After attending a drug and alcohol rehab sometimes clients relapse. Sometimes they can look at the relapse and deal with it without returning to the drug rehab center. In other situations, it may require to return to rehab. If you go back, what is the purpose? What might be the best things to focus on the second time? How long should you stay? Should you return to the same center, or would a different one be a better choice?

I think the answers to these questions may lie in how and why the relapse occurred. Stop and think about the days before the relapse. Was it a progression of several events that compounded on each other? Was it a large event that occurred rapidly and you did not see it coming? What skills, if you had, would have prevented this relapse? What structure in your life, would have prevented this negative occurrence.

The answers to these questions will help you decide what to do next. Make sure the center you return to is able to teach the skills you require. Ask them for a plan. Ask them how you will know when you have learned them? Also plan on staying a long enough period of time to actually learn, practise and become comfortable with them. When you relapse, it probably is a sign you still haven’t mastered the skills to cope with stress and anxiety in your life. Make sure you learn them this time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 6:54 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.