You got sober, hooray! A great step in the right direction!
Now, your major concern is how to avoid a relapse. Relapse is entirely preventable, and I know it can happen, but I am not one of those people who will tell you that it is something we all must do because that’s not true. A successful recovery journey doesn’t have to include a relapse.
So, if you are concerned, let’s take a look at how to avoid a relapse.
Learn Your Triggers and Avoid Them
So, while it may seem obvious, one of the most important things to remember when learning how to avoid a relapse is to identify your triggers and avoid them. Early in your recovery, it is so challenging. Here’s why.
You have gone from living a life that revolved around a substance all day, every day. So, all you knew was alcohol or drugs. Now that you are sober, it’s like, now what?
People often fall into the trap of going around our old people, places, and things.
This is extremely dangerous because you may think that your sobriety is going to set an example for your friends. However, the exact opposite is almost always true—they will get you to relapse way before you can get them sober or clean.
So, it’s best to avoid the people and the places where you used to use and drink. Also, learn what your other triggers are.
Just because you stay to yourself does not mean that you won’t have cravings or be at a big risk for a relapse.
So, for example, if anger was a go-to for you to drink or use in order to cope, make sure that you know this. So, if you get angry, you need to be on full guard so that you don’t act out almost unconsciously and grab a drink to calm down.
I know early on, for me, anger was the worst. I was so used to acting on it and buying a bottle of vodka that the second that I got the least bit angry, my mind immediately started planning to go get a bottle.
I had to find other ways of dealing with my anger and fast. This leads me to my next tip for how to avoid a relapse: develop healthy coping skills.
Develop Healthy Coping Skills
When you are learning how to avoid a relapse, the best thing you can do is learn new and healthy coping skills. For so long, your only coping skill was getting drunk or high.
You may have to learn new coping skills altogether. Or you may already have some things that you used to use prior to using or drinking that you can bring back into your life.
So, let’s say that you get sad. Instead of rushing to self-medicate, now you try practicing yoga.
Yoga is one of my favorite things to do when I get into my feels.
Not only are you exercising and practicing breathwork while you do yoga, but your mind will settle down too.
So, before you know it, it’s been 20 minutes or so, and you don’t feel sad or have a craving for booze.
Some other amazing healthy coping skills can include:
- Meditating
- Breathing exercises
- EFT tapping
- Taking a hot bath with Epsom salts
- Reading a good book
- Watching a movie or a TV show
- Writing or journaling
- Creating music
- Listening to music
- Dancing
- Exercising
- Riding a bike or skates
- Going out into nature, BONUS points: barefoot grounding
- Practicing mindfulness
- Learning a new skill or a hobby
- Practicing gratitude
- Keeping yourself busy
- Cleaning
- Cooking a nice meal
- Planting a garden
- Helping others and become of service
This list is not exhaustive, and there are many other things that you can do that resonate with you.
The point is to replace the self-medication with something much more healthy.
Create a Relapse-Prevention Plan
Creating a relapse-prevention plan is another excellent way to learn how to avoid a relapse. So often, I see people get sober or get clean and just become what they call a “dry drunk.” Now, a dry drunk is essentially just someone who is going through the motions but not really living their life with authenticity.
It’s usually only a matter of time until one chaotic event pushes them to a relapse. The reason for this is that there was never a plan in place to prevent it!
So, you can create a relapse-prevention plan on your own, of course.
However, I highly recommend that you work with a therapist or a coach who specializes in addiction. The reason that I recommend this is: accountability.
So, it’s easy for us early in recovery to tell people that we have it and we don’t need any help. Right, we are sober now, so leave us alone.
While I felt that way for sure myself sometimes, the coach who worked with me was irreplaceable. The reason is because she held me accountable.
She would call me to make sure that I was sticking to our plan. She would ask me when I had any cravings and what I did about it to distract my mind while they played out.
See, you can say that you aren’t having any cravings and acting like it’s all gravy, but you will have cravings early in recovery and often.
You will have using or drinking dreams. So, instead of trying to lie about it, you need to admit this now.
When you have a coach or a therapist, they will ask you and keep you accountable for your cravings and temptations.
Not to mention, most coaches like me have been through recovery themselves.
They know when to call your BS. They know that you need to work through your unresolved trauma to overcome addiction.
They know what it’s like, and they can offer you some of the tools that helped them when they had cravings, too.
With a coach, you won’t get a cookie-cutter relapse-prevention plan that looks just like everyone else’s generic plan.
You’ll get a unique, tailored-to-you action plan for when cravings come up. This will include what you will immediately do and who you will call if you need more help.
Sometimes, when a craving hits, all you need to do is call your coach, and they will talk it over with you.
Eventually, it will wear off, and you’ll be fine. If you try to handle the craving on your own, the desire may very well talk you right into the car and down the road to the liquor store.
It’s scary, and if you really want to avoid a relapse, the best thing I can tell you is to hire someone to hold you accountable in the beginning.
Hire a Coach to Learn How to Avoid a Relapse
So now that you know some of the best ways to learn how to avoid a relapse, you might want to think about that accountability.
Instead of relapsing and having to go through the whole process and detox all over again, there’s a better way. I’ve been there!
I got sober and relapsed. I don’t know how many times, and it sucks to go through all of that more than once. You don’t have to!
You can avoid a relapse now by hiring a coach to help you create a relapse-prevention plan that is made just for you.
I hold my clients to the fire at Unleash Your Healing Vibes.
We will make a relapse-prevention plan, and then I will make sure that you are sticking to it with check-ins.
You can reach me anytime that you feel like you want to drink, and I will talk it over with you so that you don’t make that wrong decision.
Sometimes, we need someone to support us at the beginning of this challenging recovery journey.
Reach out today for a free session to create a relapse-prevention plan that will ensure you have all the tools you need to avoid a relapse.