Warning Signs You’re Heading for Relapse

The sad truth about addiction is that many people relapse rather than stay clean. Addiction is a cruel disease and when you are addicted to alcohol or drugs, you might find it rough to recover. It’s so critical that you model the right behaviors from the beginning of your treatment. This way, you can tell when you are heading down a slippery slope.

Identifying your triggers can help you to see when you are heading for a relapse and while there is drug and alcohol treatment out there to help you to be more supported, you will have to learn what the signs are that you are heading for a bad place. A trigger could be anything from a bar, to a place you once slipped into a bad place. Below, we’ve got the warning signs that you may be heading for a relapse.

1. You’re no longer behaving like an abstinent person. You have stopped doing all of the things that you were doing when you were in remission and recovery. You have to think about how you have to behave as a recovering addict and what brought you to the place of recovery. If you are no longer acting as a recovering addict, you need a meeting ASAP.
2. You’re remembering your substance abuse days fondly. You shouldn’t ever think about your substance abuse days as days you were happy. You weren’t happy naturally; you were happy because of drugs in your system and that isn’t a fond memory. You might have had fun, you might have even gained friends in that time, but abusing substances  isn’t a fond time of life.
3. You’re regressing in your emotional development. If you notice that you are moodier than usual, you might consider the fact that you are slipping back into old patterns that are causing you to behave this way. It’s a warning sign that you’re about to relapse, and you should pay attention to it.
4. You’re toying with the idea of ‘just one more’. If you think one more drink, one more pill wouldn’t hurt, then you’d be wrong. One more will probably do much more damage than any other dosage before if you are recovering, because your body isnt used to it anymore. 
5. You’re seeking out your old friends. You might consider that the people in your life when you were an addict were friends but they weren’t. They aren’t good for you and if you think seeking them out is a good idea, then you’re in a bad place and you need to take the time to go to a meeting and get some help.
6. You are removing your anchors. As part of your recovery, you might have put things in place to anchor you there. If you are slowly loosening these anchors and you aren’t holding onto recovery anymore, you need to ask for help. No one deserves to head for a relapse, and you need to get some support if you feel like you are heading that way.