Relapse and Grief Should Be Good Teachers

Since the new year has started, I am reading each morning a post by someone who has relapsed during the holidays.  They are down on themselves.  This is a typical entry:  “I was sober for a year-and-a- half.  I can’t believe I gave in to temptation.”

It’s as if they feel they have not only let others down, but are ashamed of themselves.  Did they set the bar too high for themselves, especially at a stressful time during the holidays when it would be easy to “fall off the wagon?”

Stigma is Easy to Feel

Stigma is the main reason why substance abusers don’t seek treatment and when they do, they are still judged by those who regard them as “weak,” succumbing to alcohol use disorder (aud) or substance abuse disorder (sud). Every relapse witnessed by an emergency room employee, close friend, employer, family member underscores their opinions that this is NOT a complicated mental disorder which affects a person’s brain and behavior.  In fact, most with these afflictions have a chronic mental health condition too.

Yet, because the public is uneducated about addiction, they don’t realize that it is common to relapse within the first three months of so-called recovery. Medication-assisted therapy is not “swapping one drug for another.”  It helps to reduce the cravings for drugs and alcohol so the abuser can concentrate on getting well.

Public Shaming

The stigma of addiction filters down to the abuser and doesn’t make him feel any better about his hiatus from recovery.  How many people actually stay in recovery?  SAMHSA’s Substance Abuse & Mental Health Report in September 2023 released new data on recovery from substance abuse and found that 70 million adults aged 18 or older perceived that they ever had a substance abuse or mental health problem.  Hmmm…..

SAMHSA defines recovery as a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives and strive to reach their full potential.  Research shows that 75% of people with addiction survive. Yet we know that the earlier an abuser starts with chemicals and becomes addicted, the harder it is to forfeit them.

But what percentage of abusers fully recover?  According to studies, only 30 to 50%.  Stigma arises from a lack of understanding that fuels the negative stereotypes.  Drug use and related behaviors are not choices as they believe,  but are medical conditions.

January is National Mental Wellness Month

Whether your pre-frontal cortex is developed in your twenties so you can make rational decisions about drinking or abusing drugs or you found yourself drinking too much during the pandemic when liquor was deemed “essential business” that delivered, everyone deserves a break.

You may change YOUR behavior, but that doesn’t mean others will until they understand addiction.  Relapses are common and no one knows better than the abuser when it is time to try again for sobriety.