Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT)

Relapse might feel like a far-off possibility when you are here at our luxurious recovery center, but there is potential when you return to your environment. The same things that led to your addiction might become what makes you relapse. As a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT) helps reduce the chances of a relapse by helping you predict things that could lead to one. 

This form of therapy can help you learn how to identify things that might cause you to relapse and how to avoid them. It can also help you understand how your addiction has affected your life and what you can do to improve it, even during a relapse. Understanding that relapse is typical and does not make you a failure is essential. It is a normal part of the recovery process.

How Relapse Prevention Therapy Works

In treating addiction, an essential aspect of Relapse Prevention Therapy is its emphasis on coping mechanisms that you may use to avoid relapsing into old patterns of behavior. 

Relapse Prevention Therapy seeks to help people in recovery deal more successfully with high-risk situations, to avoid full-blown relapses. Using RPT, counselors may identify a patient's risk factors. 

Whatever makes you desire to retake the substance is a relapse trigger. Relapse may be triggered by various factors, the most common of which is stress. You can learn stress management and coping skills using RPT. These are some other common triggers:

Thoughts and memories. Old memories and ideas might also activate emotional triggers. Recalling past experiences may resurrect addiction-related emotions. But you can control these feelings with relapse prevention, and you'll also discover new activities and interests to distract you from the triggering thoughts.

Addiction-related individuals or locations. A typical relapse trigger is a person or an area that formerly had a role in your addiction.

Celebrations or get-togethers with the family. These social gatherings with family or friends may trigger you. RPT will teach you how to adapt to any situation like this.

Visual reminders of your addiction. Hints of your addiction, like a burning cigarette or the sight of drinkers, might lead to a relapse.

Negative feelings and ideas. Instead of turning to drugs or alcohol, you may learn how to change your negative thoughts with RPT.

The Five Rules of Recovery

Most relapses can be understood by specific simple rules, according to observation. Recovering does not have to be complicated. Just a few easy-to-remember guidelines guide you through the process.

Change Your Life

In recovery, the most fundamental rule is that a person can't become sober by just not using. Establishing a good life that makes it easier to stop using is an integral part of recovery. All the elements that led to an individual's addiction will ultimately catch up with them if they don't make changes in their life—having an addiction requires individuals to look at their life in a new light and make adjustments that others don't have to.

Be Completely Honest

How honest can one be without putting their career or personal relationships in jeopardy? When patients feel they can't be entirely open, it's an indication of emotional relapse, according to clinical experience. Helping patients become more adept at speaking the truth is one of the most challenging tasks in RPT. 

Ask for Help

Most individuals begin their road to recovery by attempting to do things for themselves. It's been established that joining a self-help group increases one's chances of long-term recovery.

Practice Self-Care

Self-care, although essential, is often neglected throughout the recovery process. People may attend self-help groups, have a sponsor, do step work, and yet relapse without it. Recovering people tend to be harsh to themselves if they believe they don't deserve to be otherwise. A selfish person takes more than they need; a caring person takes just what they need. 

Don't Bend the Rules

Non-users and denied users are urged to identify themselves as such. Most non-users believe that using was pleasurable at one point but admit that it hasn't been enjoyable recently. Denied users create a hidden agreement with themselves that they will use again at a future time. 

Understand. Plan. Act.

We at Wish Recovery have built a structured relapse recovery program that helps individuals understand the emotions they go through during the recovery process and how to deal with them without using drugs or alcohol. As part of this program, one will learn how to think about those challenging emotions differently and gain tools for combating them using constructive means instead of substances. 

Our Relapse Prevention Therapy helps individuals create healthy coping skills, understand their emotions and triggers, process them, and move forward and pass them on for a healthier life. This is a vital part of the recovery process, and we will set you up for success.