Are You a Chronic Relapser?

At addiction rehab centers, we’re often told by staff or therapists that “Our addiction is out in the parking lot doing pushups.” This means that we cannot afford to stay idle in our recovery — if our addictions are doing pushups, then we’d better do plenty of our own! This is something that many addicts don’t fully grasp the first couple of times they try to get sober. This kind of addict is known as a “chronic relapser.” They’ve been to treatment and tried to stay clean more times than they can count. For many chronic relapsers, life has become nothing more that a series of rehabs. They can’t remember the last long time they weren’t in treatment.

It’s important to stress that everybody has the same chance to get sober. So, why is it that some people nail it on the first try, but others keep on failing? Perhaps chronic relapsers aren’t doing something right, while people who succeed are. You might find that you’ve taken many roads to failure, while missing the one road to success. If you are a chronic relapser, you may want to consider where your recovery has gone wrong.

Were you totally honest? Chronic relapsers constantly lie to their families, therapists, sponsors, and others. In recovery, we are only as sick as our secrets, so how can we expect to recover if we won’t even admit the truth about ourselves?
Were you working the 12-step program? Many drug addiction services include 12-step involvement, but chronic relapsers don’t fully engage their selves. In order to recover, we have to do the whole program. This means working the steps, going to meetings and following suggestions. Perhaps we went to meetings, but never worked the steps. Or, maybe we worked the steps but were unwilling to listen to suggestions?
What are our priorities? They say that we’ll lose anything we put before our sobriety, so have we made anything else more important. Many chronic relapsers get into romantic relationships immediately; others focus more on work, going to the gym, and other things. A chronic relapser must realize that nothing else is possible without sobriety, so sobriety must come first.

Nobody needs to be a chronic relapser. Sobriety is available to everyone, but they need to do certain things in order to get it! It’s never too late, even for chronic relapsers — so call 877-968-6682 today!