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What is Relapse Prevention?
Drug addiction and abuse are diseases that, when left untreated
or poorly treated, are typified by chronic relapse. It is very important
for the patient to prevent from the relapse threat. The prevention
of relapse is a critical part of any effective treatment for drug
and alcohol abuse.
With every chronic disease, like drug addiction there is the possibility
of relapse. Alcohol and drug abuse does not just vanish if we wish
it away; and it is greatly influenced by social, clinical and medical
factors. Not every treatment is successful in treating drug abusers.
Relapse prevention, is a program, which helps to make any treatment
effective and successful.
Relapse Prevention Program
We define Relapse Prevention as a strategy to help alcohol and other
drug abusers to cope more effectively and to overcome the stressors
or triggers in their environments related to alcoholism and drug
addiction that may cause relapse to build into chemical dependency.
It is a comprehensive method for preventing chemically dependent
clients from returning to alcohol and other drug use after initial
treatment.
This is a program specifically designed to support long term sobriety.
Therapies, recreational activities, meditation, yoga, swimming,
lectures, videos, and self-study assignments are used to explore
and manage relapse warning signs and regain confidence for not indulging
again into drug abuse.
A relapse does not just happen by itself. There are various outside
influences and contributing factors, like family atmosphere, working
environment and circle of friends, which can be stand responsible for
the fear of relapse. One can easily sense warning signs of relapse,
i.e. a danger of returning to the destructive patterns of substance
abuse. So, it’s very important to keep an eye on such warning
sings and start working on them before any damage to patient’s
health and future.
Principles of Relapse Prevention:
- Self-regulation and stabilization
- Integration and self-assessment
- Understanding and Relapse education
Activities to help Relapse Prevention
- Spiritual counseling
- Co-dependency
- Re-parenting
- Assertiveness training
- Psychiatric evaluation
- Acupuncture (encourages endorphin production)
- Family therapy / education
- Nutritional food plan (Balance the ecology of the body)
- Vitamin Therapy (To help rebuild neurotransmitters)
- Anger management and classes in meditation, karate, tai-chi
and yoga (stress reduction)
- Dual Diagnosis
- Sexual addiction / relationship issues
- Gambling addiction
- Gender-specific issue
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