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Recovering Health Care Professional Support Forum

Signs and Symptoms of Impending Relapse:

Relapse is a process, not an event.

Experiencing Post Acute Withdrawal: You start having problems with one or more of the following; thinking difficulties, emotional overreaction problems, sleep disturbances, memory difficulties, becoming accident prone, and/or starting to experience a serious sensitivity to stress.

Return To Denial: You stop telling others what you're thinking or feeling and start trying to convince myself or others that everything is all right, when in fact it is not.

Avoidance And Defensive Behavior: You start avoiding people who will give honest feedback. You start becoming irritable and angry with them.

Starting To Crisis Build: You start to notice that ordinary everyday problems become overwhelming and no matter how hard you try, you can’t solve these problems.

Feeling Immobilized (Stuck): You start believing that there is nowhere to turn and no way to solve your problems. You feel trapped and start to use magical thinking.

Becoming Depressed: You start feeling down-in-the dumps and have very low energy. You may even become so depressed that you start thinking of suicide.

Compulsive And/Or Impulsive Behaviors (Loss Of Control): I start using one or more of the following- food, sex, caffeine, nicotine, work, gambling, etc. often in an out of control fashion. And/or I may react without thinking of the consequences of my behavior on myself and others.

Urges And Cravings (Thinking About Drinking/Using): I begin to think that alcohol/drug use is the only way to feel better. I start thinking about justifications to drink/use and convince myself that using is the logical thing to do.

Chemical Loss Of Control (Drinking/Using): I find myself drinking/using again to solve my problems. I start to believe that “it’s all over ‘till I hit bottom, so I may as well enjoy this relapse while it’s good.” My problems continue to get worse.

Adapted from Terence T. Gorski's Warning Sign Identification Process