Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT) Break the Rehab-Relapse Cycle

Once an addiction grabs a hold of you it does NOT want to let go. For many, it’s too much of a struggle. The pain, once numbed by alcohol or drugs, comes back. Worse than before! You feel like a failure. You’re weak. You had the chance to get clean,
to get sober – and you blew it.

Addiction isn’t a character flaw. It’s not a moral weakness in substance abusers. Addicts aren’t having fun anymore. The high, the buzz, just gets addicts to “normal” – their emotional pain masked just enough to get through the day. But……as the body develops a tolerance for an abused substance, you need more and more of that substance just to feel “normal” – like you did before you started using and abusing.

Eventually, addiction will consume more of your time, more of your money, more of your life because getting to normal is now your daily goal.
The solution? Relapse Prevention Therapy, or RPT, provides the skills and motivation to keep yourself heading down the right course, clean and sober. RPT prepares you to engage life to the fullest, without the drain and stigma of addiction.

No one is saying this is easy. No one is saying you can check into a rehab facility and check out 30 days later clean and sober. All fixed. Addicts hold onto long-ingrained habits. They have long-time drug-abusing friends. They’ve been able to numb emotional wounds with the help of a bottle, a line, or a few tokes. They have a drug of choice, unlike non-addicts.

So, the cycle begins. Check in, stay with the rehab facility’s plan, check out and look for your supplier. Check-in; check-out. In some cases, addicts aren’t able to stop using even when they’re in the supportive, compassionate hands of a substance abuse counselor who, in many cases, was once like their clients are now.

An addiction grabs hold and won’t let go. Your brain undergoes extensive “re-wiring” the longer an addict stays an addict. There’s a physical dependence on many abused drugs. The body chemistry changes with each toke, with each vodka shot.

Effective recovery facilities employ numerous therapies with residents, but what happens after that stay in rehab? We’ve all read the tragic stories of prominent people who check in to kick an addiction, only to start using again and again. Movie stars. Politicians. Sports heroes. Addiction doesn’t care how famous or powerful you are. Your addiction has a hold of you and won’t let go. Relapse Prevention Therapy gets you through to the root cause of the problem.

It may take days or weeks, or it can happen within an hour of checkout from rehab. You’re back where you were. Abusing. Why? You face your pain, your demons, without your crutch – your drug of choice. It’s not enough to get clean and sober. There are a lot of “dry” alcoholics and non-abusing junkies. These addicts may have been forced to enter a recovery facility by the court, the family, an employer – no addict wants to enter rehab.

Once they’re in, addicts are often tested regularly for abused substances. If a rehab resident is abusing while in a rehab facility, that addict doesn’t want to quit, that addict poses a tempting threat to other residents, and that addict is asked to leave the facility.

That’s one reason relapse is so common. If you’re unable to address emotional pain, if you hang with the old crowd, if you never wanted to go to rehab in the first place, chances of kicking an addiction drop.

No one wants to be an addict. No addict wants to relapse. Once again, there’s an emotional dependence on the abused substance, and perhaps a physical dependence. Drugs change the body’s chemistry, and realigning that chemistry is a never-ending process.

You want an easy repair, a fool-proof method of keeping clean and sober. You want someone to hand you the answers to break the rehab-relapse cycle, but those answers must come from you.

In rehab, employing the latest in recovery therapies, you learn coping mechanisms that steer your mind away from the pain that turned you into an addict. The pain may still be there but you learn coping strategies that gradually take hold and become part of your clean and sober, daily routine.

It’s not enough to simply check in to rehab, either by your own free will or under coercion from an authority. You have to learn relapse prevention skills required to get you through the day. Just the day. If you’re able to cope with internal pain and turmoil without drugs or alcohol you can finally break the rehab-relapse cycle once and for all. No, it won’t be easy to break old habits. Yes, it’s hard to kick an addiction. Ask any smoker. Ask any junkie. An alcoholic will tell you quitting is impossible.

It’s not impossible once you develop coping methods that distract compulsive thoughts that cause pain. Over time, you recognize the beauty around you, and all that you can enjoy from now on – clean and sober.

To learn more about breaking the rehab-relapse cycle contact one of the highly-trained, sympathetic counselors at Hawaii Island Recovery, located in the Kona district of the Big Island of Hawaii. There’s no obligation, there are no judgments or recriminations. Just someone who understands what’s going on in your life and in your head.

Learn healthy routines and strategies to manage emotional pain in a less harmful fashion. Learn how a healthy diet and exercise can become the best habits you ever develop.

Call us, even if you’ve been through other programs without success. At Hawaii Island Recovery, we prepare you to take back your life with relapse prevention therapy.