Relapse Prevention

What is Relapse Prevention ?

The Cabin Chiang Mai defines relapse prevention as tools and techniques used to help people with drug, alcohol or process addictions. You will learn how to cope with any difficulties you have during your recovery. You will also learn to effectively manage and overcome any stressors or triggers in your environment that may cause you to fall back into active addiction.

What you will Learn about Relapse Prevention in Rehab

During your addiction treatment programme you will be involved in various therapies and activities that will help you to learn about relapse prevention. Our rehab will help you to understand your addiction and everything that may have helped to cause it. Once these things are recognised, we will show you what you can do to change these ways or behaviours. Cognitive behavioural therapy and group therapy are both excellent for teaching new tools and techniques to help with situations in the real world that may cause a relapse. While you are at our drug and alcohol rehab, there will be a lot of focus on the importance of relapse prevention. You will do certain activities during your therapy treatments that will help you to gain knowledge about preventing relapse, and build a relapse prevention plan before you leave.

What is a Relapse Prevention Plan?

It is advised that all clients who graduate from our addiction treatment programme have a relapse prevention plan in place, and we will help you build one during your addiction treatment. This is essentially a plan that you create when you are feeling good in addiction recovery that prepares for you situations where you may find it difficult not to relapse. A relapse prevention plan usually includes the following:

• A solid foundation on which to build long-term recovery
• Identification of warning signs
• Knowing and understanding your personal triggers
• Properly managing your sober time
• Mindfulness practice
• Physical therapy and healthy eating habits

Building your Relapse Prevention Plan

Each category above requires careful planning to ensure that you have a successful relapse prevention plan, in the following ways:

1. A solid foundation on which to build long-term recovery.

There are multiple challenges that you may face once you have finished your addiction treatment at our rehab. During the first 90 days after rehab, maintaining your sobriety may be difficult. You will be back in your own environment and may be dealing with many feelings and emotions. The Cabin Chiang Mai recognises these challenges and difficulties and will prepare you for this before you finish treatment at our rehab. This will help you to recognise everything that may cause you to relapse and will show you how you can avoid them. A comprehensive and effective treatment programme combined with a well-thought-out relapse prevention plan will give you a solid foundation for a long term recovery.

2. Identification of warning signs.

A relapse does not just suddenly occur. There are many things that will lead up to it such as outside influences and stress. There will always be some sort of warning sign or triggers before it happens. Our rehab will teach you how to identify these signs, and then show you what to do when they occur.

3. Knowing and understanding your personal triggers.

Triggers are anything that may cause you to use drugs or alcohol or fall back into your addictive behaviours. While you are at our rehab for treatment, you will learn what triggers are and how to handle them. Counsellors and therapists will help you to identify what any of your own personal triggers may be. Once you are able to understand what may trigger you, you will be prepared for these triggers which will help to prevent a relapse before it starts.

4. Properly managing your sober time.

While you are getting treatment at our rehab centre you will learn how to manage your sober time. In doing so, you will be able to keep yourself occupied and prevent any type of boredom. Boredom in recovery is one of the most common relapse triggers.

During your treatment, you will partake in various activities such as yoga, swimming, biking, and much more. You may find out that you really enjoy one of these activities and continue it back home when you finish your addiction treatment, or pick up an old hobby that fell to the wayside during active addiction. Keeping yourself occupied when you return home is a key part of preventing relapse.

5. Mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness is an integral part of our addiction treatment programme and we encourage our clients to continue using it once they have left our centre. Mindfulness practice will help you develop new thought patterns that may help you to have a new sense of personal power, renewed alertness, and highly improved ability to avoid relapse.

6. Physical therapy and healthy eating habits.

When you take care of yourself physically, it is much easier to take care of your mental health as well. We use various forms of physical activity as part of our addiction treatment programme at The Cabin Chiang Mai, and maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle afterwards will also be an integral part of any relapse prevention plan.