Many people think that addiction relapse after recovery usually occurs in a single step. However, it is a gradual process involving three stages, which include emotional, mental, and physical relapse.
Mental relapse is the second stage that involves constant struggles with your mind. Usually, you will have to decide whether you will use drugs again or you can do without them. Therefore, before people finally relapse, they usually have an inner struggle with the first two stages.
Physical relapse means the person has yielded to drug use. Since the second stage often decides whether a person will relapse, there are various tips you can apply to cope with it. Below are the useful tips.
Discuss With a Familiar Person When You Experience the Urges
Call a friend, a family member, or rehab support and tell them what you are experiencing. Just like the saying that states a problem half shared is half solved, the moment you start talking about your thoughts and feelings, your urges will begin to disappear.
Think About the Consequences before Going Back
When you think about reverting, you usually fantasize about how capable you can control your use this time. You might tempt yourself to take one drink, which will eventually open doors for ordering more drinks and creating a vicious endless cycle.
However, the best action to take is to remind yourself of the potential and the negative consequences you encountered during addiction and how you never want to return there.
Nobody ever wants to associate themselves with a tragic outcome that created lots of health issues and troubles in life due to poor decisions of drug use. After all, you will realize things might get worse with relapse, especially if your past habits almost destroyed your life.
Distract Yourself from Mental Cravings to Avoid Relapse
When you think about using drugs, engage yourself with some activities. For instance, chatting with a friend, attending a meeting, doing some exercise, among others, are crucial ways that work. If you just stay idle and entertain those cravings while doing nothing, you are merely giving your mental relapse time to develop.
Additionally, most mental urges usually involve intense feelings that last for about 30 minutes. However, if you keep yourself busy during this time, you will realize how quickly it will disappear.
Practice Relaxation during Your Recovery Journey
Relaxation and meditation are crucial aspects of preventing relapse. The reason is that when you feel tense, you are most likely to do familiar and wrong things rather than something new and right.
Constant tension can build anxiety and fears that can later make you repeat past mistakes that triggered addiction. However, relaxation creates an optimistic and hopeful mind that reduces triggers to mental relapse.
A Word from the Recover on Mental Relapse
Since mental relapse is a hard stage to avoid due to its overwhelming urges, the best action is to find an addiction therapist, counselor, or rehab support. Several professional rehab treatments are available near you. These rehabs have excellent programs that can help you get back to calm and clear thoughts before relapse episode manifests eventually.
If relapse has already occurred, it is not too late to seek rehab support immediately before you revert into severe addictive habits.
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