Relapsing on drugs or alcohol can take you away from your goal of sobriety, regardless of the substance. But with certain medications, starting over can be incredibly dangerous and even fatal. After you stop using it, your body undergoes a series of changes that can make it difficult to cope with the same amount of medication you used to take. When a relapse occurs, many people experience feelings of guilt, shame, and regret.
In addition, you may feel like giving up the fight and giving in to your addiction instead of continuing to work hard and overcome the fleeting desire to use. These feelings are normal, but they can create challenges to creating a drug-free life. There are many different philosophies about recovery and relapse, often with opposing principles, that can make it difficult to know which one is the right one. For some, relapse is seen as negative and indicative of weakness.
But this view is considered harmful, as it encourages feelings of guilt and shame that can hinder your ability to recover from a setback. For others, recovery is a process of personal growth that usually involves a couple of setbacks.
Rather than seeing a relapse as embarrassing
, this perspective sees it as a learning experience. A relapse is simply reverting back to old, harmful coping skills while you are recovering from an addiction.Relapsing on drugs works the same way, except that consuming more than you can tolerate could have deadly consequences. A relapse in addiction recovery can also create an emotional crisis. Your motivation to succeed with a lasting recovery is gone, and you may feel overcome by a sense of hopelessness. While relapse is a normal part of recovery, for some medications it can be very dangerous, even fatal.
If a person uses as much medication as they did before quitting smoking, they can easily overdose because their body is no longer adapted to their previous level of exposure to the drug. An overdose occurs when a person uses enough of a drug to produce uncomfortable feelings, symptoms that threaten life or death.It's important to remember that relapse doesn't mean failure. It's an opportunity for growth and learning about yourself and your addiction. With the right support system in place and an understanding of what triggers your cravings, you can get back on track and continue your journey towards sobriety.
