Many people joke about quitting an addiction, my father used to say, ?Quitting drinking and smoking is easy, I do it every day just before bed.? For about 80% of smokers and those with other addictions, the first attempt to quit is not the last. More often than not, it can be defined as a process in which, you take two steps forwards and one step back. Since Relapse is a common process on the road to a non addictive identity, it is important to understand and deal with relapse sensibly and realistically. This is where dealing with an addiction from a life skills approach varies drastically from the disease treatment method. Instead of preaching that a relapse is a one-way free fall to hell, it shows you how you can work around a relapse episode and to use it as a tool to analyze your thinking, leading up to your decision to relapse, and how to prevent yourself from choosing to relapse again.
*Learn how to learn from your relapse episode.
*Look at your thinking leading up to your relapse event.
*Recognize that you chose to relapse.
*Develop a mental check list to illustrate the pros and cons of initiating a relapse event, and determine if a relapse is truly what you want in your life.
*The bottom line is you have to adjust your values, so that it becomes evident to you, that in all instances, continuing in an addictive behavior is not in your best interest.
*If you do fail and you will at first, don't beat yourself up, take what you have learned and apply it the next time you are faced with making that same decision, and try to make the correct decision then.
Try to avoid falling into clich? attitudes that have bombarded your subconscious from the media. Crap like: I failed once, so I'm bound to fail again. Or once an addict, always? an addict, so why even try? It's not my fault, I have a disease. All such thinking can only harm you and keep you from ever achieving what you really desire, which is, to have a non addictive identity and to be able to live in control of your life. Remember this is a process and just as you spent years perfecting your bad decision making in you addiction, you will be a long time perfecting the good decision making that will put you in control of your circumstances, your emotions, your relationships, and your finances.
Recovery should impact all areas of your life because addiction impacted all areas of your life. We have to apply what we learn to our whole life and then we will discover that, we are truly successful. Sobriety, like success, is not a goal we hope to achieve one day, it is better described as, a way of traveling down life's road.
You will be amazed at how easy this becomes, as you practice it. With every success, you reinforce your new values and your non addictive identity. And success feels pretty damn good. It can be addictive?.
