Sober Transitions

Give Your Clients Some Relapse Prevention Tools!

There are some very thorough and well tested relapse prevention programs and resources available to us these days.  In my research, I have found that most all of them share some variation of the following ideas in common:

1. Relapse is possible, and does happen.
2. Recognizing signs of relapse behavior is critical to preventing relapse.
3. Creating a Relapse Prevention Plan is the responsible thing to do for someone in any kind of recovery who desires to maintain a harm-free life.
4. Getting assistance from an experienced sober companion in the return to a life of harm-free living, including relapse prevention planning, is associated with lower relapse occurrences.
5. Creating specific strategies for dealing with any potential relapse occurring events is essential.
6. If relapse should occur, do not give up and start over, continue working with the support team, ie; sober companion, therapist, psychiatrist, and/or sponsor, to determine the best course of action to stabilize the recovery process.

A great way to show support to your clients during this holiday season could be to provide them with some Relapse Prevention Tools.  Check out the following websites for insights into relapse-inducing factors, relapse prevention treatment and plans, relapse prevention models, and more.  This could be the time of year where providing a Sober Companion for your client could make all the difference in his or her joyful holiday season experience!

Handling Relapse-Inducing Factors:  The SEA's Tools for a Recovery Lifestyle

Stages of Change Model by Mark F. Kern, Ph.D

Relapse Prevention Treatment:  Counselor's Manual for Relapse Prevention

Relapse Prevention Planning:  Relapse factors, warning signs, relapse prevention action plan

PRESENCE, NOT PRESENTS

Here we are at that time of year again. Yes, the time of year when I am afraid of turning on the television- even for a football game, going shopping- even to the grocery store or sometimes even leaving the house- watching our neighbors unloading trunks full of abundant surprises. Everywhere we look are advertisements for everything one would need to feel “loved and happy”. That is the underlying message sent throughout the season. The more you “get” or the more you “give” (material possessions) the better you will feel. Well I say “bah humbug” to the billion dollar advertising campaigns!!!

How about creating a tradition of an experiential holiday season, sharing of ourselves and not from our wallets? Instead, how about spending all the time we would have spent shopping at the malls or on the internet, hunting for that “perfect” gift, on time for ourselves and with those we care most about. Presence, not presents. Lets be honest, that’s what we want most of all anyways, is to feel like we belong and matter to others, to spend time with those we care for and care about, those who we see every day or only on holidays, those who by being with them we feel “loved and happy.”

This season create an experience for you and your loved ones that will be cherished for years to come. Pool all the family resources that would have been used on a gift exchange and buy tickets for a theatre show, and go as a group.  Or take a trip to the snow for the day or a winter bonfire at the beach, with hot chocolate and s’mores.  Has anyone ever seen grandpa on a surf board or in a snowball fight? Our family has and it is the gift that keeps on giving. I guarantee that years from now, no one will remember which rescue hero or what bottle of perfume they received from whom. They will remember our presence, the time we shared, the laughs we had, and the traditions that were created. It is a legacy to leave and there is no time like the present to share our presence.

May you be blessed with the presence of everyone you cherish this holiday season!

All my best,

Nanette

P.S.  For some ideas on how to change up your holiday traditions and gift giving, check out New American Dream -- this is a great year to bring the spirit of the season back into your life and family!

Recovering Communities in Florida!

In Florida, addicts find an oasis of sobriety, as told by the New York Times article on November 16, 2007. . . . . Not only does the picture of sunny warm Florida inspire me, but so does this story.  What a wonderful thing to read about, communities filled with individuals in recovery. 

In some ways Mr. Tower, who spent three decades in and out of treatment, remains a creature of his pedigree. He favors foppish linen suits and drops names of the fast crowd he once ran with.

But his social life these days is dinner at home with sober friends who have settled here in what experts consider the recovery capital of America. He is studying addiction counseling, and he works as an unpaid intern at a local drug treatment center.

Check out the rest of the NY Times Florida Sobriety oasis story here.