How I Got Interested In Relapse Prevention

Journey Blog (100313)
How I Got Interested in Relapse Prevention
By Terence T. Gorski
CENAPS®
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
© Terence T. Gorski 2009

My name is Terry Gorski and I work as an author, trainer, and consultant. My business office is in Spring Hill Florida where my Business Manager, Tresa Watson (Phone: 352-596-8000, e-mail: tresa@cenaps.com) takes care of all the practical details of the business. If you want something to get done in terms of scheduling a workshop, registering for an event, or contracting for a consulting project I recommend that you contact Tresa. This blog will start an exploration of RELAPSE.
Relapse! It’s a frightening word for many addicted people and those who love them. It is especially terrifying for people who have established what they believed to be a stable recovery and the suddenly, for reasons they don’t understand, start using alcohol or other drugs again.
I see people in this dilemma every day. The recovering person thinks everything is going well, then things just start going bad. Old problems come back and the harder they try to fix them the worse they seem to get. The pain and problems become so bad that nothing seems to help. This sets the stage for the addictive thinking and craving.
Then primary addictive thought goes something like this: “Alcohol and other drugs can end my pain and solve my problems. I want relief real bad and to get relief I need my drug of choice. The craving grows until it seems unbearable. Then the person gets into a high risk situation where alcohol and other drugs are available, people support their use and there is no one around to support their sobriety. So, in a moment of weakness, they give up and start drinking and drugging.
I have been working in the substance abuse field for almost forty years. During that time, I have seen many people recover from addiction. Tragically I have also seen many people relapse. Some of these people who relapsed died as a direct result of returning to their addiction. Others got help in ending their relapse and have maintained long-term recovery.
The deaths of relapse-prone addicts affect me deeply. It seemed to me, as a young man and a new counselor that more could have been done. The problem was that we didn’t know what to do. As a result, early in my life, I made it my primary mission to help suffering addicts, their families, and their communities. I was determined to find more effectively ways manage addiction and its related problems. I committed myself to develop new and more effective systems for promoting recovery and preventing relapse. In this series of blogs I want to share with you some of the key aspects of what I learned.
In the next blog I’ll continue sharing with you what I learned about Relapse through the school of hard knocks in the real world of recovery!
Terry
PS – Don’t Miss Our Upcoming Advanced Clinical Skills Training
The Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT) Certification School
October 18 – 22, 2010
Westin Hotel, Cypress Creek Road at I-95
Fort Lauderdale, FL
For more info, please call: 352-279-3068