Maintaining sobriety is a lifelong journey. At the beginning of recovery, learning to replace destructive thought patterns and behaviors associated with addiction with constructive ones can be challenging. It’s difficult to maintain long-term sobriety and avoid triggers that cause relapse.
Relapse happens when we are unable to cope with a certain event, person, or other triggers, and we use drugs or alcohol as our coping mechanism.
Relapse is common, and you shouldn't give up if it happens. Pick yourself up and get back on the path to sobriety.
Why Do People Relapse?
The most common triggers of relapse are:
Withdrawal
Many people experience withdrawal when they begin their journey to sobriety. The symptoms can be very uncomfortable, so people suffering from withdrawal will often relapse to ease the discomfort. The most common symptoms include nausea, hot and cold sweats, restlessness, vomiting, diarrhea, insomnia, muscle aches, and severe seizures. People with substance use disorders often relapse during the first weeks. It’s important to see a medical professional and consider going through detox to minimize the serious effects of withdrawal.
Mental Illness
Oftentimes unaddressed mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, personality disorders, or post-traumatic stress contribute to addiction. Long-term mental health treatment is usually required to sustain good mental health. If mental health issues go unaddressed, or if an individual does not know how to cope, they can trigger a relapse. Addiction specialists work with their patients to address underlying mental health issues and minimize relapse rates.
People
Being around the same people who are engaging in substance use while you are in recovery can trigger a relapse. You should avoid surrounding yourself with people who are using alcohol or drugs before you have a stable foundation with sobriety. Setting healthy boundaries with friends, family, or colleagues is part of a successful recovery. Avoid spending time with people who don’t respect your sobriety. You eventually want to evolve to a point in your recovery where you are no longer triggered by people drinking around you. This, of course, comes with time and putting in the effort toward achieving sobriety.
Places
Common drinking establishments, casinos, and parties are some obvious places that people in recovery may want to avoid. Places you associate with your substance abuse can be triggering and cause relapse.
Boredom/Isolation
People struggling with addiction often kill time by abusing substances. With substance use off the table, boredom can trigger a relapse because you don’t know what to do. Isolation can trigger relapse because solitude means no one can hold you accountable for your sobriety. This can be dangerous, especially with no one around to talk you out of using substances. Spend your downtime engaged in recovery-related behaviors such as exercising, cooking, going to support groups, or trying new activities and hobbies.
Minimizing Your Chances Of Relapse
Developing skills to help you prevent relapse is essential to living a long life of sobriety. Take your journey one day at a time. Implement these effective coping skills in your daily life to minimize your chances of having a relapse.
Add Self-Care To Your Daily Routine
The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA) reports that the most common triggers of relapse are suffering from withdrawal symptoms such as insomnia and fatigue. Implementing physical exercise and a balanced diet can improve sleep quality and minimize your chances of relapse by removing these potential triggers.
Do A HALT Assessment
Another common trigger for relapse is feeling hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. HALT is an acronym for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired. If you get the urge to use, you are most likely feeling one of the HALT symptoms. Take a HALT inventory of how you’re feeling.
If you are hungry, make yourself a meal or have a snack. If you are angry, think about what is making you angry and how you can overcome that. You may want to talk to a counselor or someone else you trust. If you are feeling lonely, call or visit a friend or loved one or go for a walk in your neighborhood. If you are feeling tired, rest.
Practice Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation teaches people to become more self-aware. Being more self-aware allows you to better cope with potential relapse triggers. A study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) found significant improvements in people in recovery who practiced mindfulness meditation as a part of their relapse prevention program versus those who didn’t practice mindfulness meditation. Those practicing mindfulness meditation remained sober longer, reported fewer cravings, and increased awareness and acceptance.
With mindfulness meditation, participants are encouraged to learn to acknowledge their cravings instead of trying to fight or ignore them. Acceptance that cravings will come is a learned skill that helps minimize your chances of relapsing.
Understand Your Triggers
Understanding your internal triggers (anxiety, irritability, stress, anger, low self-esteem) or external triggers (people, places, or things that remind you of past use) is an efficient way to bring awareness to the forefront and reduce your risk of relapse. Once you are aware of and can understand your triggers, you can work through them and potentially eliminate them as relapse triggers.
Join A Support Group
Regularly participating in a support group is an effective way to minimize your risk of relapse. Be honest with yourself and your group about how you are feeling and when you have cravings. Feeling like you’re not alone positively impacts your recovery.
Practice Grounding Techniques
A helpful relapse prevention technique is the 5-4-3-2-1 coping technique. It takes you through your five senses to help you focus on the moment and avoid thoughts of using, anxiety, negative self-talk, and any other unhealthy thought or feeling that may lead to relapse.
First, take a few deep breaths, then follow these 5 steps:
- Name five things you see around you.
- Name four things you can touch around you.
- Name three things you can hear around you.
- Name two things you can smell around you.
- Name one thing you can taste around you.
End this exercise with a long, deep breath. Focusing on your senses will help you gain self-awareness and increase mindfulness. It will help you accomplish daily tasks, overcome unhealthy thoughts or feelings, and feel more in control, reducing your risk of relapse.
If you do end up relapsing, forgive yourself and seek out a meeting as soon as you can. Having a relapse doesn’t mean your journey to sobriety is over; it’s just a short pause.
How Loved Ones Can Help Prevent Relapse
If you have a loved one who is recently sober, you may be feeling relieved and anxious at the same time. Relieved because they finally started their journey to sobriety, but also anxious that they could relapse at any time. There are things you can do to support your loved one and help minimize their chances of relapse.
- Be supportive, even on their bad days
- Don’t use drugs or alcohol around them
- Encourage your loved one to go to meetings
- Maintain a positive attitude when you’re with your loved one
- Make yourself available to listen when they need someone to talk to
- Invite them to participate in activities that don’t involve drugs or alcohol
- Praise your loved one, even for the small steps they take towards maintaining their sobriety
- Don’t give up on your loved one
Fighting addiction is hard. Remaining a constant support system for your loved one makes all the difference in minimizing their chances of relapse and keeping them on the road to long-term sobriety.
Recovia is a program that helps patients build confidence in believing they can recover from their injuries using effective pain management strategies. We are an evidence-based, multidisciplinary intensive outpatient program that offers behavioral medicine, physical therapy, medication management, detox, nutrition, and recovery-based yoga all under one roof. Recovia is more than addiction, substance use, and pain - it's about helping you as an individual function as a whole. No labels, just a comprehensive plan to get you back to your best.
If you or a loved one needs help with relapse prevention, call 480-771-0378.
