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Excerpt from the original article:
“In his book with Merlene Miller titled Staying Sober: A Guide for Relapse Prevention (1986), Terence Gorski coined the term “relapse warning signs.” He writes that he conducted clinical interviews with 118 recovering alcoholics and drug addicts who had completed a twenty-one- or twenty-eight-day program, recognized they were addicted, intended on staying sober postdischarge with the help of AA and outpatient counseling, and eventually relapsed.”
Excerpt from the original article:
“As I was training on motivational interviewing the other day via Zoom, I referenced relapse prevention in the context of the maintenance stage of change and had to pause for a moment. I was overcome with emotion as I remembered that my most revered and instrumental mentor had passed away. As I shared with the group what was happening for me, they graciously provided their condolences and then something remarkable happened: a few of the attendees reached for their Staying Sober: A Guide for Relapse Prevention (Gorski & Miller, 1986) books and their copies of The Staying Sober Workbook (Gorski, 1992) and held them up to their cameras to show me. Needless to say, that did nothing to dry out my tear-filled eyes! What a testimony to the mark Terence Gorski made on our profession!”
Excerpt from the original article:
“In part three of this six-part series, we will continue our discussion of setup behaviors that lead to the craving cycle. Remember that, despite its danger, many alcohol and drug treatment centers focus merely on teaching the tools of recovery to utilize once craving hits, rather than on how to avoid falling into the craving cycle in the first place. Over the next several articles, we will do just that: learn how to help our patients minimize the frequency of entering the craving cycle. We will accomplish this by focusing on setup behaviors and trigger events, two primary criteria that contribute to the craving cycle. By utilizing this information, patients can significantly reduce its frequency.”
Excerpt from the original article:
“If addicts and alcoholics use chemicals to avoid uncomfortable emotions, teaching them to feel and tolerate such emotions should be seen as primary in chemical dependence (CD) treatment. With this article, I hope to prompt increased focus on this objective and suggest a model by which it can be accomplished in the treatment milieu.”
Excerpt from the original article:
“I have been fortunate enough over the past 25 years to sit in on Chemical Dependence (CD) groups and provide feedback to counselors. Out of 23 skill areas evaluated, this item: “Counselor demonstrates empathy” is consistently one of the lowest rated. This is due in part to most counselors having not been taught the skill in a clinical setting and because of the lack of group supervision at many treatment facilities. Many seasoned counselors I’ve evaluated have never had a supervisor sit in on group and provide feedback. At the risk of sounding dramatic, it may be that many treatment centers’ managers have little idea of what is really happening in their groups. It is very important for rehabs to regularly provide such in-group supervision, and to teach the skill of empathy.”
Excerpt from the original article:
“Most people can tell you what a trigger is and can provide examples of triggers, but very few can tell you what makes a trigger a trigger. In fact, many in our profession will teach patients how to identify triggers, but do not explain the mechanics behind it. If we don’t know what makes a trigger a trigger, the only thing we can teach patients to do is to avoid them. Now, how much success do you think our patients will have avoiding triggers living in this society which is permeated by alcohol and drugs? Probably not very much! Therefore, it is essential that we are knowledgeable about how a trigger actually becomes a trigger so we can teach our patients how to recover from triggers? You might ask yourself: “Recover from triggers?” Yes, recover from triggers and we’ll get to that in a moment. But first, let’s explore the etiology of triggers so we can get a clue about how to teach patients to recover from them.”
Excerpt from the original article:
“In aiding our patients to prevent relapse, one common area of focus is to help them recognize when they are engaging in what Terence Gorski calls: euphoric recall. “When we are in euphoric recall, we remember and exaggerate pleasurable memories of past chemical use episodes. Then we block or repress our bad memories of drug use or deny the pain associated with them” (Gorski, 1989). When a person enters into craving, they are not thinking about how bad it will be – they are thinking about how good that first drink, hit, or pill will be. So it is very important for the addicted to recognize when they are engaging in the positive thoughts of using and begin to focus on the negative aspects. If recognized soon enough, it is often just that simple.”
Bob was interviewed at the Today Show on 03/09/2011 regarding the Charlie Sheen story. Pretty sad to see Charlie so messed up but it should be a reminder that the disease will take us if left untreated!