When you’re graduating an inpatient program for drug or alcohol addiction, it can feel insulting for someone to encourage you to focus on relapse prevention. You must understand they are just trying to help you stay successful once you get home. Every person in recovery faces situations where relapse is likely. Without plans in place you may wind up making decisions you aren’t proud of.
Have a Support System in Place
Support groups may seem lame, but few people besides other recovering addicts can really understand what you’re dealing with. You can only complain so long to family and friends without someone throwing judgment in your face. That doesn’t erase the fact that sometimes you need to be able to vent about the problems you’re dealing with.
Joining a support group can give you access to people in your situation who are willing to listen without reproach. When you desperately need someone to tell you things will be okay without tying in all your life’s complications with your alcohol or drug addiction, call on a support group partner for help. Depending on the program, you don’t necessarily have to sign up for a particular buddy or sponsor to have a lifeline for help.
Get a Full Physical and Mental Work-up
It does no good to ignore that most people who become addicted to alcohol or drugs are unknowingly treating an undiagnosed health problem. Get the medical help you need to rule these factors out. If you find out you do have a physical or mental issue that needs attention, waste no time in getting that help. Taking care of these problems in healthy ways will prevent you from reaching out to destructive alternatives.
Look Into Effective Prescriptions for Relapse Prevention
Outpatient services are changing and more and more medications are being approved for treating withdrawal. Some of these directly work against the discomfort you’ll feel as you break away from addictive substances. Others act as incentive to stay clean and sober by interacting negatively with substances you take.
Some of these substances come with their own risks of addiction and may not be a good idea for a recovering addict. Others don’t and have excellent effectiveness rates. If it looks like a prescription drug would help you stay sober, consider adding one to your outpatient care program. Relapse prevention can be tricky when you first graduate an inpatient program. Therefore, you should use all the tools you have available to stay a success.
To learn more about relapse prevention and recovery, visit DrugRehab.info.
