Addiction Relapse Prevention in South Carolina
Most clients want to stay sober after going through a medical detox and behavioral health treatment. However, withdrawal symptoms and intense cravings have other ideas. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), about 60% of people in recovery relapse within the first year. At BriteLife South Carolina, we leverage a blend of evidence-based techniques help our clients find lasting recovery. More specifically, we offer medication assisted treatment in tandem with traditional talk therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma informed therapy.
Three Stages of Addiction Relapse
Relapse is a process that may begin long before the actual event of using, or drinking happens. This process happens in three different phases: emotional relapse, mental relapse, and physical relapse. In the emotional relapse, most people have no intent to use, but their emotions and activities create the opportunity for one. The signs of emotional relapse include ceasing to go to 12-step meetings, isolating, and being swamped by stress and anxiety.
In mental relapse, a person may find themselves in a quandary on whether to drink or not. One may even fantasize about using drugs and hang out with people who they used to use with. Also, some people even sentimentalize their past use and lie about displaying the signs of a relapse. Failure to use relapse prevention techniques when feeling emotional and mental stages may result in physical relapse. The physical relapse phase is exactly how it sounds: the act of getting high or drinking alcohol.
Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)
Addiction is finally recognized as a disease and no longer seen as a moral failing. While medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for relapse prevention is nothing new, it has only been used sparsely for 40 years. MAT has radically increased as the overdose fatality rates continue to jump during the opioid crisis and Covid-19 isolation. One of the biggest reasons medicines like Suboxone / Subutex / Sublocade are being employed to treat opioid addiction is that they statistically lower relapse rates by regulating dangerous withdrawals and opioid cravings. Most importantly, medication assisted treatment clients have far better results than clients in abstinence-only based programs. At the same time, the use of buprenorphine has given people battling opioid addiction a more effective relapse prevention medicine that can used beyond treatment in an outpatient setting.