Relapse Prevention

During times of conflict we tend to focus on the vulnerabilities or limitations of others. In order to focus on strengths, you must be willing to drop your defenses and become more vulnerable.

In this article we will explain the input we received from the children of an addict who had the courage to voice their concern.  We will highlight how it was integrated into the couple’s relapse prevention plan, or I guess I should say, the Family’s Relapse Prevention Plan.

Our passion for promoting healthy families who share in the recovery process has been burning since we were the forgotten children in our alcoholic homes.

We decided that we would take a detour from time to time from our usual blog model and share some of the confidential responses we have received from our readers with you.

We believe that every young member of the family is impacted by the challenges that their recovering parents are experiencing.  We grew up in a generation that promoted the notion that children should be seen and not heard.

We have had conversations with thousands of family members of addicts in active addiction who are able to describe the process of relapse that precedes their loved one’s return to his or her drug of choice.

The addict can free-fall to a bottom of severe consequences if he or she is left alone to develop the awareness a person usually requires to identify the need for help. That is where the family comes in.

The goal of most formal interventions is to get the addicted person separated from the drug of choice and help before circumstances get worse. We do not believe that a “rock bottom” must be reached before change can occur.

All of us, at times, find it terribly difficult to empathize with the pain of a loved one without slipping into judgement, criticism, or frustrating efforts to fix our partner. Our efforts to help are often rebuffed an we generally decide it is “not our place to say anything.”

We are always changing. We are moving forward in our recovery or we are moving backward. While it is not a problem peculiar to people recovering from an addictive illness, it seems particularly hazardous for us to settle into a recovery hover.