Relapse Prevention Strategies for Long-Term Sobriety

Addiction to substances is a “chronic” disease. That means it will trail you for the rest of your life, and you’ll never truly rid yourself of the affliction. That said, it’s possible to manage your condition.

Relapse is always a risk, and you’ll need to carefully monitor your mental state every day. But with the right approach it’s possible to maintain your sobriety. Those voices in your head telling you to relapse might seem excruciatingly loud right now, but they’ll get gradually quieter the further you move along with your recovery.

Substance Use Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder have a set of relapse risk factors. Being aware of these factors gives you insight into how to control the influence they have on your thinking and actions.

Your drug and alcohol addiction treatment program at Carrara doesn’t end when you graduate from our inpatient program. We’ll give you a customized “aftercare” program to avoid relapse triggers and keep you on track to lead a life of lasting sobriety.

The Importance of an Aftercare Plan for Your Outpatient Recovery Program

Your aftercare program is what we call “outpatient” treatment. When you’re confident you’re in the right headspace to return to your everyday life outside our drug and alcohol addiction center, we’ll help you manage the transition. We’ll teach you how to manage stress with healthy coping mechanisms that empower you to overcome the thoughts of relapse running through your mind.

Our alcohol and drug addiction outpatient programs give you continuing care in a less intensive environment than what you go through at our facilities. It’s a step down in your continuum of care but it’s highly effective at keeping you on the path to maintaining your newfound sobriety.

Our goal is to sustain the progress you’ve made during your stay with us by moving you into an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). We’ll gradually taper off the intensity of your outpatient program as you feel more comfortable with your ability to deal with the stressors around you and your thoughts of relapse.

The risk of you relapsing is highest in the first few weeks and months after you finish your inpatient program at Carrara. Around 40% to 60% of people who exit an inpatient program end up relapsing at some point in time and we want to improve the odds of you avoiding it.

Your aftercare plan gives you the support you need to abstain from your addictive behavior while you get back to the business of being you. You’ll keep working on your mental health issues during your outpatient program and you’ll have someone to talk to when you need it.

We can’t emphasize the value of an aftercare plan in outpatient treatment enough, without it, you really don’t stand a chance of maintaining your sobriety. So, don’t assume because you feel great now that this mental state will continue. There will be times when your addiction tests you and you’ll need coping skills to help you get through the temptation of turning back to drugs or alcohol.

We’re not trying to scare you or make you think that relapse is inevitable. Rather, we want to explain the risk to you and ensure you’re aware of it. Sticking to your outpatient recovery program gives you the best chance of staying on the sober path for the rest of your life.

How Does the Carrara Team Curate Your Aftercare Plan?

During your inpatient treatment to our facility, your therapist and case manager communicate regularly. They keep tabs on how far along you are in your recovery and when they expect you to be ready to leave the facility and go home. When you get close to being ready to enter the outpatient phase of your treatment your case manager meets with you to discuss your aftercare program.

It’s a detailed strategy encompassing several tactics to help you stay on the sober path. They’ll base the aftercare program on the progress you’ve made with your treatment and what you’ll need support-wise to carry on with your journey in an external environment.

For instance, if you can’t go home because it’s a toxic environment and you feel you’ll be unable to manage stress caused by the transition, we’ll set you up in a sober living home. If you can return home, we’ll give you the personal life skills you need to deal with your addiction when you’re back.

Your case manager personalizes your aftercare program, and it might go on for a few weeks or months, or even a year or longer, depending on your progression with the treatment. In most cases we see in our facility, clients need around a year of aftercare support to get to a space where they feel they don’t need to rely on intensive outpatient treatment.

The Role of Ongoing Therapy and Support for a Lasting Recovery

Support groups and therapy form the foundation of your outpatient program, and during your time with us you’ll learn coping skills to help you overcome temptation to relapse. But what are coping skills?

Here’s a quick list of coping skills

• Communication and reaching out for help
• Self-care practices
• Stress management
• Positive self-talk
• Ongoing therapy
• Support groups
• Coping with emotional, behavioral, environmental and physical triggers
• How to set boundaries
• Thought restructuring and problem-solving

When you leave Carrara it’s critical for you to keep up your therapy and we’ll give you ongoing individual and group therapy sessions along your journey. You’ll continue working with our team and we act as a touchstone you can fall back on if and when things get rough, and you feel like you need support.

What are the Types of Aftercare Programs for SUD and AUD?

At Carrara we believe in enrolling you in an “Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)” providing you outpatient treatment with intensive, structured therapy and support. Our program lasts around 12 weeks, but it depends on you, and when you’re ready to step down from this level of aftercare to a less intensive model.

Your personalized aftercare plan includes interventions, activities, and resources to cope with stress, triggers, and cravings. Here’s what you can expect from our outpatient program.

Support Groups – We’ll set you up with support groups where you can meet with other people in recovery and make new friends that are as determined as you to stay sober. You’ll lean on each other when you need help and get each other tough the rough times where you feel like relapsing. Here are some examples of the more conventional support groups available to you.

• 12-step programs at organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Dual Recovery Anonymous (DRA)
• Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS)
• SMART Recovery
• Women for Sobriety (WFS)

Group, Individual, and Family Behavioral Therapy – You’ll continue to meet with your therapist in individual sessions. Your therapist continues the use of evidence-based therapy strategies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) used in your inpatient treatment program. You’ll also attend regular group therapy sessions with the people you met during your time at our inpatient program. Our clients generally receive around nine hours of therapy every week, structured into three 3-hour sessions.

Relapse Prevention Support – We’ll continue to teach you coping skills to prevent relapse and we’ll refine these skills to your unique situation to make them as effective as possible. You get ongoing psychoeducation, medication management, family services, and alcohol and drug monitoring.

Sober Living Homes – We’ll take you out of a toxic living environment and give you a place where you can transition into reclaiming your life, away from people who trigger your addiction. You’ll also learn skills like how to manage your finances and meet new people.

Alumni Program – The Carrara Alumni program gives you a conduit to stay in touch with the people you meet in recovery and when you’re ready to give back we’ll give you a platform to share your experience and help others.

Preventing a Slip – Avoiding Relapse

The Carrara therapy team and your case manager give you the relapse prevention strategies you need to stay sober. They fit into all daily routines and schedules, tailored to your schedule for convenience and efficacy. We’ll teach you the following skills to deal with any thoughts of relapse.

Manage Your Environment

If your partner at home is lost in addiction or your work colleagues are a source of temptation for you to use again, we’ll help you manage your home and work environment to stay sober. If you’re around people who use, you need to remove yourself from contact with them if you plan to stay sober.

Ask yourself what you’ll need to change in your environment to stay sober and who are the influences in your life that will make it difficult to maintain your newfound sobriety. Here are some of the environmental factors you’ll need to think about when planning your aftercare.

• Returning to a sober, safe employment environment.
• Do you need spiritual or religious support?
• Do you have access to sober, safe housing?
• Do you have supportive family members who you can lean on?
• Who are the non-supportive people in your life?

Maintain Your Exercise Schedule and Diet

During your inpatient program our private chef takes care of your nutrition and meal preparation. But when you return home, you’ll be responsible for maintaining your diet and exercise program. If you don’t know where to start, we’ll recommend nutritional experts and private chefs or meal delivery services to help you stay healthy and fit.

Don’t HALT Your Progress

HALT is an acronym for “Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired.” These four indicators signal that you’re placing yourself in a position where you might be tempted to relapse. We’ll teach you healthy coping skills during your inpatient program that translates to your outpatient program to help you recognize if you’re close to the edge and to pull you back to keeping your intention to stay sober.

Deal with Triggers When They Pop Up

The coping skills and coping mechanisms you learn during your inpatient program show you how to recognize the early warning signs of relapse by identifying the triggers that cause you to use. We’ll give you pragmatic strategies to avoid these triggers and deal with them when they show up in your environment and thought patterns.

Remember Your Mindfulness Strategies

During your time with us at Carrara inpatient treat your therapist works with your group to teach you coping skills. One of the biggest players on your recovery tactics team is your mindfulness training. Mindfulness exercises and meditation are the keys to growing your self-awareness and getting in tune with your body and mind. You’ll find it easy to recognize your triggers when they pop up and you’ll know how to handle them using the mindfulness techniques you learned during your stay with us.

Keep Yourself Accountable

While our IOP gives you ways to manage stress and the relapse prevention skills you need to maintain your goal of sober living, it’s up to you to keep yourself accountable to your actions. Accountability is everything and your time in our inpatient program builds your sense of accountability and responsibility with your ongoing outpatient program when you leave our facility.

If you’re ever feeling weak, reach out to your support groups for help, that’s what they’re there for, don’t assume people won’t want to talk to you, that’s your brain trying to trick you into relapsing.

Leveraging Your Support Community in Times of Crisis

We wish we could promise you that your return to everyday life will be easy, but it’s a daily challenge you’ll need to overcome. The reality is your brain will test your commitment to staying sober. If you notice any signs of HALT appearing in your life, you’ll need to act immediately, or you risk those feelings getting out of control to a point where you give into temptation.

Skipping meetings or therapy sessions, isolating yourself from support, or changes in your eating or sleeping habits are all signs of pending relapse. When you notice these changes cropping up in your behavior and thoughts follow these tips to maintain your sobriety.

Call Someone When You’re Feeling Weak

Call someone and ask for help. The Carrara aftercare support team is with you all the way. Or you have the choice of calling one of the friends or sponsors you make at your external support group meetings. The point is to get someone to help you work through what you’re going through so you can bolster your resolve to continue with your outpatient treatment and avoid relapse.

It’s a good idea to have one or two friends or family members you can trust to call when you need someone to talk to. Find these people as soon as you come out of inpatient treatment and ask them if you can call them when you need someone to share your feelings with.

Keep Going to Therapy Sessions

Your individual and group therapy sessions continue in your outpatient treatment. It’s critical to keep going to your appointments and maintain your therapy. Therapy is your primary tool against relapse and it’s a place where you can work through your problems under the guidance of the Carrara therapy team.

You’ll already have a relationship with your therapist from the time you spend in our inpatient program, so you’ll feel safe and secure as you progress with your outpatient treatment. The key is to keep up your therapy, if you find yourself pulling away from it and skipping sessions, it’s a sign that you might be shifting to a relapse mindset.

Join the Carrara Alumni Program

The Carrara Alumni program becomes a key part of your support network when you’re nearing the end of your outpatient treatment program. At Carrara we hold Alumni events throughout the year where you can connect with the old friends you made during your stay with us and you’ll get the chance to help others who were in the same state as you when you stepped through our doors so many months ago.

Should You Join Recovery Meetings?

While you’ll receive ongoing support from the Carrara team through individual and group therapy, and you’ll always have someone to call, you might also see some benefit from attending external support groups outside of our outpatient program. These groups become more necessary when you finish your outpatient program, and you still need a support group around you.

Fortunately, there are dozens on support groups meeting online and in-person in cities and towns across Southern California. They’re usually free to attend and take place in informal, friendly settings that are judgment-free and focused on helping people work through their outpatient programs. NA and AA are classic examples of these groups, but there’s loads of other options out there and here’s a few that we recommend.

In The Rooms – You have 130 rooms meeting daily for group and individual support.

Medication Assisted Recovery Anonymous (MARA) – A great group to join if you’re still using medication like suboxone for opioid recovery. They also offer in-person and online meetings.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) – This group helps you cope with the symptoms of mental health issues developed during AUD and SUD.

SMART Recovery – Smart is an acronym for “Self-Management and Recovery Training.” They provide online support groups and live meetings.

Faith-Based Support Groups – If you’re a member of a church, ask your pastor about the local support programs.

Tips for Finding the Right Support Group for AUD and SUD Outpatient Recovery

• There are dozens of outpatient support groups for SUD and AUD, and it might take you a while to find one that’s the right fit for you. Make a list of groups meeting near you, or online, and attend a few meetings with different groups of interest to you. Eventually you’ll find the community where you feel comfortable, and you know it’s the right fit for you might take you a few
• Don’t get discouraged if you’ve been to a few different groups and you feel you don’t get along with any of them. Keep searching and you’ll eventually come across the right group for you.
• Local meetings are great and there’s nothing like sitting down in a room with other people to make a connection. But you might not have any local groups meeting near you, so you’ll need to look into online groups like In The Rooms. Despite lacking the in-person vibe of conventional support groups, these online alternatives are incredibly effective and useful.
• Ask the friends you made at Carrara where they go for group support and try them out. If you can partner up with a friend, it makes it easier on both of you.
• If you’re feeling nervous about meeting new people, ask a close friend or family member to go along with you for support.

Carrara – Comprehensive Aftercare Planning and Community Support in Recovery

Being part of an aftercare program offering group support and building a community around you is an incredibly powerful strategy to keep you on the path to lasting sobriety. At Carrara you’ll work with your case manager and therapist to design a customized aftercare program that fits into your lifestyle as you transition back to your life outside of our facility.

We’ll give you the coping tools you need to get back to work at the office or reintegrate yourself back into your family. With our team behind you, there’s nothing you can’t achieve, and you’ll have the best possible chance of staying sober for life.