Relapse Prevention

At  Cannan Valley Recovery, it’s our goal to guide you on your journey toward lifelong recovery – and this means preparing you for a possible relapse down the road. The chronic nature of addiction, unfortunately, means that relapsing to drug or alcohol abuse is a natural part of the process. Just like people with chronic conditions like hypertension, asthma and diabetes can slip up on disease management so can people struggling with the chronic disease of addiction.

Warning Signs of Relapse

A relapse is about more than just returning to using – and, in fact, there are warning signs long before the first drink or drug use occurs. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, when people who have had a stable recovery and have done well begin to relapse, they:

• Have a mistaken belief that causes irrational thoughts
• Begin to return to addictive thinking patterns that cause painful feelings
• Engage in compulsive, self-defeating behaviors as a way to avoid the feelings
• Seek out situations involving people who use alcohol and drugs
• Find themselves in more pain, thinking less rationally, and behaving less responsibly
• Find themselves in a situation in which drug or alcohol use seems like a logical escape from their pain, and they use alcohol or drugs.