What are some major factors that may cause a patient to relapse, and how do you approach preparing clients to cope with or avoid these risk factors?

"Patients who have poor coping mechanisms lack skills necessary to divert themselves from substance abuse and, as a result, often resort back to their addictive behaviors. When our team identifies a client who appears to have poor coping mechanisms, we immediately begin to introduce measures to help these clients cope. Helping clients identify stressors or triggers that may cause them to relapse is one of the first steps. When clients can identify triggers, we can then address ways for them to learn to cope, such as having a support system to call on when the stress becomes too much."

"The ease of availability of an addict's preferred substance is often the trigger that leads to consumption of that substance which results in relapse. One way to help prepare a client to cope with the availability is to keep drugs and alcohol out of the patient's home and to discourage fraternization with people who abuse substances."

"Feelings like shame, loneliness, guilt or other negative thoughts are common reasons that clients allow themselves to be exposed to drugs or alcohol. It is often an attempt to control those negative feelings. The likelihood of experiencing any of these feelings can push the patient towards a relapse state Developing skills that increase mental strength and a positive attitude often plays an important role in preventing relapse. Because of this, I like to encourage my clients to develop relationships with people who do not have addiction issues so that they can be surrounded by a positive environment which can prevent the patient falling back in the mind frame of substance abuse."