Relapse Prevention in Howell, NJ

With many mental disorders, successful treatment leads not to a cure, but to a healthier state where the condition remains under well-managed, and under control. It takes awareness and care to ensure successful long-term management. Our programs for relapse prevention in Howell provides addicts with the necessary coping skills that it takes for them to deal with cravings and any other triggers that may come their way.

Successful detoxification, psychiatric care and psychological guidance allows you to return to normal life; however, a relapse is still always a possibility. In most cases where addicts achieve long-term sobriety, the presence of a well-tuned relapse prevention strategy usually has credit. If you aren't aware of how this may be or how it might work, you could call us to talk to our experts in relapse prevention in Howell.

What is Relapse Prevention?

If you're a recovering addict, it doesn't matter how long you've stayed clean. A relapse always remains a possibility. On average, 50% of those who attempt to escape addiction relapse within one year. With drugs such as heroin, relapse rates are as high as 90%. The deeper the addiction prior to rehab treatment, the higher the likelihood of relapse.

Relapses occur as often as they do because of the way drugs work on the brain. Prolonged exposure to drugs is able to effect physical change on the brain that stays on even once drugs are removed from the picture. With these changes, the brain permanently harbors a tremendous weakness for the pleasure of drugs. The weakness can assert itself in different circumstances.

Fortunately, medical science has managed to predict the most common ways in which these occurrences come about. Relapse prevention treatment is a combination of strategies involving lifestyle changes, therapeutic work and mind training practice to help empower recovering addicts in the fight against relapse. As our experts in relapse prevention in Howell tell our patients, without exception, drug and alcohol relapse prevention is important for every recovering addict.

Warning Signs and Symptoms of Relapse

It can help to look at the most common reasons behind relapses. They happen to recovering addicts who have little social support after rehab, those who have difficulties with impulse control, those who experience guilt and shame over past actions, and those have no one to talk to about the challenges that they feel affect them the most.

When a relapse begins, it involves a gradual mental shift. The recovering addict begins to forget about why drugs are to be avoided. He begins to be stalked by negative emotions that he has little defense against, to repeatedly entertain fantasies of a return to drug use, and to socialize with other drug users. Alternating states confidence and self-pity are common.

Relapses don't happen overnight. There are clear stages that the recovering addict goes through. Knowing how to recognize these stages can help you catch a relapse before it actually occurs.

The addiction specialists at our inpatient rehab in Howell help patients to identify triggers and utilize the coping skills taught in the relapse prevention program to ensure a long-lasting recovery. They teach addicts how to cope without the use of drugs or alcohol, especially through any difficult circumstance that may inevitably come their way. We never know what life will throw at us, and it's the addicts' job to deal with it the right way.

Stages of Relapse

The emotional relapse: Substance abuse provides an easy buffer against the stresses of everyday life. With drugs out of the picture, the recovering addict often has no skills to cope with these ups and downs. When life overwhelms the recovering addict, a relapse can begin with intense episodes of negative emotion. Often, these are scarcely noticed by the addict or anyone else as anything out of the ordinary. Catching a relapse at the emotional stage, however, can help the addict quickly rally. It may take nothing more than a few sessions with a therapist who is able to teach better coping skills.

The mental relapse: When the emotional stage of an oncoming relapse is allowed to advance, it makes its presence felt in the logical mind. Thoughts and fantasies of a return to drug use begin in earnest. The mind begins to work on rationalizations, and makes it hard for sensible thoughts to gain a foothold. While it can be hard to stop a relapse at the mental stage, it can be done with a prompt escalation of addiction relapse prevention.

The physical relapse: A relapse that is not caught at the mental stage will simply assert itself as a return to active drug use. Such a return doesn't make the addict's recovery a lost cause, however. It's important to distinguish between a lapse and a relapse. Using drugs once or twice may be a setback; the situation can still be salvaged, however, with rehab.

It's important to understand that researchers view relapses as a normal, if undesirable part of the road away from addiction. While there is no way to guarantee freedom from relapse, there are ways to minimize the possibility that occur. Relapse prevention programs that involve the use of constant, and long-term therapy are the only way.

Call us to speak to an expert in relapse prevention in Howell. The information you gain could prove invaluable. Call Howell Drug Rehab Centers at (877) 804-1531 today.