What To Do After a Relapse?

You might feel lost after a relapse, like a hopeless failure – unfortunately, it happens, and it sucks, but it doesn’t mean that you’ve lost the war against addiction.

Relapses can happen for several reasons and can happen at any time during recovery – because when you’re in recovery, you’re in recovery for life.

It’s not the end of the world –

Don’t trip too hard! Relapses can set you back – for how long and how far isn’t ever for certain, relapsing can seem like an inevitable thing and almost makes trying to recover, impossible. One step forward, two steps back – it’s like the worst dance ever invented, worse than the Charleston.

The important thing to remember

This is only a chapter of your story – it’s not the entire thing. Being able to recognize your backslide is the first step to getting back on your feet and getting back on track even better is learning to recognizing your relapse before it takes over your life and taking steps to get it under control, sooner rather than later.

One slip in your sobriety is terrible – but it’s not the end of the world if you’re able to put the brakes on and reevaluate, admitting it to yourself is the first step in regaining your control over your addiction – you’re the boss here, act like it. You’ve got this.

Letting someone else know about your slip up can be helpful, admitting it to someone other than yourself and whatever higher power you may believe in will help you to be more accountable for what you’ve done. Hopefully you have a support person you’re able to speak with and they’ll be able to give you the support you need to pull through and continue in your journey of sobriety.

Make a commitment to yourself

Don’t use again for an entire day – this is a struggle that’s taken day by day for the rest of your life, so don’t beat yourself up. You’ve made it this far, you can make it another day.  Take this time to focus on yourself and why you’re doing this, speak to the power you believe in and have faith that you’re strong enough to defeat this – you’re amazing and you have your own tools to cope with this.

Get to a meeting

Speak with a counselor as soon as you’re able to – speaking with a professional will allow you to get it off of your chest and they’ll be able to guide you to more resources and help create an action plan to help you keep going with your continued sobriety.

You’ve got this.