Battling addiction isn’t easy. While a few strong-willed individuals are able to successfully quit forever, 85% of recovering addicts will relapse within the first year.
Understanding what causes people to relapse can be important. It can help you to more effectively plan out your recovery and avoid making the same mistakes as others so that you can stay sober more easily.
Below are just some of the main reasons why so many recovering addicts relapse, and what you can do to avoid doing the same…
Withdrawal symptoms
Most people who relapse within the first month do so as a result of physical withdrawal symptoms. These can include sweating, chills, headaches, cramping, nausea, insomnia, nightmares, rapid heart rate, shakes, or loss of appetite. How dependent you are can impact how severe these symptoms are.
Relapsing instantly relieves these symptoms, however, they will eventually fade on their own if you’re able to ride them out for a few days. After a few weeks, physical withdrawal symptoms should disappear completely. It’s worth noting that medication can be used to help reduce withdrawal symptoms in some cases – this is recommended for addicts recovering from serious addictions where withdrawal symptoms can be potentially deadly.
Unresolved mental illness
Substance abuse is often a form of self-medication. While some people do it to relieve physical pain, others do it to manage mental health issues like anxiety or depression. In fact, studies have found that 57.6% of addicts struggle with their mental health.
Tackling these underlying mental health problems is often key to combating addiction. Taking a break from stress triggers and considering long term mental health care could reduce the desire to self-medicate with substances.
Too many temptations
A lot of people relapse because they have to deal with too many temptations. For example, an alcoholic is likely to relapse if there’s alcohol in the house and friends/family are heavily drinking around them.
You can build resilience to these temptations over time, but in the beginning, it is important to take strict measures to avoid them. If you’re trying to quit drinking, this could mean absolutely no alcohol or people drinking in the house, and meeting friends at places other than a bar. For some people, a complete change of environment is necessary to overcome initial temptation – which is why inpatient rehab is so popular.
Lack of replacements
Giving up a substance can result in an emptiness that leads to boredom. It is often essential to fill this void with something healthy that can occupy and entertain you.
Immersing yourself in a healthy ‘addiction’ could be necessary for distracting you. This could include exercise or a hobby that you are passionate about. Some people turn to religion or activism. Vaping could be a good alternative to smoking, while non-alcoholic beers and wines can simulate drinking alcohol.
Trigger events
Sometimes it can take just one stressful event to cause people to relapse. This could include a breakup, job loss, or the death of a loved one.
These events are some of the hardest challenges you will face on your road to recovery. Don’t allow yourself to return back to old habits as a way of coping – surround yourself with family and friends and keep ticking off the days you’ve stayed sober.
Lack of support
Few people can successfully overcome addiction alone. It’s important that the people around you are supportive – and that they are not providing peer pressure.
Consider taking your family with you to therapy so that they are a part of the program. When it comes to your friends, be prepared to cut off anyone who is a negative influence (good friends should be willing to support you).
