Relapse Prevention Strategies Simply Do Not Work for Chronic Relapsers
The colossal delusion of relapse prevention techniques.
‘Call a friend!’
‘Play the tape forward.’
‘Take a deep breath.’
‘Write a list of what you’ll lose if you relapse and what you’ll gain by staying clean.’
‘And if all else fails, just don’t pick up!’
I’m sure you’ve heard one of these, if not all, regarding relapse prevention strategies.
Sometimes, they worked, and many times, they didn’t, but for the chronic relapser, these strategies can have deadly consequences and are, in fact, part of the problem.
Curious Mental Phenomenon.
But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. ~ The Big Book, page 37.
The addict described in the book of Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) has a progressive, fatal illness that centers in the mind.
One of the distinct features of this insidious condition is the ‘mental blank spot’.
The Big Book defines this feature as a complete loss or an inability to remember, with…
