Relapse does not happen in a vacuum. The future can be predicted by past behaviour MINUS a concrete and specific relapse prevention plan.
If you get yourself into a bar, club, or shop selling alcohol or the substance you use, heading for your dealer, a casino or bookies, phoning, emailing, or texting an old flame, on the computer searching for a date, an escort, gambling site, pornography, buying food, or heading towards a metaphorical cliff in anyway, here is what you need to do.
1. Stop!
2. Throw it away, leave it, put it down, turn it off!
3. Get Out!
4. Call a friend, peer, and sponsor, ANYONE who knows your recovery status and supports it.
5. Reflection, thinking about the short and longer term consequences.
6. Fast forward the situation a couple of hours, or to the end, and experience to effect that your present thinking and actions will have.
7. If your relapse prevention plan is to carry a photograph of your partner, child, loved one, a treasured object take it out and meditate on why you have that picture, object with you.
8. Get to a safe place.
9. Be gentle with yourself. There is no point beating yourself up, it will just add to the stress you already feel.
Relapse is to succumbing to a craving.
To manage a craving, follow the 4 D’s:
Delay
Distract
Deep Breathing
Drink Water
Deep breathing and drinking water both assist to reduce anxiety and stress associated with cravings. As they also help to delay and distract, they are simple but powerful interventions.
Recovery from addictions is a daily reprieve. It requires hard work, and your fullest attention to maintain this. The recovery programme is one of progress not perfection, and we may do better some days than others. If you choose to dabble with old behaviours and risk relapse by putting yourself in high risk situations, recovery is going to be more challenging than not. Avoid dangerous people, places, and things that trigger your addiction at all cost in early recovery. Be aware of how grounded you feel further on in your recovery, before you venture into areas that trigger acting out for you.
