Alcohol Relapse: Prevention & Recovery

When a person has made a determination to stop drinking alcohol, they might for a while be able to abstain, and not want an alcohol drink. Then something will trigger the desire to drink alcohol, the person gives in to temptation and suffers an alcohol relapse.

In some cases people are in despair – they might have not had a drink in weeks, or months, or years, and then suddenly fall off the wagon. In all cases of alcohol relapse it means that recovery is incomplete - the need of the person for alcohol has not been resolved – it has only been submerged.

Traditional methods for alcohol recovery insist upon alcohol abstinence, but may or may not attempt to deal with underlying emotional issues. It is very much left to chance as to whether or not an alcoholic in recovery, using traditional methods gets the precise help that he needs to resolve emotional issues, and make a complete recovery. Some appear to achieve sobriety, and they are lucky, but for the majority, there continues to be a desire to drink alcohol, and the relapse rate is high.

Comprehensive drug free programs for alcohol addiction recovery use proven precise and directed methods to probe and resolve all of the issues that a person has that contribute to his need to drink alcohol.

Using comprehensive methods there comes a day when it can be said that the alcoholic is fully recovered from his addiction, meaning that the person has no further use for alcohol, either as a social aid, or to help him deal with the problems of life. Alcohol relapse does not happen when a person has used a comprehensive program to achieve alcohol addiction recovery.

Prevention of alcohol relapse under 12 step and similar programs is for the person to be continually “on guard”, to evade and avoid tense situations, places where alcohol is available, stop mixing with people who you used to drink with, who are still drinking, have a “buddy” to call on for support, have a range of “alternative” activities.

When prevention of alcohol relapse is limited to avoidance techniques – it can feel depressing and takes a lot of time and energy to think up devices and strategies to avoid drinking – energy and creativity that could be put to more constructive use, if the person was fully recovered from their addiction to alcohol drinking.

Prevention of alcohol relapse using comprehensive methods is integral to the program. Each and every step of a comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery program has some component that contributes to addiction recovery, and to there being no more relapse.

One of the keys to relapse prevention is to have an alcohol detox that is thorough and complete. Highly regarded is the Hubbard method of chemical detox that uses low heat sauna, that is also successfully used for chemical detox in a range of applications, other than toxic drug use.

Residues of drugs, such as alcohol metabolites continue to be excreted from the body for weeks after drug use has stopped when using the Hubbard method.Traditional detox methods are not so thorough, and if people use medications to support a traditional alcohol detox, then they don’t even get to first base in terms of long term alcohol relapse prevention, when triggered by drug and alcohol residues that persist in the body.

Alcohol relapse is also known to occur when a person feels depleted and overstressed.

Comprehensive programs provide a regimen of good nutritional support, and promote healthy styles of living. People under pressure, who have completed a comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery program feel less stressed, are more relaxed, and have more understanding, expertise and self confidence to deal with and resolve emerging problems.

A temptation to relapse and use alcohol simply doesn’t happen when a person feels optimistic and confident when tackling all life’s problems.

There is now scientific support for using a comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery program in preference to traditional methods to minimize alcohol relapse. For many years it has been thought that alcoholism is an incurable, irreversible genetic “disease”, that a tendency to relapse is inevitable.

The developing science of epigenetics now shows that the genetic changes associated with the onset of alcoholism, contributed to by ethanol use, are epigenetic, which means that under favorable conditions, these changes can be reversed.       see article

Nervous irritability and the risk of relapse in alcoholism is caused primarily by ethanol drinking, but alcoholic stress, and epigenetic change is also contributed to by poor nutrition, lack of sleep, inappropriate social functioning, and lack of exercise and fitness.   see article

The damage that helps promote continued alcoholism, can be reversed and healed completely if a person follows a comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery program that provides all necessary support for the body and mind to enable complete recovery.

Comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery programs help to heal the damage done to the “reward” centers of the brain, cognitive disruption, emotional dysfunction and hormonal imbalance.

There are many factors involved when we feel an urge to drink. We cannot expect to stay on top, using only mind control, when every cell in our body is crying out for alcohol to bring peace and equilibrium..

True addiction recovery means that the body and mind have been restored to optimal health, free of toxic alcohol residues, toxic ways of living, and toxic relationships. Good mental, emotional and physical health is the key to alcohol relapse prevention and recovery.

When you want to open the door to a new way of life, and overcome alcohol addiction, a comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery program will give you, not a silver bullet, but the golden key.