Relapse Prevention in Altoona, PA

It's a great step to get into medical detox to quit your addiction to drugs or alcohol. Once you complete the course and no longer feel withdrawal symptoms or cravings every hour, you certainly are better off than you were with an active addiction. It would be a mistake to believe that you were somehow past your addiction at this point, however. Your addiction may no longer be fully active; it is dormant just under the surface, however. The slightest provocation can and will set it off again. The psychological roots of addiction run very deep, and cannot be got rid of with a few days of treatment. When you leave medical detox in Altoona, you need to always look over your shoulder, to make sure that you aren't being stalked by relapse. The actual process of doing this is called relapse prevention, a comprehensive process of psychological therapy. There are experts in relapse prevention in Altoona, PA, if you need them. All you need to do is to call.

Understanding What Relapse Prevention in Altoona Is

When you make a change, any kind of change, there are constant internal forces at work in your mind, eternally pushing you to go back to the comfortable and familiar ways of the past. Sometimes, you will experience a lapse, a one-off return to old, undesired behavior, and sometimes, you will have a full-blown relapse, where you give up and simply re-enter old behavior. It is the process any kind of change of habit follows, and it is especially relevant to addictions, the most powerful of habits.

Many recovering addicts feel helpless in the face of a relapse. They have no idea how it happens, except to see that once in a while, they find themselves deeply mired in it. It's important to realize, however, that everything about relapse is entirely predictable. Medical and psychological science have detailed insight in into the ways in which the phenomenon works. It's possible to entirely avoid relapse, or to fight it when it does come. For this, however, you need relapse prevention treatment.

The Process Which Creates Relapse

Relapses usually happen in response to stress: intense emotion, bad news, confrontations, feelings of guilt or inadequacy and so on. When such stress comes up, the mind of the addict finds that it is poorly equipped to deal with it, and usually turns to substance abuse as a way to either gain temporary strength or simply feel better.

This isn't the normal way in which people deal with stress, however. If the addict finds that his mind needs drugs to deal with them, it points to psychological deficiencies. Fortunately, these can be corrected through psychological therapy.

Relapse prevention is a systematic approach to identifying the psychological deficiencies that thwart attempts to escape addictive behavior, and to correct them one by one. One of the first things people in recovery find is a relapse prevention mentor, an experienced and supportive veteran of addiction recovery who is able to offer support at all times. Education is another. Recovering addicts are taught in detail about how exactly addiction and relapse occur. Scientific explanations can help people recognize relapses even before they occur. A sudden rise in irritability, or sudden warm feelings for addictive friends or addictive behavior, usually, are all in indications of a rising relapse.

Participating in Relapse Prevention Therapy

In programs for relapse prevention, the addict learns about various ways in which areas of poor psychological skill development may inexorably push them towards substance abuse. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the greatest evidence-backed tools of modern science, and is liberally applied in moderate relapse prevention.

Both individual therapy and group therapy work. A therapist works closely with patients to help identify areas of weakness, helps them analyze them, break them down to their constituent parts, and address them. Whether it is poor impulse control, obsession with instant gratification, excessive guilt or self-rebuke, it is possible to study the ways in which these mental processes arise, and to learn ways to address them.

For instance, to fight poor impulse control, the addict is made to study the forces at work in the mind, to learn to adequately think of the consequences, and to internalize them. With excessive guilt, uncovering the processes at work -- finding evidence against excessively harsh internal judgments, for example -- can bring the process to a stop. In general, finding better pursuits in life, tend to help a great deal.

A great many other therapeutic approaches exist. Art therapy is one of them, and family therapy is another. Each one of these therapeutic approaches works well in specific circumstances, for specific patient profiles. It takes very skilled therapists to apply the right programs, and in the right ways.

Focus on Relapse Prevention

Relapse prevention programs are more important than most people realize. Sparing no effort finding a great program run by excellent therapists is a virtual assurance of long-term sobriety. While it's important to look for a certified drug rehab in Altoona, this alone doesn't help. You should talk to therapists, and find someone who seems to be very good. Call this center for relapse prevention in Altoona, PA. You'll probably find the therapists the best in the business. Call now at (877) 804-1531.