Relapse prevention is a toolset taught to clients to manage their addictive behaviour once they have completed a program at a drug rehab center or alcohol treatment facility. Relapse prevention is a relatively new field of study and uses a cognitive-behavioural model to identify problem areas for the addict and develop realistic strategies to prevent relapse. Studies into relapse prevention have concluded that:

1) Relapse prevention should be tailored to suit the individual. There is no single optimum program that is better than all the other approaches. Rather, there seem to be a number of methods all of which are equally effective. Even if a method is less effective than others it is still better than doing nothing. This means that when we are helping a person to leave a drug rehab center we should not become too bound up in methodolatry and should rather consider the merits of the case.

2) Relapse occurs even outside of addiction. Think about how many people break their New Year's resolutions, break a diet, stop exercise programs, etc. Relapse is very much a human phenomenon and isn't restricted solely to addiction or alcoholism. A sensible approach to relapse might attempt to remove the shame and sense of pathology from the event and rather focus on taking a constructive attitude.

3) Relapse is a process and not an event. There is always a buildup towards the person actually picking up the alcohol or drugs again. In retrospect it is usually possible to identify a sequence of interconnected events that lead to a slip in behaviour. Relapse prevention seeks to serve as an early warning system by identifying this sequence at an early stage before the person has reverted to using drugs or alcohol. Most relapse prevention programs offer a toolbox that will enhance awareness of this process and provide options to arrest it.

Emotional intelligence

There is a great amount of research that suggests emotions play a critical role in the relapse process. Many addicts and alcoholics struggle to manage their emotions without chemical intervention. Both positive and negative emotions feel very raw in early recovery. Because the recovering alcoholic or addict is inexperienced in dealing with them they may become amplified to a level where they are overwhelming. It is at this point that an addict or alcoholic is at high risk of relapse because he/she might turn to the chemical as a way to "cope". Equipping graduates of drug rehab centers or alcohol treatment facilities with the emotional skills to cope with the demands of everyday living is an excellent start to preventing relapse.

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Optimism

Emotion is certainly the biggest contributor to triggering relapse but it is also clear that our self-talk (what we say about ourselves to ourselves) also plays an important role in the relapse process. Martin Seligman in his book "Learned Optimism: How to change your mind and your life" describes how optimistic people are more likely to be successful in every area of life: health, academics, athletics, relationships, etc.

Optimistics are people who view problems as being temporary, specific, and external. This means that an optimist will see a problem as being something that can be fixed (temporary) that occurs as a result of various factors (external) that relate to very specific events (specific).

A pessimist will see problems as being permanent, pervasive, and internal. They will believe that a problem cannot be fixed (permanent) and that it affects their entire life (pervasive) because of their own failings (internal). When dealing with relapse we need to understand that even though addiction might be incurable (permanent) a relapse can be fixed relatively quickly in a detoxification center (temporary).

Relapse does mean we should become pessimistic about our ability to find lasting recovery. This just leads to fatalism and despondency.Rather if we are to prevent further relapse we should help clients to feel optimistic about their ability to cope with stressors.

By helping the client to regain an internal sense of control by acknowledging that external stressors led to specific events which made the relapse happen we can help them to regain their sense of being able to maintain sobriety.