Prevent Alcohol Relapse With Meditation
The therapeutic benefits of mindfulness meditation are not just for people with yoga pants and healthy habits. In recent years, it’s been proven to help people with a wide variety of problems. Mindfulness meditation can even be a key component in dealing with substance abuse, like alcoholism.
Unfortunately, alcohol abuse can be a problem in even the best of families. Thousands of people across the United States suffer from an unhealthy physical and emotional dependence on alcohol, and this can lead to a series of financial issues, health concerns, relationship problems, and other consequences. It’s a serious problem and one that requires an enormous amount of energy and determination to overcome.
It is possible to recover from alcohol addiction with the right assistance, mindset, and practices, including meditation. However, most alcohol abusers relapse at least once during their recovery. Before we dive into the specifics of meditation and how to use it in the fight against alcoholism, let’s talk about what exactly relapse means, how it works, and what can be done to prevent it.
What Is Alcohol Relapse?
As sad as it may seem, relapse is a fairly normal part of recovery for most drug and alcohol abusers. In a sense, addiction cannot truly be cured - it’s a chronic disease that can be managed, but not completely eradicated. That’s why relapses are so common, even amongst the staunchest alcohol addiction recovery.
Keep in mind that a relapse does not mean that treatment has failed or that the person can never be free of their alcoholism. Rather, it means that perhaps some new treatments should be introduced to help manage the issues that caused the relapse.
According to research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 40 to 60 percent of people who struggle with some kind of drug addiction experience a setback in their recovery. When it comes to alcoholism, in particular, The Recovery Village found that less than 20 percent remain sober for a year when treated for the disease.
Don’t let that dishearten you, though. That same Recovery Village study indicates that if you can make it to the five-year sobriety mark, your chances of facing a relapse decrease to less than 15 percent. Even if you can just make it to one full year of sobriety, your relapse likeliness rates fall to less than half of what they were twelve months previously.
It may seem as though very few people are able to successfully quit alcohol for good, but according to a national study conducted by Advanced Recovery Systems, 30 percent of people with moderate to severe alcohol problems were able to quit. The general idea is that the longer you can avoid relapse, the more likely you are to quit permanently.
When most people think of a relapse, they envision a sudden night of binge-drinking, which is possible. However, relapses can also occur when someone just picks up the same habits that they had before entering recovery. Maybe they start with just one drink a week, then steadily return to their habit of drinking too much on a regular basis.
Alcohol Relapse Warning Signs
There are certainly warning signs that former alcoholics and their friends and family can watch for when it comes to relapses. By learning to identify relapse triggers that are common amongst addicts, as well as unique to the individual, you can help prevent relapses and seek the necessary assistance to stay sober.
Signs of Relapse
A dramatic change in attitude toward recovery.
Elevated stress levels or overreactions to certain situations.
Behavior changes that seem unwarranted.
Breakdowns in social or public settings.
Open denial of alcoholism.
Abandonment of normal recovery and personal schedule.
Demonstrations of poor judgment and control.
Stages and Symptoms of Alcohol Relapse
Emotional Relapse: When a person begins to slip toward an alcoholic relapse, their first phase of relapse is typically characterized by emotional problems. Perhaps they begin stifling their emotions or find other bad ways to handle their feelings. This is usually when they begin to skip recovery meetings, blame others for their problems, and withdraw from friends and family.
Mental Relapse: The second stage is when the individual begins to crave various aspects of their addictions again. Even if they aren’t doing so consciously, they begin to consider drinking again, and may even lie about their plans to do so.
Final Stage of Relapse: This is when the relapse is in full swing and the person experiences their former physical reaction to addiction. They become obsessed with alcohol once more and are compulsively pushed to drink.
What Causes Alcohol Relapse?
As we said before, alcoholism is a disease. Sometimes, it flares up for no reason. Other times, it’s aggravated by outside factors such as a person’s environment, situations, emotions, or relationships.
According to Dr. Kenneth Leonard, the director of the Research Institute on Addictions, relapse can often be associated with experiencing negative emotions or interpersonal conflict. It can also be less sad. For example, perhaps the individual wishes to celebrate as they once did with alcohol, and the relapse begins.
Other common relapse triggers include:
Being around others who are drinking (seeing, smelling, and witnessing the temptation)
Dealing with financial issues that are stressful
Hearing others talk about their positive experiences with alcohol
Being stressed or anxious about relationships or personal issues
Undergoing emotional or physical abuse
Mindfulness Meditation for Alcohol Relapse Prevention
When it comes to preventing any kind of drug relapse, there are many things people can do. Participating in a support group, taking certain medications, and switching up your lifestyle are some of the biggest aids during the first few years of recovery.
One thing that many people have found to be revolutionary during recovery is the game-changing power of meditation. If you’re doubting that saying “ohm” while sitting in a room that smells like incense doesn’t sound effective, you might be right. That’s because you might not fully understand the therapeutic benefits of mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness meditation is a specific kind of mental practice in which you force your thoughts and emotions to be present for one moment. You calm the chaos of your mind, relax your body, and focus on your breathing. It can be done in the comfort of your own home, with a professional, or at a studio.
The therapeutic benefits of this practice include:
Better sleep.
Reduced levels of stress and anxiety.
Decreased negative emotions and thoughts.
Improved concentration.
Lower chances of depression.
When it comes to the mindfulness-based treatment of addiction, researchers have found that the practice can be a powerful cognitive coping strategy that can help people avoid relapse. Recently, a study in JAMA Psychiatry compared the relapse rates of the 12-step program and a mindfulness-based recovery program. When compared to the 12-step substance abuse program, the mindfulness program had better relapse rates a year later.
Mindfulness therapy as addiction treatment helps alcoholic and other drug addictions to stay grounded in their goals and current state of mind. This can help dramatically when it comes to avoiding the temptation of an impending relapse. Mindfulness meditation requires participants to work on their self-discipline, which is an invaluable tool when it comes to beating relapses.
As you can see in the relapse triggers mentioned above, much of what determines a person’s likeness to relapse is how they respond to distressing or intense situations. When applied effectively, mindfulness therapy can help people understand their emotions and reactions, then respond in a safer manner.
Personal Stories of Mindfulness Success
Irina Gonzalez, a professional writer who deals with all things healthy, used to suffer from alcohol addiction.
Stressful work weeks commonly resulted in blackout weekends. After a while, these unhealthy binges turned into habits, then a lifestyle. At an all-time low, Irina was staying at a rehab facility when she realized that she didn’t just need to tackle her addiction - she needed to form a new life pattern and routine.
Using several forms of mindfulness, Gonzalez was able to meditate and find solace in herself, which led to a heightened ability to cope with negative thoughts and stress. Even when doubts about her relationships and self-confidence arose, she used mindful meditation to realign her sense of self-worth and de-stress. Now, she’s over two years into recovery and maintaining her sobriety successfully.
Similarly, a recent anonymous contributor on Thrive Global spoke about the way meditation helped rewire his brain after 15 years of powerful addiction. The contributor abused both drugs and alcohol for many years, but when he embraced meditation, he discovered internal tactics to stop catastrophizing and start coping. His anxiety dropped, and for the first time in almost two decades, he was able to make better decisions regarding his substance abuse.
In Conclusion
As unfortunate as it is, the truth is that a large percentage of people recovering from alcoholism will relapse at least once. Still, there are many things that can be done to prevent relapses, from understanding the big triggers to employing tools like mindfulness meditation. The more an abuser can do to understand their likelihood of relapsing and how to prevent it, the faster their path to recovery will be.
