Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Control Chronic Relapse

Falling back into addiction after treatment can be disheartening. With the amount of emotional and physical pain that can come with the treatment process, feeling like you’ve fallen back to where you started can make getting clean seem impossible. However, tackling alcoholism is a slow process, and relapse is simply one part of it—it doesn’t mean failure. Research shows that relapse rates for alcoholism range from 50 to 90 percent, so know that you are not alone. Every step in the direction of sobriety is a brave one, and knowing that there are many others that are experiencing the same struggles as you should help you understand that relapse is often a universal part of recovery. Every relapse can be used to learn more about yourself, your addiction, and why it has taken hold of your life, which is an extremely important part of the recovery process. One of the most effective tools to help you with this examination is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

CBT is a combination of psychotherapy and behavioral therapy that seeks to alter the thought processes and behaviors that lie at the core of individuals’ disorders. It was initially designed to prevent relapse in problem drinkers, although it is now widely used as a treatment for numerous mental health issues and addictions. Understanding the thoughts and behaviors that drive us through our daily lives is difficult enough without facing addiction, but when trying to overcome chronic relapse, self-exploration and examination can seem like an impossible task. With the aid of CBT, you can unearth the inner workings of your mind and the connections that they have to your relapses.

At the core of CBT lies the idea that the meanings we give the feelings and events in our lives are what guide our actions, even at an unconscious level. Without a proper analysis of these meanings, we will continue to be at the mercy of the negative thought patterns that push us through our life, and never truly break free of them. Using the therapist-client relationship that CBT centers around, new strategies to deal with these problems are developed. Once the negative emotions and thought processes tied to the disorder or addiction are altered, individuals can better understand how and why their illness affects them the way that it does and change the way that they feel and act.

When it comes to chronic relapse to alcohol, one of the biggest contributors is emotional regulation. It is widely believed that the inability to properly control emotions is one of the biggest contributors to alcoholism and relapse, and studies have suggested that emotional regulation skills can be used to predict individual alcohol use both during treatment and at the follow-up period afterward. In particular, the ability to cope with negative emotions was connected to alcohol use after treatment, highlighting the importance of understanding how to respond to the negative events that take place in your life and get a hold of the emotions surrounding them. Without this understanding, relapsing becomes a much likelier possibility.

With the aid of CBT, alcoholics can work with their therapist to pinpoint the negative thought patterns and emotions that are causing them to relapse. Even after quitting, all that it takes is one bad day to throw your mind into a negative, stressed state and have you reaching for the bottle once again. Using CBT, you can better understand what’s going on in your head during these moments and alter the way that you react to them.

Ultimately, the most important moments in the life of a recovering alcoholic are the moments that lie immediately prior to relapse—walking past the bar after a long stressful day at work, having someone offer you a drink at a family gathering. In order to break free from chronic relapse, you must take a close look at the thoughts and emotions that you feel during these moments and change how you deal with them in order to prevent them from leading you down the path of addiction once again.