destructive nature of our lives. We must see each day as another opportunity we are fortunate to experience.
Here are some suggestions that we can institute to prevent relapse from making us a statistic.
- Develop a daily spiritual practice to begin the opening of the day.
- Live each day with a plan and work the plan
- Stay involved with helping others
- Make like-minded people your inner circle
- Keep a gratitude list handy and add to it as you go
- View everything as an opportunity to learn in and grow from
- Continue to work on aspects of life that are most important to us
- Invest in the things where we get the greatest return
- Invest in others as others invested in you
- End each day with a clear mind and resolve
Doing these things will keep us active in the things that got us our recovery. We stay recovered by doing the things that got us there. We also want to dig deeper into the things that are most dear to us. Our lives must become like a tall and strong tree; her roots are so well-grounded that even the fiercest storms can’t bring her down.
Robert Pardon
Robert is the Recovery Guy. Getting clean and sober on April 25, 1986 has given me the insight and practical skill set to not only stay sober, but to also re-invent myself to the person I always wanted to become. Showing others how to do this is my life goal.
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