Overconfidence and Addiction Relapse

Overconfidence and Addiction Relapse

To illustrate how difficult it is to maintain long-term addiction recovery, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) confirms that relapse rates for addiction recovery are between 40-60 percent, and 99 percent of recovering addicts will experience a brief stint of relapse at some point during recovery.

While these numbers are incredibly high, recovering addicts and their loved ones should not be discouraged. Being aware of the possibility of relapse can help prepare individuals to recognize the symptoms of relapse early-on and get back on-track with their recovery, minimal damage incurred.

Understanding the realistic possibility of addiction relapse is a helpful recovery tool because it can diminish one’s overconfidence. Addicts achieve a feeling of empowerment when they finish treatment and achieve recovery. While feeling confident and motivated is great for the initial steps of recovery, overconfidence can cause one to stray from their long-term recovery plan.

Overconfidence will cause a recovering addict to believe they are in full-control of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors, which isn’t the case. The NIDA has reported on the findings of brain-imaging studies related to addiction recovery and relapse, saying that visual cues as short as 33 milliseconds can activate the brain’s dopamine reward circuit. Any image or sound related to an individual’s past addictive behavior can trigger physical cravings for the drug within milliseconds, meaning the individual isn’t even consciously aware of the brain’s activity in prompting addictive tendencies or relapse.

This being said, an addict can never be too confident in his ability to avoid relapse, because many temptations, challenges, and addictive triggers will present themselves, and some will be beyond the addict’s control. Overconfidence in addiction recovery makes an individual extremely vulnerable to environments and situations that will trigger addictive behavior and relapse.

What You Can Do to Avoid Relapse Triggers

Quality addiction treatment will help educate and equip addicts with the knowledge, skills, and tools to avoid addiction relapse. Sometimes a relapse cannot be avoided, but with the right education, individuals will learn to identify the early signs of relapse and get-back on track with their recovery before the relapse becomes severe. Several addiction treatment programs offer aftercare and relapse prevention programs that will prepare addicts for life after rehab. These programs will be used to help addicts create a plan or strategy for maintaining their recovery long-term.

Most addiction relapse occurs within the first month of recovery. Continuing to work on recovery by attending meetings, support groups, sponsor meetings, therapy sessions and so on, will help individuals make the transition from rehab treatment to recovery. Individuals can gradually fall back into their home lives feeling empowered, motivated, but not overconfident. Staying connected and involved with aftercare and recovery services will help an individual keep their recovery efforts a top-priority.