My loved one is coming home from treatment but I'm anxious about him relapsing again. What can I do to manage the anxiety?

[Glori21]

My loved one is coming home from treatment but I’m anxious about him relapsing again. What can I do to manage the anxiety?

[Roe]

What would you normally do to help care for yourself?
We can’t control what they do only what we will allow in our lives. What about his relapsing gets to you?
I’m worried sick about my friend.

[momentsandlight]

Hi @Glori21 - that is wonderful to hear that your loved one completed treatment! What a huge step forward. The anxiety over relapse is totally understandable - he finally got help and you just want him to stick with it, not go backward!

Recovery is possible. You know this because your loved one has found help and is on the road to recovery. A relapse is also possible. And recovery is still possible after a relapse. When my husband went to rehab, it had been around Christmas. He was home just in time for the holiday, then relapsed and was right back in rehab by New Years. He has relapsed/slipped multiple times in the past seven years. Every year, there’s a slip. Every year, he gets right back into recovery and we assess what went wrong, what could we be doing better. It’s a cycle. And we get through tit. There is hope.

To manage the anxiety, I would try not to let the “what-if’s” take you away to a dark place. They have a tendency to do that. When I get caught up in those types of thoughts, I say a prayer to ground me in the present. I love the Serenity Prayer (God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.) Or a gratitude list always helps me to remember the positive things that are in my life rather than the negative things that could be in my life.

I hope that during the next 12 weeks with @PeerGroup7, you’re able to learn new practices to calm your anxiety. We’re here for you!

[Thinkstet]

@Roe - thanks for the comment- totally in line with how we use the forum. I appreciate you reaching over to help.

[Thinkstet]

@Glori21 - I think your son is home now, and how is it going? We miss you in our group. HOw is the anxiety going? How are you managing it? Any tips?

[Jacqui]

Hi @Glori21 - How have things been going since you posted this? Is your loved one home from treatment?

There are some conversations in the Village Community that discuss anxiety and relapse. You might find these helpful:

Why am I so anxious?

@PeerGroup5, My son has passed the three months of sobriety mark. He doesn’t like to be reminded, so I said nothing. I tell him I am proud of him frequently. Nothing else has changed, that I can identify. But I am filled with anxiety, much more than usual, and I don’t know why. We have been working on him getting signed up for unemployment. He couldn’t even think about that task at first. We finally completed that process, with some computer help from me, but he did a lot of it on his own. I…

Healing after the relapse

My husband was SO CLOSE to a year of sobriety from benzodiazepines. We have been together since 2015 and this has been his longest time staying clean. His drug of choice was heroin, but he’s been clean from that for over 5 years thanks to methadone. He can’t seem to recognize that he has substance abuse problems with xanax. It was just over a week ago that I noticed he was acting off at our friends’ house for a bbq. This friend is actually one of his good friends from AA and he noticed too. Wel…

How can I ease the fear of relapse?

Hi everyone! My name is Courtney. My boyfriend is a recovering Heroin addict. In our four years together, I’ve seen a lot of things I wish I haven’t. There been clean time, relapse and jail time. We share a two year old son together. A lot of people thought our little boy would put a stop to his addiction. But it doesn’t discriminate. When he was only days away from a year clean, he had picked up. Here I was with our two month old son. A new mom. Living in the fear of the unknown. He was on a s…

[Glori21]

My boyfriend is now home. He did relapse coming home from treatment. My heart hurts

[momentsandlight]

My boyfriend is now home. He did relapse coming home from treatment. My heart hurts

Hi @Glori21 - I’m so sorry to hear this. I’ve been through this, too - my husband relapsed just a few days after being home from rehab. It was heartbreaking. How are you doing? Did he get back into treatment? Please remember that there is always hope. Relapses and slips will happen and it doesn’t erase all of the hard work that came before. There is always the opportunity to get back up and keep going.