Definition of Relapse
This week we lost a close friend of the family. It wasn’t from an overdose or a car accident. It was from untreated and unknown stage 4 cancer. Our friend went into the hospital 2 weeks ago and found out how sick she was and she’s now gone. Life just isn’t fair sometimes. She was only in her mid 50’s, still has children in High School and a 2 year old Granddaughter. This just really hit home to me.
Will this make me more diligent about my follow ups with my doctor? Getting the tests that I need? Absolutely! Although even doing all the right things never guarantees a perfect outcome, it certainly increases the chance. I don’t want to miss all that the future holds in store and I cannot imagine what she went through knowing what she was leaving behind. It’s such a difficult time for everyone. So many questions, why? what if?
These events force us to look inward at our own life, to think of what we could be doing better, we make resolutions to do things that we’ve been putting off. But how long does this diligence last? It’s as though we relapse, falling back into old habits and it takes another shock to put us back on track again. It takes a lot of work to do all the things we need to do to stay at our best health. A little like New Years resolutions that we give up on in a few weeks. If it’s hard for us doesn’t it then make sense that it would be hard for someone addicted to drugs? Is there really a difference between us and them? When we slip back into old habits aren’t we also relapsing?
I thought about this in terms of our own personal relapses each day, how about that piece of cake, skipping the exercise, cancelling the doctors appointments, finishing the project you started – we are falling back into old habits. If it’s that hard for us then this really shows us how hard it is for an addict in recovery to not relapse. Although we all have good intentions at some point we slip up. Could it be life threatening to us? Probably not directly but in the long term yes. Could it be life threatening to an addict? Yes and the result could be immediate.
relapse
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
- to fall or slip back into a former state, practice, etc.: to relapse into silence.
- to fall back into illness after convalescence or apparent recovery.
- to fall back into vice, wrongdoing, or error; backslide: to relapse into heresy.
So you see, relapse is not a term specifically for addiction. It applies to all of us. When we slip back into an old habit, give up on that gym membership or eat that ice cream. You see to you and I it’s not big deal but if it’s so easy for us to relapse why do we react so strongly when someone who has given up drugs has a relapse. Shouldn’t we instead encourage them to get back on track and try to help.
In conclusion we all need to realize how easy relapsing is and how important it is to get back on track. Please don’t think any less of a recovering addict because they had a relapse, we all do, and with a helping hand we can all get back on track again. Recovery is hard work for everyone, let’s not make it any harder by condescending comments that eat away at the strength and confidence of the addict and their family.
Be Kind Always.
