Think of a relapse prevention plan as your guide to living an addiction-free life. It’s a recovery roadmap that helps you maintain your sobriety, achieve your goals and create the life you’ve always wanted. During residential treatment, a client works one-on-one with a case manager or counselor to create a relapse prevention plan tailored to suit his or her needs.

Each relapse prevention plan contains a few elements:

1. Your Reasons Why You Want to Be Sober or Clean

Acknowledging the “why” behind your decision to be sober or clean enables you to understand why recovery is important to you. You likely have several reasons why you want to stay sober, and a list of pros and cons can help you get them organized. The pros are examples of how your life has changed for the better now that you’re in recovery, and how it will continue to improve if you maintain it and don’t relapse. The cons are examples of how you and your life will change if you do relapse.

Your reasons for sobriety serve as valuable motivation that helps keep you focused and engaged in your recovery.

2. Relapse Triggers to Avoid

Recovery is a lifelong commitment; something you will have to work at every day to maintain. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, relapse rates are between 40 and 60% after treatment. It’s important to understand the reality of relapse. It’s possible, but it’s also preventable.

During treatment, you spend a good deal of time participating in relapse prevention training that helps you identify and understand your triggers. A relapse prevention plan includes the situations, people and places to avoid, as well as a list of people you can contact if you’re thinking about drinking or using.

3. Warning Signs to Look Out For

Addiction isn’t something that happens without explanation, and neither is a relapse. You can identify a potential relapse before it occurs by keeping an eye out for a few warning signs:

• Not going to meetings.
• Believing you can still drink or use without any consequences.
• Reconnecting or maintaining contact with people use still drink or use.
• Having irrational thoughts about recovery.
• Engaging in self-defeating behaviors.

At Segue Recovery Support, each client works one-on-one with a certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist who is trained and experienced in identifying warning signs and intervening long before a relapse occurs.

4. What Your Body Needs

For many people, drug or alcohol addiction is a result of self-medicating with substances as a way to cope with the negativity in their lives. In treatment, you learn healthy ways to cope and improve your mental and physical health by participating in traditional and alternative treatment methods, including talk therapy, exercise and meditation.

After Primary Treatment, you and your case manager or counselor will establish the things you need to do to keep your mind and body healthy. That could mean going to therapy once a week, attending one 12-Step meeting every day, going for a 30-minute walk every morning or seeing your doctor for a checkup every other month.

In recovery, it’s essential to do everything you can to prevent a potential relapse. By creating a relapse prevention plan customized to your needs and working closely with a case manager or Peer Recovery Support Specialist, it’s possible to maintain your recovery and continue creating the life you want. To learn more about the Segue Program or our Peer Recovery Support Specialists, contact us at 1-833-485-0789.