I don’t Know What Happened, I Just Relapsed!
March 21st, 2008 by Terry Keith
When things do not turn out how we would like, often we want to remove our own responsibility in the situation. When asked why something went wrong we respond in this manner. I don’t know it just happened. We are not actively saying it was not our fault. We are just implying it. The truth is that we do know why it happened. Maybe we are not sure with 100% certainty. With 80% certainty we do know what happened. We do know the decisions that lead to the event.
NOBODY RELAPSES BY ACCICDENT. No one accidentally falls on a syringe with heroin in it. There are not gangs of roving terrorists forcing people to drink alcohol. Leaving a bottle of alcohol hidden in case of an “emergency” is not an accident. Driving to the area of town where it is easy to buy drugs is not an accident.
Think about working out and getting back in shape. Have you ever heard anyone say this? I don’t know what happened. I was just having an ordinary day. Then suddenly I was in the gym in my track pants lifting weights. Then I couldn’t stop. I kept lifting weights for 13 days straight. I could not stop. I’m a gymaholic, I’ve got a disease I guess. It’s not my fault.
If you have relapsed, you know what happened. You made a series of choices that lead you to be in a place to use. Then you chose to use. You can make a different choice. You can choose a relapse prevention plan. You can choose better structure in your life.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 10:04 am and is filed under Drug Rehab, Relapse Prevention Plan. 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.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:39 pm
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April 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I disagree with this posting. While of course everyone is responsible for their own actions– there is a lot more to stopping drug or alcohol use.
Relapse is a conditioned emotional response for many people. Let’s be realistic, for someone who has spent 10, 20, or even 30 years using drugs or alcohol every time they had ‘a feeling’– 30 days in treatment is nowhere near enough time to turn something like that around. You can drill the 12-steps into someone’s head all day long, send them to meetings to repeat witty rhetoric like a robot– but if you have not given them some realistic alternative emotional responses…. (even better, a chance to develop those emotional muscle over an extended period of time) then you cannot lay the blame entirely on the user.
If a horse breaks his leg and the owner only bandages it up and hands the horse some Neosporin before sending him out on the race track full speed- can the owner really get mad at the horse when he breaks his leg again?
Recovering from addiction takes a lot more than a Big Book– it takes a strong support network, encouragement, alternative responses, and time to develop those new muscles.
May 28th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
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