Learning From Your Past Mistakes
If you have a lapse or relapse, use it as a learning experience to help strengthen your recovery. Try to figure out your warning signs and the factors that led to your lapse or relapse. Use it as a motivator to change and to do things differently in your recovery.
If you have had a lapse or relapse it might be helpful to complete a Lapse and Relapse worksheet to help you evaluate what led to your first drink, cigarette, or use of a drug after having quit. If you have had more than one lapse or relapse, you can complete the worksheet based on several previous experiences. Then you can determine if there are any patterns to your return to substance use.
You should always inform your therapist or counselor if you have a lapse or relapse so that you can work together to figure out what caused it and how you can get back on track. Such open discussions with your therapist will help you in the long run, even if you feel guilty or shameful about your lapse or relapse. Your therapist is there to help you, not to judge you for any mistakes that you make.
Reactions to a Lapse or Relapse
The thoughts and feelings you experience following a lapse play a major role in whether or not you continue to use and move toward a full-blown relapse. Following your initial use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs, if you tell yourself, "I'm a failure, I can't do this, I'll never get it together" or "Since I can't stop myself from going back to using, I might as well continue," you are at high risk for a relapse because you'll be tempted to give up. If you feel excited, happy, good, euphoric, mellow, or even relieved, you may easily ask yourself, "If substances make me feel this good, why not continue to use?" On the other hand, you may feel guilty, shameful, angry at yourself, or disappointed in yourself, only to use these emotions as motivators for continued substance use. Usually, the more negative your initial reaction to a lapse, the more likely you are to say,"The hell with it" and continue using.
Similarly, your thoughts and feelings about a relapse have an impact on whether or not you take action to stop the relapse and get back on the recovery track. If you see yourself as a failure or feel guilty and shameful, you may hesitate to ask a therapist, friend, or family member for help and support.
If you have a lapse or relapse, use it as a learning experience to help strengthen your recovery. Try to figure out your warning signs and the factors that led to your lapse or relapse. Use it as a motivator to change and to do things differently in your recovery.
If you have had a lapse or relapse it might be helpful to complete a Lapse and Relapse worksheet to help you evaluate what led to your first drink, cigarette, or use of a drug after having quit. If you have had more than one lapse or relapse, you can complete the worksheet based on several previous experiences. Then you can determine if there are any patterns to your return to substance use.
You should always inform your therapist or counselor if you have a lapse or relapse so that you can work together to figure out what caused it and how you can get back on track. Such open discussions with your therapist will help you in the long run, even if you feel guilty or shameful about your lapse or relapse. Your therapist is there to help you, not to judge you for any mistakes that you make.
Reactions to a Lapse or Relapse
The thoughts and feelings you experience following a lapse play a major role in whether or not you continue to use and move toward a full-blown relapse. Following your initial use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs, if you tell yourself, "I'm a failure, I can't do this, I'll never get it together" or "Since I can't stop myself from going back to using, I might as well continue," you are at high risk for a relapse because you'll be tempted to give up. If you feel excited, happy, good, euphoric, mellow, or even relieved, you may easily ask yourself, "If substances make me feel this good, why not continue to use?" On the other hand, you may feel guilty, shameful, angry at yourself, or disappointed in yourself, only to use these emotions as motivators for continued substance use. Usually, the more negative your initial reaction to a lapse, the more likely you are to say,"The hell with it" and continue using.
Similarly, your thoughts and feelings about a relapse have an impact on whether or not you take action to stop the relapse and get back on the recovery track. If you see yourself as a failure or feel guilty and shameful, you may hesitate to ask a therapist, friend, or family member for help and support.
Tom Wilson Counseling offers many DUI, Alcohol, Drug, Substance and Relapse Prevention classes online. Tom Wilson is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and an Internationally Certified Prevention Specialist. Click here to view credentials.
Click on class below to register online:
For more hours, consider an Alcohol and Drug Awareness Class. These classes contain more information on Alcohol and Substance Abuse as well as Relapse Prevention techniques.
ALL classes developed and monitored by Tom Wilson, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor who is also a Certified Alcohol and Substance Prevention Specialist. Tom is the author of "Taming Anger and Aggression", an anger management program which has been taught to hundreds of people at the counseling center over the last twelve years. He specializes in adapting evidence-based substance abuse prevention programs for delivery through the web and other electronic media.
