The document provides information on relapse prevention. It defines relapse and identifies warning signs. It discusses emotional, mental, social, and physical relapse and strategies to prevent each. The objectives are defined as defining relapse, identifying warning signs and strengths, and learning how addiction developed. Homework involves writing an autobiography and identifying past quit attempts.

2. Review Last Week
0 Create a definition of success for the whole group
0 Identify all of the things people think they need to do or
have to be successful.
0 Narrow it down to 5 characteristics the whole group can
agree on
0 Discuss why those 5 characteristics are more important
than the others to your group
0 Relate those characteristics to the spiritual principles of
the 12 steps
0 Identify one thing you can start doing to achieve each
characteristic listed

3. Additional Application
0 Complete the following sentence---
0 My child will be a success in life when he or she . . .

4. Objectives
0 Define Relapse
0 Identify Relapse Warning Signs
0 Identify Strengths
0 Learn about how your addiction developed

5. Relapse Definition
0 Relapse is the return to something that has been
previously stopped
0 For the addict, a relapse is multidimensional
0 Emotional
0 Mental
0 Physical
0 Social
0 Review your addicted vs. sober worksheet.
0 A relapse is when you start returning to any of these
people, places, things, behaviors or feeling states.

6. Emotional Relapse
0 In emotional relapse, you're not thinking about using.
But your emotions and behaviors are setting you up
for a possible relapse in the future.
0 Negative emotions make us uncomfortable
0 The healthy person identifies the emotion, decides why
they are feeling that way and takes steps to fix the problem
0 The addict becomes stuck in the emotion, sometimes
0 Nurturing and blowing it out of proportion
0 Personalizing it
0 Trying to escape from it by getting high

7. Preventing Emotional Relapse
0 Keep a gratitude journal
0 Avoid personalizing something that may not be about
you
0 Remember that…
0 Negative emotions are our mind’s way of telling us to
get off our butts and do something—Like our car’s idiot
light or hunger pangs
0 Dwelling, nurturing, hiding from negative emotions
never makes anything better
0 You can *choose* to feel and fix or relapse and repeat

8. Activity
0 List 10 things that you chose to get anxious or angry
about over the last week
0 Why did you get upset? (What was your mind telling
you needed to be fixed)
0 Did getting upset do any good?
0 What could you do differently next time to either
0 Change/fix the situation
0 Change how you feel about the situation OR
0 Let it go

9. Mental Relapse
0 In mental relapse there's a war going on in your mind.
Part of you wants to use, but part of you doesn't.
0 The signs of mental relapse are:
0 Thinking about people, places, and things you used with
0 Glamorizing your past use
0 Lying to yourself and others
0 Justifying your behaviors
0 Minimizing the impact of one (drink/hit/bet etc.)
0 “Screw It” attitude
0 Paranoia

10. Preventing Mental Relapse
0 KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid
0 Good Orderly Direction
0 Your life is a road map
0 The destination is recovery and happiness
0 Before you act, think whether that keeps you on the
right road, or is an unplanned detour
0 Maintain Head-Heart-Gut Honesty

11. Social Relapse
0 You have returned to the old people and places.
0 You have withdrawn from your sober social supports
0 You have become self-centered
0 Your life has begun to center around your “friends”
who support your habit or you have isolated yourself

12. Preventing Social Relapse
0 Contact your sponsor on a daily basis for the first 3
months
0 Keep a business card in your wallet with the names
and numbers of 3 sober supports
0 Change your phone number (if possible) and destroy
contact information for your “using” friends
0 Find at least one prosocial activity to do each week ---
volunteer, church, go to the gym

13. Physical Relapse
0 Physical relapse is characterized by
0 Cravings
0 Dreams about the drug
0 Neglecting physical health (sleep, exercise, nutrition,
medication)
0 Using

14. Preventing Physical Relapse
0 HALT
0 Hungry--- Nourish your mind, heart and body.
0 Angry--- Emotional relapse anyone???
0 Lonely---

15. Reviewing Strengths
0 What do you do when you are not using?
0 List three ways you cope with stress besides using?
0 What activities do you like that do not involve using?
0 When you are not using, what is different? Are you…
0 Going to meetings
0 Working out
0 Volunteering
0 Spending time with your dog
0 Other….
0 These all strengths you can use to prevent relapse

16. Relapse Prevention Planning
0 Include time in the morning and at night to “get
grounded” (Can be your drive to and from work)
0 Avoid alone, idol time (Go to the library, gym…)
0 Set realistic daily goals
0 Give yourself credit for positive accomplishments
Note: You will review and refine this plan as we go along

17. Homework
0 Write your autobiography
0 Begin with your first memory
0 Are you happy, sad, scared
0 Who was important in your life and why
0 Were you getting your basic needs met? Why or why not?
0 Food, shelter, safety, love, acceptance
0 Who were your friends?
0 What are the three most influential things that happened
during that time?
0 Answer those same questions for elementary school; middle
school; high school, early 20s, late 20s, 30s, etc up to present
day.
0 Now go back and identify when you started using and why
0 Look back, before that time, and identify when you started
developing your addictive behaviors. What were you trying to
control or escape from?

18. Homework Part 2
0 Identify all of the times you tried to quit.
0 Why you wanted to quit
0 What you did that worked
0 What you did that did not work
0 What is different when you are not using
0 What your relapse warning signs were
0 What triggered the relapse
0 What you can do to prevent that from happening again