Alcohol Relapse: What To Do if This Should Happen to You
Alcohol Relapse: What To Do if This Should Happen to You
Alcohol addiction is one of the hardest from which to recover. If you are in recovery from alcohol abuse and happen to have an alcohol relapse, you should not feel like a failure. Relapse is not uncommon with alcohol. An alcohol relapse only means that you may need more counseling and treatment. It’s the same as if you are on a diet and slip up; you simply start again.
Alcohol Addiction
When a person falls prey to drug and alcohol addiction, they will need to seek out help from a professional treatment program. Particularly for alcoholics, who are arguably the most difficult of all to free from the bonds and chains of addiction, they need the most help by far. The problem with alcohol addiction is that it is legal to drink alcohol and it is in fact, very much so encouraged in our society.
Alcohol addiction has created a level of severity in our country that is especially upsetting as it is the most commonly abused substance in this nation. There are over fifteen million alcohol addicts in the United States and over sixty thousand alcohol addicts who die every year from the problem that is alcohol addiction.
Alcohol Relapse
Alcohol is also the hardest addiction to beat, even with rehab, because alcohol can cause a relapse, the most of all of the substances out there.
A relapse is defined as:
A retrogression back onto old habits and back onto past trends of substance abuse after a period of time of sobriety. A person gets clean from an addiction, they go on being clean and abstinent from substances for a period of time, and then they relapse or go back to abusing those substances again. A relapse differs from a lapse, which is a one-time use. A relapse is more directly defined as a going back to a substance once again, and going back to using it over and over again.”
This is the key here and the important point that needs to be understood. Alcoholics relapse, more so than all other recovered addicts, and when they do, it can and often is very difficult for them. When alcoholic relapses, they revert to a level of substance abuse that they used to be compatible with. However, after a period of sobriety, their bodies are nowhere near capable of taking on that level of substance abuse. Drinking the same amounts of alcohol as before can often cause recovering alcoholics to overdose or experience alcohol poisoning.
What To Do When A Recovering Alcoholic Relapses
When an alcohol relapse happens, the most important thing to remember is to act very fast. When addicts die from substance abuse, the vast majority of them die during a relapse, because this is when their bodies are least capable of dealing with the amounts that they are now putting in them again. The key is to act fast and to get the relapsing alcoholic help as quickly as is possible.
When a relapsing alcoholic receives help, the ideal scene is to, of course, get them into a treatment center for alcohol addiction. They may have already been to a treatment center before, but that does not mean that they shouldn’t go to one again, especially during a relapse.
If you are seeking help for a recovering alcoholic who has suffered an alcohol relapse, call A Forever Recovery today for more information on how to get them help. Sobriety is achievable and attainable.
