Have you ever worked really hard for something, only to see it slip through your fingers? When you have done the difficult work to detox and become sober, the last thing you want to do is relapse. Yet about half of people who seek treatment for substance use disorder do relapse within the first year.
How can you be on the right side of that statistic? What can you do differently to help you hold onto your sobriety and build on it so you can have a lasting recovery? The answer is to make a plan. Your own personalized relapse prevention plan.
Why Is a Relapse Prevention Plan Necessary?
When it comes to recovery, no one plans to fail. However, if you fail to plan, you are more likely than not to relapse. Many of the people who relapse give into cravings or triggers when they are unprepared to resist them. Being prepared to resist triggers or cravings takes planning and practice every single day.
If recovery is like a journey, compare it to taking a road trip. If you simply get in your car and start driving, where will you end up? Will you even have enough gas to reach a destination? Will you be too tired or hungry to drive safely? Or will you be stranded somewhere you do not even know?
However, if you make a plan in advance and continually check your course, stopping for gas along the way, and making sure you as the driver have adequate food and sleep, you will not only reach your destination, you will probably have a safe and enjoyable journey. Your relapse prevention plan is not unlike planning a road trip.
Knowledge Is Power When It Comes to Prevention
When it comes to relapse prevention, the more you know, the more you will be empowered. You are unique, and every recovery is different. This means that preventing relapse is different for every individual as well. Learning as much as you can about relapse prevention from as many resources as possible allows you to find what works best for you to utilize in making your own relapse prevention plan.
You may also find that your situation changes during your recovery journey. What works for you in early recovery may become less effective later on in recovery. The more knowledge you have about relapse prevention, the more you will have to draw from to be able to change and evolve your relapse prevention plan with your changing recovery process.
Invest Daily in Relapse Prevention
The first and most important aspect of relapse prevention is what you do every day to prevent relapse. These are the tasks and lifestyle choices that you make in your daily routine to be physically and mentally well. These tasks will improve your overall strength as well as increase your resilience. You will choose what works best for you, but activities you should do regularly include:
- Practice good sleep hygiene
- Eat regularly, including snacks
- Exercise regularly, even if it is just walking for 20 minutes
- Meditation, yoga, or breathing exercises
- Self-care, including taking time for yourself that feeds your passions
- Attend 12-Step meetings
- Check in with your sponsor
- Attend work, school, or volunteer
- Participate in your hobbies
- Attend therapist and doctor appointments
By taking good care of yourself mentally and physically, you are helping your body heal. You are also helping to proactively prevent relapse by filling your time with positive activities that do not involve substance use. These activities may strengthen your resolve to prevent potential substance use.
Practice Relapse Prevention Coping Techniques
Even when you are doing everything you should each day, you will still experience emotional triggers and physical cravings; they are inevitable in recovery. For these crisis moments, there are coping strategies and techniques that you can learn, practice, and use to help you endure the difficult moments.
You will learn some of these techniques in treatment and others in meetings and programs like sober living after treatment. You can learn still others as you strive to educate yourself about relapse prevention. A few of these strategies include:
- HALT: Take measures to avoid getting hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. Keep snacks on hand, learn anger management techniques, engage your support network, and practice good sleep hygiene.
- Mindfulness meditation: Be in the moment, non-judgmental, not reacting, and simply being aware of your surroundings. This is especially helpful during cravings.
- Five senses grounding technique: Accessing your five senses helps to ground you when you are struggling with a trigger or craving. Notice in your environment:
- Five things you can see
- Four things you can touch
- Three things you can hear
- Two things you can smell
- One thing you can taste
- Breathing techniques: Find breathing techniques that work for you, such as deep breathing, the 4-4-4 method, or other methods that help you to focus on your breathing rather than your craving.
- Urge surfing: This technique is based on the idea that each craving has a rise, crest, and fall, much like a wave. Focus on “riding” out the wave of your urge, especially on knowing that the craving will end.
Choose Coping Techniques That Work for You
There are many coping strategies and techniques to learn. The more strategies you have, the more you have to choose from. The more you practice, the more defense you have when a craving or trigger comes along. You can choose the techniques and strategies that work best for you, these will be your first lines of defense when a craving hits.
However, you may find that you have a craving so powerful that your first choice strategy is not working. In these moments, it is critical to have a long list of strategies to choose from to get you through each moment. Creating this list and learning these techniques and strategies is an essential part of your personal relapse prevention plan.
Build a Support Network You Can Rely On
A significant part of your relapse prevention plan is your support network. In addition to your sponsor, your support network should include peers you have met in treatment, in your sober living community, and in support meetings. You should include supportive family, friends, and coworkers. Your support network could also include neighbors, clergy members or fellow churchgoers, and others you know from your community.
You will need as many people in your support network as possible. Otherwise, if you are only counting on one person, If that person is not available, you have no support. When you have a large network of people to call for support, there will always be someone available to help you.
Your support network includes the people who know you and care about you, people who you can trust and rely upon. They are people who will be there when you need them, rain or shine, day or night. The more numbers you have on your phone, the stronger your network will be when you are in crisis.
Make Your Own Personalized Relapse Plan
After you have a grasp on the basics of a relapse plan, you should begin crafting your own personalized relapse prevention plan. Taking all of the knowledge you have gained, and having tried out various techniques to find out what works for you, you are ready to make your own personalized plan.
Choose your preferred coping strategies and techniques, as well as what works best for you regarding your daily routine. Do you have a workout buddy? If so, they can help you be accountable for your regular exercise in your daily routines.
If you struggle with mindfulness meditation or yoga, you may benefit from joining a class that will help you improve your skills and maintain a regular routine. If eating the right kinds of foods or eating regularly is a struggle, you can take cooking or nutrition classes to help you build both good skills and good habits.
A personalized relapse plan includes whatever works best for you in your recovery. You are free to continually change and update your plan as needed to make it work better for you. If something is not working or can be improved, change it. Your personalized relapse plan should be a working plan that evolves with your recovery.
Continually Learn About Relapse Prevention
As you continue on your recovery journey, you will find it helpful to continue learning about relapse prevention. As you continue to practice your coping techniques and strategies, be alert for new techniques or twists on existing strategies.
You might learn about these in a support meeting, from a sober friend, or from reading an article. Always being aware and alert to new information about recovery serves to help you in your recovery process.
You can also learn more about relapse prevention through your own experience. What has worked best for you? Do sensory strategies help most? Are breathing and meditation techniques more effective for you?
When something is working, do more research in that area to find other similar techniques to expand your repertoire of strategies for coping when cravings or triggers hit. By continuing to learn about relapse prevention, you are placing value on your recovery and investing in yourself.
Empower Yourself by Attending 12-Step Meetings
Regular attendance at 12-Step meetings can truly empower your recovery. These meetings help prevent relapse in many ways, including education, fellowship, and support. Simply by making the commitment to attend and following through, you are communicating to yourself and others that you are committed to your recovery. The reciprocal support that happens at these meetings strengthens all parties, whether you are new to recovery or have been in recovery for many years.
Support meetings should be an integral part of your relapse prevention plan. They help you maintain accountability, renew your commitment to yourself, and offer support when you are in need. They can be a source of strength for you and the foundation for a lasting recovery. When you are attending meetings consistently and being honest with yourself and others, you are strengthening a key pillar of your relapse prevention plan.
Making your own relapse prevention plan is only necessary if you want to avoid a relapse. Your plan begins with education and daily routines and should include a large support network that you can rely on. Learning and practicing new coping strategies and techniques will help strengthen your resolve and your recovery. By continuing to attend 12-Step meetings and learning about new ways to cope, you will continue to evolve in your recovery. Real Recovery Sober Living recognizes the value of having your own relapse prevention plan. Our Florida sober living homes for men are modernly furnished apartments that are clean and affordable. We create an atmosphere of trust and accountability in our communities while having fun and building healthy relationships. We learn to support one another in our recovery journeys. Contact us today at (727) 290-9156 to learn more about our program.
