Denial Management is a process that interrupts and manages alcoholic or addictive thinking that leads to relapse.

The Path to Relapse

1. Something triggers a desire to drink or use.
2. You entertain and obsess on the thought.
3. You act on the thought.

Entertaining the thought to drink or use means you are in Denial. Managing that thinking is what will prevent acting on the thought and relapsing.

1. Something triggers a desire to drink or use.
2. You entertain the thought.
3. You interrupt the thought.
4. You do not act on the thought.

It is a process that begins by learning what denial is, recognizing when you are in it, and then managing it so that you will stop before you pick up a drink or a drug.

Understanding Denial

Very simply, when you are in denial you are lying to yourself. This may be overt or covert, conscious or unconscious, but the result is the same. It is selectively remembering the “fun” you had or the “relief you got” when you were using, and not remembering the pain that it caused or didn’t cure.

Recognizing Denial

When an alcoholic or addict has any of the following types of thinking, they are in denial:

• “I can have just one”
• “I deserve one”
• “A drink or a drug will make me feel better”
• “It wasn’t that bad”
• “I won’t have the same trouble this time”
• “This time will be different”
• “I’m really not an alcoholic or an addict”
• “I don’t care if I wreck my life again”
• “It’s my life”

These are some of the thoughts that lead the act of picking up a drink or a drug and relapsing.

Managing Denial

Changing denial thinking immediately is the key to preventing relapse. At Recovery First, we teach our clients to do this by:

• Thinking it through to the end
  • What was your life like at the end of your using
  • What happened that made you seek help
  • How bad did you feel right before you came to treatment
  • What will you loose if you use again
  • If you use, it will get worse not better
• Call someone for support and help
• Tell someone – in your support group – how you feel
• Acknowledge that you are lying to yourself
• Take some positive action

By managing your denial, you will interrupt the relapse before it happens and continue on your path to Recovery.

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Recovery First offers several levels of substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation. Our most intensive level of treatment is the Inpatient Substance Abuse Program, but we also have other treatment options for drug addiction and alcoholism like our Day/Night Program or Sober Living.