In any relapse prevention plan a discussion of the control of stress should mostly likely be considered first.  Uncontroled stress is the number one cause of relapse and a return to drug and alcohol abuse.  Controling stress in and after drug rehab involves two main steps.  One is a stress inventory.  This involves looking at all the stressors in your life and how you react to them. 

The type and cause of the stress are important here.  Looking at how you currently deal with this particular stress.  When are you able to control it?  When does it control you?  Is it gradually increasing in your life?  Go through this process with all the stressors in your life. Here is it of value to take more than one or two days to think about these.  Do not try to do this exercise in one sitting.  It is also very useful to keep using the phrase "What Else?" every time you are able to answer one of the above questions.  Do not settle for a single answer of a phrase.  Most stressors are complicated and multi-factorial in nature.

Once you have listed all of the main stressors in your life you can start to come up with plans to deal with them.  Again this is where attending a drug rehab is a large benefit.  The ability to ask others for input who are in the same situation is always a great gift.  Your plans are usually going to concentrate on two areas.  The first is increasing you body's ability to handle stress.  Exercise and mediation are two of the most effective here.  The second are specific methods and techniques of dealing with each stress.  This may involve looking at your patterns of thinking and adjusting them.  It may also involve methods of improved communication.  It may also involve somethingas simmple as deciding a particular activity in your life is simply not worth the stress involved.

Dealing with stress in a relapse prevention plan is key to your success in drug rehab and sobriety.  Take the time to give it the attention it needs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 8:11 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.