Relapse prevention therapy, RPT, is a method those with substance addictions can be taught to use in order to avoid lapses in control over their addiction. This method is also sometimes used by patients with bi-polar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses where the patient must control specific behaviors over a long period of time.
Understanding Relapse
RPT first helps people to understand relapse as a process. It identifies situations and events most likely to cause a relapse. In a high percentage of relapses, these causes include interpersonal conflict, social pressure and negative emotional states like depression and anger.
Successful treatment of addiction gives patients a feeling of self control and a good . When a sudden personal conflict, episode of significant loss or anger, or involvement with a that strongly encourages substance abuse shakes the feeling of confidence and self efficacy a patient has developed, she is likely to relapse. This further challenges the patient's self image and sense of . The result is often a full-blown relapse.
High Risk Situations, Urges and Cravings
RPT helps patients learn to identify high risk situations. This may include identifying peer groups likely to strongly encourage lapses, interpersonal situations likely to lead to intense conflicts and mental states that make self control more difficult.
Past behavior is analyzed to help patients identify their specific emotional and situational triggers and specific feelings that lead up to substance abuse are identified.
Dealing with High Risk Situations
Patients make an active plan for how they will deal with high-risk situations. Peer groups they will avoid are identified. When the peer group that encourages relapses cannot be avoided, as is often the case with family members, specific strategies on control access are reviewed.
Mental states that encourage relapse, like anger, grief or fear are identified. In some cases specific therapy for these states is provided. Targeted anger, grief and phobia counseling can provide very specific emotional management techniques that help prevent relapse.
Strategies for handling interpersonal contact are addressed. Specific skills that address early conflict resolution, recognizing likely sources of conflict, learning withdraw from conflict when it cannot be successfully addressed can help patients reduce relapses.
Damage Control During Lapses
If a patient can recover quickly from an initial lapse, it need not become a full relapse. Learning deal, quickly and efficiently, with the first mistake, makes it possible to recover quickly. RPT helps patients decide how they will react if they engage in unwanted behavior. They may decide to withdraw themselves immediate from a peer group or relationship which appears to have caused the lapse. They may elect to seek immediate professional treatment for mental states that make the lapse possible.
The key, during a first lapse, is to take immediate action to terminate the stimulus that has caused the lapse. Even if this break can only be temporary, it allows the patient the opportunity to recover self control before their self image and feeling of self sufficiency has been damaged.
Therapy After Relapse
One symptom of a full relapse is the desire to abandon all therapy and to give up all hope of controlling the unwanted behavior. RPT prepares patients for this stage of relapse and helps them identify actions they will take after a lapse or relapse that will put them back into therapy.
Creating Balance
RPT therapy helps patients identify ways and means by which they can cope with the situations likely to cause lapses, deal with lapses when they happen so they do not become full blown relapses, and continue therapy to help ensure relapses when and if they occur are short.
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