Alcohol Rehab Center : A Means to Keep You from Slipping
It’s been a few years and you haven’t touched a drink in what seems like ages. Your time at an alcohol rehab center did you wonders. You don’t feel any withdrawal symptoms anymore. You don’t need it to have a good time or even to interact with other people – you’re finally comfortable in your own skin. You become tempted one day; you’re at a social event with friends or work colleagues. It’s not a big deal to have just one drink, right? You won’t relapse, you control it – it doesn’t control you. Right?
Often you’ll meet people while at AA meetings who will have experienced the same thing. Experiencing the urge to have just one drink believing that they’ll be okay. What they discovered, however, is that the minute one drink passes your lips it is soon followed by another and another. It will seem as if you have never stopped in the first place. Countless hours spent in therapy or at meetings – wasted.
The second time is always worse than the first. The mental and physical repercussions take a much harsher toll on your body. As to why it occurs, chances are your brain might have suffered some slight damage during your first excessive phase of alcoholic consumption. The fact that you’re now older and have abstained from drinking for so long has lowered your tolerance to alcohol. You’ll forget you tried to get better, you’ll forget the people who tried to help you. Nothing will matter, only the drink in your hand. Only the freedom your incoherent state of mind thinks you’re achieving. You will lose every person who made the effort to see you and help you out of the rabbit hole of your addiction. Now years of alcohol abuse will catch up to you in the blink of an eye.
Numerous studies have shown that the brain is affected by the copious consumption of alcohol. A relapse affects the brain in many ways. Remember any beverage that is not broken down by your liver, ends up going to the rest of your body including your brain. The intensity of the effect it has on your brain and person differs for every person (factors such as weight, metabolism and size are key factors). It can affect your movement, your verbal communication skills, impede your judgment and affect your memory. However, with a relapse your brain is already hypersensitive to previous damage it may have sustained and your brain is therefore more susceptible to these effects.
The best option you could have is to stay away from the 3 things that have been linked to cases of relapse:
1. Stress
- Engage in a physical activity or spa treatments anything that de-stresses and relaxes you. Don’t find your relaxation in the bottom of a bottle.
2. Exposure to social events or environments that encourage the copious consumption of alcohol
- You never want to be that friend that’s always “dry” at parties, but if you’re forced to attend then offer to be a designated driver – no one turns down the opportunity to have a designated driver if it means they don’t have to stay sober themselves.
3. Drinking even the tiniest bit of alcohol
- Simply put, don’t even try it. All it will do is re-ignite your thirst for as many drinks as you can handle – which with your lowered tolerance won’t be that many but it will be enough to negatively influence your sobriety.
If you find that you have relapsed, remember that it is not the end of the world or that you will have to start all over again. Begin by attending support group meetings and changing your environment to prevent it from happening again. However, if you have relapsed more than a few times or have fallen back into your addiction, the best option is to find an alcohol rehab center that can help you find the path to sobriety again.