Relapse Prevention in Middletown, NJ

Detoxification helps bring you to a point where you no longer experience cravings each day. The process eases the brain out of a state of relying on addictive substances to function. In other words, detoxification ends physical addiction. What it doesn't do is end psychological addiction. At our center for relapse prevention in Middletown, our experts often see that patients and their families have a hard time understanding the concept of psychological addiction.

It's a very important factor, however, for anyone serious about preventing relapse, and escaping addiction forever to weigh in to their decision. The information here is a useful introduction. Once you're done, it would be a good idea to call us with any questions you may have.

What is Relapse Prevention?

Psychological dependence is a weakness or craving for substance abuse that persists long after an addict stops active use. Dependence of this kind comes about from the permanent changes that occur in the brain as a result of exposure to addictive substances.

These changes make it hard for recovering addicts to feel strongly or positively about a return to normal life, make it hard for them to feel resolve in attempting to face life, and make escapism seem an attractive option.

Relapse -- a return to regular substance abuse after a period of abstinence — occurs through the forces brought to bear by psychological dependence. There is no cure for a tendency to relapse. Medical science, however, has uncovered a range of psychological maintenance treatments.

These methods identify the ways in which these weaknesses assert themselves, and help patients with psychological, emotional, and behavioral training to ensure that they have tools to either fight back with, or avoid situations in which weaknesses are known to show. All well-planned relapse prevention programs include training in these methods.

Relapse Prevention Strategy

Learning to recognize relapses as they occur is the first line of defense for recovering addicts. Irresistible cravings do not simply materialize out of nowhere. Instead, they come about gradually, in a well-recognized process. The process includes an emotional stage where the mind grows restless, anxious, and irritable for no apparent reason, and a mental stage where these emotions grow into obsessive thoughts about substance abuse.

Learning about the process can help recovering addicts know when something is amiss, and seek immediate therapeutic help. Such education, then, is an important addiction relapse prevention strategy. Our programs for relapse prevention in Middletown focus closely on this area.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is another powerful tool available to people attempting to make a clean break from substance abuse. In cognitive behavioral therapy, the therapist interviews his patient intensively for in-depth information about the ways in which his mind works. The therapist may uncover a weakness for instant gratification, an inability to deal with disappointment, an inability to apply reasoning to solve problems in an everyday context and so on. Various therapeutic approaches may help the patient strengthen his mind in these areas.

Trigger avoidance is one of the most important aims of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Trigger avoidance is the attempt to identify areas of anxiety that are particularly challenging. For some patients, loneliness may be the area of anxiety that makes them feel most vulnerable. For others, it may be stress from being around certain kinds of music. In some cases, being around places or people known to use, is all it takes to set off psychological dependence.

It can involve painstaking work to uncover every specific way in which triggers operate in the each individual, but uncovering them is well worth the trouble, because it helps the patient avoid risk.

Relapse Prevention Aftercare

Many recovering addicts fresh out of detox, relapse attempting to make their way in the world again. The stresses of the challenges involved and the lack of discipline and oversight prove to be too much for them. In some cases, recovering addicts relapse simply for reasons of having no good, normal home to go to.

Every rehab center run on scientific principles includes comprehensive sober living arrangements. These are various residential arrangements where recovering addicts receive a balance of freedom and oversight. With housekeeping responsibilities, curfews, and group therapy events, sober living facilities can be extremely important as a way to ease back to regular life. These make for an important part of good relapse prevention treatment programs.

Drug relapse prevention also includes aftercare -- twelve-step programs, group, family and individual therapy. These programs are vital as a way to help recovering addicts cleanse their minds of negative influences and rebuild mentally.

If these ideas seem persuasive and interesting, they should be — they represent the best of current scientific understanding of release from addiction. You should call us for a chat with our experts in relapse prevention in Middletown if you have questions. Call us at (877) 804-1531 to learn more about our addiction treatment programs in Middletown and determine which one is right for you.

Get Started on The Journey To Recovery Today!
Call Now (877) 804-1531