Female psychologist having session with male patient at mental health clinic, Taking Notes During Appointment

Taking advantage of the Sabino Way and making tremendous progress with your recovery during your time at our Arizona-based facilities is something to be proud of. However, you want to remain focused on the big picture during your stay with us and after departing our grounds. One of the most important things you can do is to avoid relapsing. This can be difficult to accomplish, but these relapse prevention tips will help you stay on track.

Utilize a Support System to Avoid a Relapse

A support system is often pivotal in avoiding relapsing into former behaviors. This can include a group such as Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous, a therapist, family members and friends, or anyone with your continued health in mind. This is key to staying on track with your continued care after you undergo the necessary treatments.

These should be people you can talk to about your feelings and the challenges you are experiencing during recovery to help you relax and center yourself while you push through challenging situations.

Keeping an emergency contact list can also be helpful.

Identify and Avoid Triggers

Identify what your triggers are. These are situations or other factors that increase the likelihood that you will experience a relapse and addiction extension. Common significant ones are locations where you had purchased or used substances. Simply being around people who are associated with those activities in your mind can also be a trigger.

Whenever possible, avoid triggers, especially in your first year of recovery.

Use Alternate Coping Methods for High-Stress Situations

You may have partaken in one or more substances to deal with high-stress situations in your life. Consider alternate, healthier ways of doing so. These relapse prevention techniques can include meditating.

Remember that significant life changes can cause stress – including ones that are viewed positively – and these can also be triggers. Examples include relationships starting or ending, job change, and moving.

Eating Healthy

Eating a healthier diet is how to avoid relapsing for some. A couple of the positive side effects of doing so include experiencing a lower level of stress and an improved state of mind.

Engage in Regular Exercise

Engaging in regular exercise can help reduce any relapse behaviors that you may have otherwise experienced. This activity generally reduces anxiety and improves mood. With that said, be careful not to increase how much you are doing too quickly, as that can have the opposite effect.

Keep Your Mind Occupied

One of the best ways to avoid relapse is to keep your mind occupied elsewhere. This can involve dedicating yourself more to work, taking more time with your favorite activities, and volunteering your time to help others.

Remember Long-Term Goals

Amongst the best relapse prevention tips for those tempted to relapse is to keep in mind the likely long-term repercussions of relapsing as well as the short-term ones. More to the point, remember that getting to where you want to go in the big picture will arrive sooner if you continue to resist relapsing. Keep your long-term goals in mind and create healthy habits that you can consistently stay on track with.

Remain Dedicated

Stay calm if you feel that things are going well. In other words, be careful if you tell yourself things like, “I have been doing really well. I can hang out at the bar and not drink,” or “I’ll just have a glass of wine with dinner. I can handle this. I’ve gotten to this point.”

It’s also important to remember that if you do relapse, rededicate yourself to continued sobriety. In other words, do not use that situation as a reason to binge. Cut your losses, and get back on your path to recovery.

Practice Prevention Techniques

Prevention techniques also involve stopping when you may be experiencing cravings and analyzing your emotional state. This is where the acronym HALT often comes into play. HALT stands for hunger, anger, loneliness, and tiredness. If you are suffering from one or more of those emotions, then you can focus on how to tend to them healthily.

Ground Yourself

Grounding yourself can be one of the most important prevention techniques that you take advantage of. If you feel yourself losing control, stop and take deep breaths to ground yourself.

Many in this situation then use the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique related to our five senses. At this time, acknowledge the following items that are in your immediate vicinity:

  • five that you can see
  • four that you can touch
  • three that you can hear
  • two that you can smell
  • one that you can taste

Relapse Prevention: Tips for Staying on Track

Aug 17, 2023

Addiction Recovery

Written by: Sabino Recovery

Female psychologist having session with male patient at mental health clinic, Taking Notes During Appointment

Taking advantage of the Sabino Way and making tremendous progress with your recovery during your time at our Arizona-based facilities is something to be proud of. However, you want to remain focused on the big picture during your stay with us and after departing our grounds. One of the most important things you can do is to avoid relapsing. This can be difficult to accomplish, but these relapse prevention tips will help you stay on track.

Utilize a Support System to Avoid a Relapse

A support system is often pivotal in avoiding relapsing into former behaviors. This can include a group such as Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous, a therapist, family members and friends, or anyone with your continued health in mind. This is key to staying on track with your continued care after you undergo the necessary treatments.

These should be people you can talk to about your feelings and the challenges you are experiencing during recovery to help you relax and center yourself while you push through challenging situations.

Keeping an emergency contact list can also be helpful.

Identify and Avoid Triggers

Identify what your triggers are. These are situations or other factors that increase the likelihood that you will experience a relapse and addiction extension. Common significant ones are locations where you had purchased or used substances. Simply being around people who are associated with those activities in your mind can also be a trigger.

Whenever possible, avoid triggers, especially in your first year of recovery.

Use Alternate Coping Methods for High-Stress Situations

You may have partaken in one or more substances to deal with high-stress situations in your life. Consider alternate, healthier ways of doing so. These relapse prevention techniques can include meditating.

Remember that significant life changes can cause stress - including ones that are viewed positively - and these can also be triggers. Examples include relationships starting or ending, job change, and moving.

Eating Healthy

Eating a healthier diet is how to avoid relapsing for some. A couple of the positive side effects of doing so include experiencing a lower level of stress and an improved state of mind.

Engage in Regular Exercise

Engaging in regular exercise can help reduce any relapse behaviors that you may have otherwise experienced. This activity generally reduces anxiety and improves mood. With that said, be careful not to increase how much you are doing too quickly, as that can have the opposite effect.

Keep Your Mind Occupied

One of the best ways to avoid relapse is to keep your mind occupied elsewhere. This can involve dedicating yourself more to work, taking more time with your favorite activities, and volunteering your time to help others.

Remember Long-Term Goals

Amongst the best relapse prevention tips for those tempted to relapse is to keep in mind the likely long-term repercussions of relapsing as well as the short-term ones. More to the point, remember that getting to where you want to go in the big picture will arrive sooner if you continue to resist relapsing. Keep your long-term goals in mind and create healthy habits that you can consistently stay on track with.

Remain Dedicated

Stay calm if you feel that things are going well. In other words, be careful if you tell yourself things like, "I have been doing really well. I can hang out at the bar and not drink," or "I'll just have a glass of wine with dinner. I can handle this. I've gotten to this point."

It’s also important to remember that if you do relapse, rededicate yourself to continued sobriety. In other words, do not use that situation as a reason to binge. Cut your losses, and get back on your path to recovery.

Practice Prevention Techniques

Prevention techniques also involve stopping when you may be experiencing cravings and analyzing your emotional state. This is where the acronym HALT often comes into play. HALT stands for hunger, anger, loneliness, and tiredness. If you are suffering from one or more of those emotions, then you can focus on how to tend to them healthily.

Ground Yourself

Grounding yourself can be one of the most important prevention techniques that you take advantage of. If you feel yourself losing control, stop and take deep breaths to ground yourself.

Many in this situation then use the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique related to our five senses. At this time, acknowledge the following items that are in your immediate vicinity:

  • five that you can see

  • four that you can touch

  • three that you can hear

  • two that you can smell

  • one that you can taste

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