Exploring Relapse Prevention - Emotion Mastery-Making the World a Better Place.
1. Identify the high risk situations. Use the template at this site to help your patients to identify these. These will include thoughts, feelings and behaviors which potentially lead to relapse.
2. Have a toolbox of coping skills. Your patients need to have an identified plan. You can solidify these plans by using discussion, role play and writing. The template identified above will also assist with this activity.
3. Challenge your thinking. Building the practice of thoughtfulness is one of the best changes you can facilitate with your patients. Many times, belief systems must be deconstructed to identify faulty messages which they are operating with. Once a patient identifies their errors in thinking, they can often generalize that experience and apply it across a broader range of beliefs.
Remember that relapses are part of addiction when you view it as a disease. Just like someone with diabetes can have varying insulin levels, addicts can have varying levels of adherence to their desired goal. Relapse is part of the learning process.
elements of the plan, the patient must identify the personal high risk factors that are present in his environment and psyche.
First, understand that a “lapse” is a single, short-lived action that deviates from the goal. A“relapse” is multiple lapses which result in loss of control. Relapses are usually gradual and are preceded by many warning signals.
The goal of a relapse prevention plan is to identify as many potential factors as possible and make a plan to deal with them before they come up. The best way to deal with these situations is to have a solid plan.