The Ultimate Relapse Prevention Guide: 5 Steps to Lasting Recovery

Recovery from addiction is never easy, and it can take a lifetime of effort. While achieving sobriety is a significant milestone, maintaining it requires ongoing commitment, strategy, and support. While an estimated 45% to 56% of people will relapse¹ at some point after inpatient or outpatient treatment (respectively), this doesn’t mean failure. On the contrary, knowing how to bounce back from a relapse shows that you’re able to tackle sobriety’s challenges and face them head-on for life.

This comprehensive guide provides proven strategies to prevent relapse and maintain long-term sobriety. These simple five steps will give you the tools you need to build a relapse prevention guide that works for you and supports you on the journey toward recovery.

1. Understand Relapse and Its Stages

What Is Relapse?

Relapse refers to the return to substance use after a period of abstinence. It’s important to understand that relapse isn’t simply a single moment of using drugs again. Research shows that there are smaller stages of relapse that happen before someone turns to using drugs or alcohol again. These include emotional, mental, and physical relapses².

Emotional Relapse

The first stage of relapse occurs when you’re not consciously thinking about using, but your emotions, attitude toward sobriety and drug use, and even some behaviors are setting you up for potential relapse. You might be going through the motions of sobriety and clean-living, but there is an emotional part of you that might be neglecting your sobriety.

Signs of an emotional relapse include:

• Isolating yourself
• Not attending meetings
• Poor eating or sleeping habits
• Bottling up emotions
• Denial of having an addiction

Mental Relapse

The mental relapse stage can be tricky to recognize, especially if you’re still around old friends and acquaintances who are actively using. This stage is like a battle inside yourself, where part of you wants to use or make excuses to use, but another part of you wants to stay sober.

Some warning signs of this stage can include:

• Glamorizing past use
• Thinking about people or places associated with substance use
• Planning opportunities to use
• Lying to others about what you really think of your substance use

Physical relapse

After the mental relapse stage, it’s easier to justify yourself using substances again. Many people think that when push comes to shove, turning down drugs or alcohol by just saying “No” is enough. On the contrary, the physical relapse stage has long been in the works and is only the ending of a cycle that’s been occurring since the beginning.

The first step in creating a relapse prevention plan that works is to understand these three stages of relapse so you can tackle your cravings before they turn into a full-blown relapse. You can implement your relapse prevention plan at any stage, but it’s often easier to steer clear of substance use earlier on.

2. Identifying Your Personal Triggers

Triggers are present during any stage of relapse. Triggers might lead you to have negative thoughts about your recovery, leading to the emotional relapse stage, lead you to make excuses for using again, like in a mental relapse stage, or even put you in a place where you now have the opportunity to use.

Because triggers are so damaging to the recovery process, it’s important to be aware of your own personal triggers and make a plan to avoid or work through them. Some of the most common triggers to look out for include the following.

Emotional Triggers

Emotional triggers are any of your internal thoughts and feelings that can increase your risk of relapse. Common emotional triggers include:

• Negative emotions such as stress, fear, frustration, depression, and anxiety³ can make people susceptible to using again. If you originally turned to substances to help manage these emotions, be aware that you’ll need to use other coping skills and recognize when these feelings might lead to a relapse.
• Positive emotions and celebrations can also trigger a relapse. You might have thoughts like “I deserve to celebrate” or “I can handle just one” that seem innocent enough at first. But, it’s thoughts like this that pave the way for a mental relapse and, eventually, a physical relapse.
• Boredom is common during sobriety, thanks to your brain’s non-exposure to dopamine-producing drugs like cocaine and opioids. Feelings of boredom can trigger cravings⁴, especially during early recovery when you’re still developing healthy ways to occupy your time.

Whether you keep a mood journal, make a vlog, or just make a note of your emotions, taking the time to recognize these emotional triggers can help you prevent a relapse. The sooner you’re able to recognize and address these triggers and reframe your thoughts, the better equipped you’ll be to maintain your sobriety.

Environmental Triggers

Environmental triggers are external factors in your surroundings that can prompt cravings or thoughts of using. These might include:

• Physical locations where you previously used substances or purchased them. Anything from neighborhoods to bars, friend’s houses, or even your own home if that’s where you used frequently, can all bring up thoughts of using.
• Sensory triggers such as the smell of a burning cigarette, the smell of alcohol, the sound of ice clinking in a glass, or seeing drug paraphernalia can cause powerful cravings. If you recognize these triggers, try to remove them from your environment as quickly as possible.
• Time-based triggers like certain times of day, days of the week, or seasons when you typically used substances can also be triggering. This is normal, as you’re learning to navigate a new life that may or may not have structure without drug use.

These environmental triggers are just one of many challenges that people in recovery face. It’s important to surround yourself with a strong support system and to have coping mechanisms in place to deal with these triggers when they arise.

3. Developing Effective Coping Skills

Once you have a good idea of your triggers, the next big step is to learn how to manage them and any negative emotions using coping skills. Developing coping skills might not be easy, but with time and practice, you can learn to effectively deal with your triggers and maintain a strong recovery. Here are some coping skills that you can use as part of your relapse prevention plan.

Mindfulness and Meditation for Relapse Prevention

Mindfulness practices help you observe thoughts and cravings without acting on them ⁵. Mindfulness techniques can help you embrace the discomfort that often accompanies sobriety, and look at your cravings and negative thoughts from a non-judgemental point of view. Just like you’d see clouds floating by while sitting on a park bench, mindfulness can help you detach from negative thoughts while still being in the present moment.

The goal of mindfulness is to simply let your thoughts, emotions, and substance cravings be. There are plenty of ways you can incorporate mindfulness into your daily life as part of your relapse prevention plan.

Basic breath work is a good beginning mindfulness exercise. You can use the 4-7-8 technique, where you breathe in for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds. Doing this can help reduce anxiety and stress. Whether you choose to use this or another breathing method, like box breathing⁶, doesn’t necessarily matter. All are easy ways to relax throughout the day and start the process of slowing down your mind.

Body scan meditation is another type of mindfulness exercise that can help people be more aware of physical sensations in the body. During this exercise, you can get in a comfortable position and examine your body from head to toe, feeling any sensations throughout. An itch here. A tremor there. Tension everywhere. All of these are normal, and recognizing them can help strengthen the mind-body connection for mindfulness.

The RAIN technique is particularly useful for managing cravings and distress even when you’re most vulnerable. RAIN ⁷stands for:

• Recognize what’s happening in your mind and body
• Allow the experience to be there without fighting it
• Investigate with kindness how the craving affects you
• Not identifying with the experience and letting it pass

All of these mindfulness exercises are amazing ways to relax and start separating yourself from your cravings and negative thoughts.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Skills

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective therapies for relapse prevention. During CBT, people learn how their thoughts influence their behaviors, and work to change and reframe bad thoughts into good ones. As someone with addiction, you might have tons of distorted ways of thinking, which CBT can help you identify and correct. Here are some CBT skills to start incorporating into your life:

• Recognize Negative Thoughts: The first step in changing negative thoughts, known as cognitive distortions in CBT, is to recognize them when they happen. Thoughts like, “I’ll never be able to keep my sobriety,” or, “I’ve already relapsed once, I’ll relapse again,” are all examples of distortions. Your therapist can help you identify these distortions and which you tend to fall for.
• Challenge Your Thoughts: Once you recognize negative distortions, you can start to challenge them to improve your chances of sobriety. Ask yourself, what is the evidence for these thoughts? Are there any alternative explanations? Can you find examples of when these thoughts were not true in the past? By challenging your thoughts, you can begin to see them more realistically and not let them control your actions.
• Reframe Negative Thoughts: After challenging your negative thoughts, try to reframe them into more positive or realistic thoughts. Instead of thinking “I’ll never be able to stay sober,” try reframing it to “I have successfully stayed sober for X amount of time and I can continue to do so.”

Stress Management and Relaxation Exercises

Chronic stress is one of the most significant relapse risk factors ⁸. That’s why your relapse prevention plan should also include ways you can reduce stress to help you in your recovery journey.

• Progressive muscle relaxation is one of the easiest and most accessible stress-management techniques. While being in a comfy position, start by noticing different muscle groups in your body and relaxing them one-by-one. This technique helps you recognize the difference between tension and relaxation and provides a quick way to reduce physical stress.
• Regular exercise is also one of the most effective stress management tools. Physical activity releases natural mood-enhancing chemicals and provides a healthy outlet for stress and frustration. Find activities you enjoy, whether it’s walking, swimming, yoga, or team sports.
• Time management skills can also help reduce stress by giving you more control over your schedule. Prioritize tasks, break large projects into smaller steps, and learn to say no to commitments that overwhelm you. These small changes can help you make time for what really matters – staying on top of your recovery journey.

4. Start Building a Strong Support System

Healthy relationships are fundamental to successful recovery. However, not all relationships will support your sobriety goals. For instance, you might need to cut off older friendships with people who still actively use. You might also need to work on creating new friends with sober lifestyles.

Starting the process of building a support network doesn’t need to be complicated. You can start off small, being open with your family and current friends and letting them know that you have decided to embark on a journey of sobriety. Addiction often damages trust and relationships. Be patient with the healing process and focus on consistent, reliable behavior to rebuild trust over time.

If you’re ready to seek new friendships, there are avenues like support groups that have like-minded people on their recovery journey. 12-step programs and SMART Recovery programs nearby can help you meet other people on their addiction journey. AA and NA meetings are excellent places to meet sober support sponsors and friends.

Or, you can stick with your professional addiction team of highly trained and experienced experts. From your addiction counselor to your social worker, healthcare provider, or therapist, all of these professionals can become a valuable support system for you as you work toward recovery.

5. Create Personal Relapse Prevention Plan

Lastly, you’ll want to bring together all of these elements into a single, unique relapse prevention plan that works for you. This can look like:

1. Recognizing that emotionally tough days and parties are your triggers.
2. Actively working to stay away from those triggers physically.
3. Using coping skills like mindful breathing and CBT reframing to manage cravings.
4. Seeking support from a therapist, sponsor, or friend when needed.
5. Setting SMART goals to hold yourself accountable and track your progress.

Simple, effective, and only 5 steps, this guide can serve as a starting point for creating your own personalized relapse prevention plan. Remember, it’s important to regularly review and update your plan as needed, especially as you evolve and grow in your recovery journey.

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