At Central Valley Behavioral Health we have a wealth of experience in treating individuals who have struggled with the ability to remain clean and sober. It has provided our team a unique understanding and compassion for the complexities involved when a individual relapses. Often, a relapse triggers feelings of remorse, shame, and guilt, to includes thoughts of self-doubt and negative self talk.
Our Ascend Program is developed to focus on overcoming challenges with relapse behavior within a chronic relapsing. The program provides relapse prevention psychoeducation, peer-support groups that are relapse-prevention specific. It also provides 10-weeks of aftercare services.
What is Relapse Prevention?
Relapse prevention is an umbrella term that refers to strategies that help reduce the likelihood and severity of relapse when someone is trying to remain sober.
Most relapse prevention strategies focus on building cognitive-behavioral skills and coping responses. Cognitive behavioral skills refer to a person’s ability to recognize their thought patterns, which influence their emotions, which determine their behavior. Coping responses are behavioral responses to stressful situations.
One of the most important things to understand about relapse is that it usually does not happen impulsively. Instead, it occurs in stages.
Demystifying The Three Stages of Relapse
1. Emotional Relapse
At this stage, individuals are not thinking of using yet, but they are setting themselves up for a relapse. They often begin feeling negative emotions like anger, anxiety, or restlessness. This is often followed with self-isolation, mood swings, avoiding support group meetings, combined with poor eating or sleeping habits are clear signs of an mental relapse.
2. Mental Relapse
In this stage, there is a battle going on inside of the individual. Part of them wants to use, while the other side of them understands the negative impacts of relapse. Memories of people and places where they've used become more frequent. Glamorizing the using lifestyle as fun, productive and controllable often leads the individual to fantasizing about using. This mindset provides the space where lying, and engaging with old using friends is acceptable. These markers are identifiable signs of a mental relapse.
3. Physical Relapse
At this stage the individual has finally give into effects of their emotional and mental relapse. They are experiencing physical triggers surrounding the urge to use. From this point it is often where they find themselves driving to the bar or liquor store, calling their dealer, or finding an old stash hidden somewhere. At this point it becomes extremely difficult to prevent relapse behavior and the sub sequential actual use returns the individual to their pre-recovery state in an extremely short time.
Relapse prevention focuses on building the awareness necessary to recognize the early stages of relapse and provides individuals with the skills to change their behavior and avoid using again. If you can identify yourself or your loved ones in any of these three stages, give us a call, we are here to help.
2909 Coffee Road, Suite 4
Modesto, California 95355
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