Stopping medications without just cause or against the advice of medical professionals. Hanging around old drinking places and drug using friends. Keeping to yourself.  Not using a support system. Keeping alcohol, drugs, and paraphernalia around the house for any reason. Obsessive thinking about using drugs or drinking. Not following your treatment plan, or stopping therapy or missing doctor's appointments. Feeling like you no longer need support. Having problems with relationships and those that are close to you.  i.e. a spouse who still uses. Setting unrealistic goals and expecting to be perfect. Changes in eating and sleeping patterns, personal hygiene, or energy levels. Feeling overwhelmed , confused, useless, or stressed out. Frequent boredom and irritability.  Lacking routine and structure in life. Sudden changes in psychiatric symptoms and not seeking professional advice. Dwelling on resentments and past unresolved conflicts and anger. Trying to avoid dealing with personal issues and other problems of daily living. Engaging in obsessive behaviors such as workaholism, gambling or sexual excess and acting out. Major life changes including loss, grief, trauma and painful emotions. Ignoring relapse warning signs and triggers.

Most people in Recovery have times when they have strong thoughts of relapsing.  Drug/ Alcohol dreams and cravings are common.  We need to remind ourselves of the many problems we had when using and the many problems we are free of through abstinence.  The long term benefits of staying "clean and sober" outweigh the short term 'relief' of using.  Recovery takes time but eventually the cravings, abuse dreams, and insecurities will fade.  When we are committed to recovery we eventually develop a new confidence in our everyday routine without drugs and alcohol. Staying clean and sober and managing ones psychiatric symptoms effectively is not easy.  It is an ongoing process.  Abstinence and dealing positively with a dual disorder go together. "On The Ocean" clients develop recovery tools that help them stay involved in the process of recovery as well as building important life skills.  The term "dual recovery" is used for those individuals that are following a program that focuses on the recovery needs for both their chemical dependency and their psychiatric illness. People in dual recovery use  their recovery tools daily which helps prevent relapse.

We try to prevent a relapse before it happens by identifying things that put us at risk for relapse and using various recovery tools.  We can periodically review our relapse prevention plans with our doctors, treatment professionals and sponsors and change them as needed.

By becoming familiar with our triggers and warning signs, having a practical plan of action and utilizing the various recovery tools we greatly reduce the possibility to lapse back into our addictions.  We seek perfection but must realize that progress may be all we can achieve at times. We must sometimes be content to learn what we can from the situation and move on with our program of  recovery. Sharing our relapse experience with our sponsor, group, and helping professionals, is an important way to figure out what went wrong and fix it. Our experiences may also help others in recovery.     CALL: 888-OCEAN 80 (888-623-2680) or    954-993-7246  Kathy/Intake Coordinator  Copyright © 2008 savitchrecoverycenter.com  All Rights Reserved.