What is your relapse prevention strategy?
12-Step Recovered Alkie
Join Date: May 2010
Location: West Bloomfield, MI
Posts: 5,797
Originally Posted by TigerLili 
What is your relapse prevention strategy?
Please share yours here.
Please share yours here.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 33
Ask my higher power in the morning for the strength to stay sober, call another alcoholic on the phone, read a couple pages of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, get my sorry ass to an AA meeting, and at the end of the day, if I did not pick up a drink or a drug, thank my higher power for one more sober day.
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: "I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost ..."
Posts: 5,273
No prevention for me either because it is not an option, not up for debate. It's like saying how I will prevent my eyes from turning from green to blue. It's not going to happen so why would I wonder how I'm going to prevent it?
And that right there is the truth, Dee! I had to choose.
Originally Posted by dee74
I finally worked out - I can be who I want to be, and lead the kind of life I want to...or I can drink and drug...but I can't do both.
Laozi Old Man
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 6,665
Originally Posted by soberlicious
No prevention for me either because it is not an option, not up for debate. It's like saying how I will prevent my eyes from turning from green to blue. It's not going to happen so why would I wonder how I'm going to prevent it?
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: "I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost ..."
Posts: 5,273
Yes Boleo I agree... The only difference being that I don't rely on a higher power. I do believe the only real true power is love and the "interbeing" of humankind, but that's not was keeps me from drinking.
Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Albany NY
Posts: 1,212
I always look to the Serenity Prayer for guidance. Its beauty is its simplicity and its truth.
I am grateful for each day and all that it brings; good, bad and ugly.
I am grateful the promises of AA deliver.
I try to live with purpose and am always looking to do the next best thing. Sometimes I'm not so good at it, but I believe I am where I am supposed to be at any point in time. Some things happen for a reason, some things happen for no good reason at all, but every event in my life either reveals who I am, or provides me with an opportunity to learn and to grow.
I try to make my life NOT be all about me, me, me.
I love the "pay it forwrd" concept of living life.
When I'm focusing on life, I'm not focusing on alcohol.
I love threads like this! Thanks for starting it.
I am grateful for each day and all that it brings; good, bad and ugly.
I am grateful the promises of AA deliver.
I try to live with purpose and am always looking to do the next best thing. Sometimes I'm not so good at it, but I believe I am where I am supposed to be at any point in time. Some things happen for a reason, some things happen for no good reason at all, but every event in my life either reveals who I am, or provides me with an opportunity to learn and to grow.
I try to make my life NOT be all about me, me, me.
I love the "pay it forwrd" concept of living life.
When I'm focusing on life, I'm not focusing on alcohol.
I love threads like this! Thanks for starting it.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 2,308
I like what so many here have said, Dee and Soberlicious. I think mine can change as needed. Today it's reminding myself of the awful things I've done in my most recent relapse, and truly living one day at a time. I know that one drink will bring me back to the awful place, and I am so sick of that place! So when I am tempted, I remember to ask myself if one beer is worth my self-respect or physical and mental health, and the answer is always a resounding "NO!!!" So I have another day without alcohol, and all is well.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
matal72 - relapse prevention ideas are tools God gives me via the wise people here to use as far as I'm concerned. Sure it would be great if God just lifted the obsession and compulsion from me, but that hasn't happened and I don't think the idea of recovery is to sit around waiting for God to fix me. I ask God to help me help myself.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 694
If you tell a child they cant have <Insert Toy or candy name> today, it usualy goes over better than if you say maybe later if you do not intend on giving them any in the first place.
My addict mind is like this and will always be waiting, unless there is no chance ever to drink again.
Be 100% done forever, and never forget it, if going to mettings, coming here, church or whatever it takes is what you have to do, just never forget the promise you have made to youself to never pick up again.
My addict mind is like this and will always be waiting, unless there is no chance ever to drink again.
Be 100% done forever, and never forget it, if going to mettings, coming here, church or whatever it takes is what you have to do, just never forget the promise you have made to youself to never pick up again.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: hastings fl
Posts: 3
i never suggested that we sit and wait for the obsession to be lifted ,We have 12 steps that if taken as laid out in the big book ,Will produce a complete psychic change or in other words to be given a new mind because the mind that brought me here will not keep me here very long or happy,self cannot over come self or a another way of saying it I cant fix me,Relapse prevention is a false idea for any real alcoholic because i cant be powerless and prevent my next relapse ,I need Power the 12 steps allows me access to that Power without which i will be doomed
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,444
This is a big community matal - there's a lot of different methods at play here - some of our members have been successful by using the 12 steps, others have been equally as successful using other methods.
Stick with us for a while and you'll see the joy of recovery is the goal we all share
D
Stick with us for a while and you'll see the joy of recovery is the goal we all share
D
Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 178
Here is what happened to me. I wanted to just share my experience. I've had a life changing experience a month back, and since then I have been extremely strong willed in not drinking anymore. Oddly, my 'near' death experiences weren't enough to wake me up, rather it was spending time in the ER for another issue.
As a result I have gone 180 and have not touched alcohol since. I was worried about tonight's corporate outing at a wine restaurant, but I held firm. The waiters kept asking me for a drink and I declined constantly through out the night. While everyone had their glasses of red wine, but I didn't succumb to the pressure.
I'm not sure what I did, but going into the night I was already strong willed. But getting there I was afraid of the pressure. Regardless, I just declined. I didn't even have water. LOL Anyhow, I think having the RIGHT MINDSET is key, but we all need something to keep us in line.
Attaining the mindset is critical, and it'll take time.
As a result I have gone 180 and have not touched alcohol since. I was worried about tonight's corporate outing at a wine restaurant, but I held firm. The waiters kept asking me for a drink and I declined constantly through out the night. While everyone had their glasses of red wine, but I didn't succumb to the pressure.
I'm not sure what I did, but going into the night I was already strong willed. But getting there I was afraid of the pressure. Regardless, I just declined. I didn't even have water. LOL Anyhow, I think having the RIGHT MINDSET is key, but we all need something to keep us in line.
Attaining the mindset is critical, and it'll take time.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,126
I wonder how many alcoholics have been killed AA sloganeering such as "don't drink even if your ass falls off" line.
I don't mean to slam anyone, but for an alcoholic like me, that didn't work.
For me there was no relapse prevention other than accepting I was powerless once I had that first drink.
I don't mean to slam anyone, but for an alcoholic like me, that didn't work.
For me there was no relapse prevention other than accepting I was powerless once I had that first drink.
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