Oh, Bother! What's the Use? Part 5 of 12
I hope this series of blog posts will enable you to recognize some symptoms of relapse. I meant well and tried hard, but I kept relapsing anyway. There was often a nagging little voice telling me to go ahead and try a drink. Maybe this series of blog posts will help you or a loved one break out of the relapse pattern sooner and easier than I did.
Terence T. Gorski, co-author of Staying Sober, identified 11 phases of relapse in his book Staying Sober (https://www.amazon.com/Terence-T.-Gorski/e/B001JSA9K8). I hope you will find this series helpful enough to review again and again -- at once or in parts. An idea might be to checkmark symptoms in the 11 phases to see if you or a loved one is in danger of relapsing. Then take action.
Gorski's research involved 118 recovering patients who had four things in common:
They completed a 21- or 28-day rehab program;
They recognized they could never again safely use alcohol;
They intended to remain sober forever through A.A. and outpatient counseling;
They had eventually relapsed to drinking despite 1-3.
Phase 4: Crisis building. During this phase, you have problems in sobriety you can't understand. Even though you want to work hard to solve these problems, two new ones seem to pop up for every one solved.
ð‘‚½ Tunnel vision. Your life feels like it's made up of separate and unrelated parts. You tend to focus on one small part of life and block out everything else. If you focus on the good and block out the bad, you can mistakenly believe everything is fine. If at other times, you see only what is going wrong, you feel like nothing is right. As a result, you miss the big picture or can't figure out how what you do here can cause problems over there. You believe life is unfair and you have no power to do anything about it.
ð‘‚½ Minor depression. You start feeling down, blue, listless, and empty of feelings. You lack energy and tend to sleep too much. You distract yourself by getting busy with other things and not talking about depression.
ð‘‚½ Loss of constructive planning. You stop thinking about what you are going to do next. You pay little attention to details. Your plans are more wishful thinking and not based on reality.
ð‘‚½ Plans begin to fail. What plans you do make begin to fail and each failure causes new problems. You start having the same kinds of problems as you used to have when you were chugging your poison. This makes you feel guilty and remorseful. You may work hard to solve problems, but something always goes wrong, leading to an even more depressing problem.
Next up: Phase 5: Immobilization
Terence T. Gorski, co-author of Staying Sober, identified 11 phases of relapse in his book Staying Sober (https://www.amazon.com/Terence-T.-Gorski/e/B001JSA9K8). I hope you will find this series helpful enough to review again and again -- at once or in parts. An idea might be to checkmark symptoms in the 11 phases to see if you or a loved one is in danger of relapsing. Then take action.
Gorski's research involved 118 recovering patients who had four things in common:
They completed a 21- or 28-day rehab program;
They recognized they could never again safely use alcohol;
They intended to remain sober forever through A.A. and outpatient counseling;
They had eventually relapsed to drinking despite 1-3.
Symptoms and Warning Signs of Relapse
Phase 4: Crisis building. During this phase, you have problems in sobriety you can't understand. Even though you want to work hard to solve these problems, two new ones seem to pop up for every one solved.ð‘‚½ Tunnel vision. Your life feels like it's made up of separate and unrelated parts. You tend to focus on one small part of life and block out everything else. If you focus on the good and block out the bad, you can mistakenly believe everything is fine. If at other times, you see only what is going wrong, you feel like nothing is right. As a result, you miss the big picture or can't figure out how what you do here can cause problems over there. You believe life is unfair and you have no power to do anything about it.
ð‘‚½ Minor depression. You start feeling down, blue, listless, and empty of feelings. You lack energy and tend to sleep too much. You distract yourself by getting busy with other things and not talking about depression.ð‘‚½ Loss of constructive planning. You stop thinking about what you are going to do next. You pay little attention to details. Your plans are more wishful thinking and not based on reality.
ð‘‚½ Plans begin to fail. What plans you do make begin to fail and each failure causes new problems. You start having the same kinds of problems as you used to have when you were chugging your poison. This makes you feel guilty and remorseful. You may work hard to solve problems, but something always goes wrong, leading to an even more depressing problem.
Next up: Phase 5: Immobilization
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