What is your relapse prevention strategy?
 

Someone mentioned this on another thread I started but I have never really had one.

Please share yours here.

What keeps me from relapsing is reminding myself what alcohol reduced me to. I can't imagine anything worse than going back to that. Continuing to remind myself how much healthier and better off I am seems to keep me away from it. I still get the urge to drink but, unlikely previous times that I've tried to sober up, I know for sure now that it's not at all worth it.

When I want to drink, I tried to find something healthy to eat or a new exercise to do. I try to find something that will benefit me in the long term, as opposed to drinking alcohol which will only fool me into thinking I feel better and only for a short period of time.

Another thing that's often helpful is going to places like this online and venting your thoughts. Staying sober alone can seem impossible sometimes and fortunately there are people out there eager to help.

Some of the most important things I did...

• SR
  
  I still read and post here everyday...it's important to remember the stakes at risk here...and to never forget what it was like...
  
  
• Play the tape through to the end
  
  it's easy to remember the 'good times' we had, or convince ourselves we had, with alcohol..
  
  it's harder to recall the bad times, or the bad consequences we had, even after those good times...I found it better to try to focus not on the short term but the longer term :)
  
  
• urge surfing
  
  One of the best things I learned was that I was not my thoughts or feelings...I could remove myself from what I was feeling and try and analyse things a little more logically
  
  I found I didn't need to act on cravings or triggers..the reactions were finite and they did go away
  
  http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html
  
  
• other support
  
  If you need other support besides SR - look for it...get those numbers, make those calls - there's no shame in safeguarding your recovery and reaching out when you need help.
  
  I always tried to remember I got out of my recovery what I put into it.
  Make your recovery the most important thing in your life and I don't think you can go too far wrong :)
  
  
• being who I want to be.
  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.
  
  Once I accepted that - really accepted it - things got a lot easier for me...:)

D

Fully committing to sobriety without conditions. That left me with a lot to learn about how to get by, but I am getting by.

The daily practice of gratitude.

God, prayer and simple living at this early point in recovery.

-Don't drink

-Stay hydrated and reasonably well fed

-Get centered

-Meetings to be around people like me

dont have the first drink

Remembering that relapse is addiction winning the battle. Once the physical dependence in gone, the cravings to use are just a mental obsession. Our addict/drunks selves are used to instant gratification. Saying no, even repeatedly, won't kill us. But it will kill the addiction.

So the answer to the urge, every time, is NO!

I've done a lot of reading on the physiology of alcohol addiction, particularly on the brain and central nervous system. Temptation is no longer an issue, knowing that, with proper diet and exercise, my body and brain are undoing the years of alcohol damage I inflicted on it. I don't want to do anything that sets back that progress.

Apart from the obvious of eating well, trying to sleep properly, take vitamins, exercise and generally feel good in knowing that I'm doing good for myself and others by not consuming, avoiding "triggers" and awkward or potentially dangerous situations where it might be easy to relapse (like the company of past drinking pals etc.) I've found that trying to educate myself on as many of the issues about what alcoholism and addictions "mean".

By this I mean trying to understand what the physical effects of what alcohol does to the body and "how it works", how different approaches to long term sobriety have been successful (or unsuccessful) for different people. AA and twelve step methods work for some people (and that's great) but they are not the only approaches to long term sobriety. AVRT, Rational Recovery, "the beast within", and "lizard brain" approaches work for some people (and that's great) but once again, they aren't the only way to go.

So finding a method to maintain sobriety that works for you and you're comfortable with will strengthen your chances at success. Personally, I like to keep it light and not to put too much pressure on myself.

What it boils down to for me is, if I weigh the benefits of drinking vs. the benefits of NOT drinking, the latter outweighs the former by a longshot. When I boil it down to this simple principle, it becomes pretty much a "no-brainer", for me anyhow.

Happiness and success to you all.

Two meetings a week, and almost daily check-ins with a sponsor. Also helping out, I'm leading my first meeting tonight!

Remove the mental blank spots and undo my powerlessness. Its a process rather than an event.

I've had to learn this the hard way. After 2 brief relapses in the past 4 years, I need to be reminded that I'm an alcoholic... daily. Regular meetings are the best way for me to do that. Reading the big book, talking to my sponsor, and prayer are also helpful. If I don't do these things, I'm reminded of my disease by a relapse. And that's a much worse way to do it. No matter what... It all comes back to the first step. It has to be concrete for me.

The thing about relapse prevention is that you have to assume that you might actually drink again. I prefer not to go there at all, and to turn the idea of relapse prevention on its head. If I don't make any allowances whatsoever for relapses, then I have no need for relapse prevention.

SR pretty much every day, 2 - 3 meetings a week, diet, exercise and reaching out to others.

Talking with other recovering alcoholics and staying out of my own way. It's been working well so far.....

Stay happy without it.

Quoted for truth.

Trust God, clean house, help others,

Don't drink, even if my ass falls off.