Relapse Prevention Essay

The fourth vital step in recovering from drug addiction is to prevent relapse. Relapse is referred as “a breakdown or failure to maintain positive change” (Lessa & Scanlon, 2006, p. 273). Relapse is a common occurrence within people recovering from drug or substance abuse and according to (Perkinson, 2002), majority of the people relapse within three months after leaving treatment. The risk of relapse, such as the probability and the time frame for relapse, varies according to (Marlatt & Witkiewitz, 2008) the self-efficacy, motivation, expectance, coping abilities and emotional states. Therefore, the people must undergo Relapse Prevention Therapy, a psychotherapy designed as a maintenance program to gradually treat the addictive behaviours (Lessa & Scanlon, 2006).

They are, to identify high personal risk situations, to learn coping skills and cognitive restructuring. The first aspect requires people to identify risky situations that could trigger their impulse to relapse, such as personal distress, moods, environment and sudden cravings. Writing a personal diary to keep track of the daily activities of the people as well as their thoughts is one way to identify the high risk situation. However, the effectiveness of this method relies on the willingness of the people to be honest about their daily routine and their impulses. The second aspect is to acquire coping mechanisms when faced with unexpected temptation to relapse. The techniques that is applied to acquire coping mechanism are covert modelling, in which people are asked to visualize the high risk situations and practice dealing with them in a virtual environment, relaxation training and stress management, education on the effects of substance as well as reminder cards to remind people of emergency procedures in an event of possible