Hypothetical situation.  You have been clean and sober for just over two years when you relapse.  The relapse started off with just a few drinks but then as most relapses do it took on a life of its own leading to all the booze and drugs that were apart of your life prior to getting sober.  Whats the next step? Do you just submerge yourself in twelve step meetings? Or do you maybe go back to drug rehab?

I have been fortunate enough thus far to not have to personally deal with this scenario.  However being in recovery I regularly see people with sober time relapse.  My personal opinion on whether or not an individual goes back to drug rehab after a relapse depends on the specific relapse and the person.

First example.  An individual has been over two years clean and doing the right thing, going to meetings, doing service work, working with a sponsor and then for whatever reason a relapse occurs and it lasts a week or so.  I’m not so sure that this individual needs to go back to drug rehab.  It may be sufficient for this person to just go back to AA meetings and learn from his or hers mistakes.

The flip side is if an individual relapses and goes on a long “bender”.  This type of situation constitutes the individual gong back to treatment.  The reason being is that after a long run with drugs and/ or alcohol one needs to be in a safe place away from any temptations.  Its also my opinion that a person who experiences this type of relapse needs to start from square one.

Relapse is going to happen and it is nothing to be ashamed about.  It’s how someone responds to a relapse that is important.  Obviously something was not right in a recovery process if a relapse occurs.  Does one ignore it and just start over like nothing happened? Or does someone learn from their mistake to prevent the same thing from happening again? In some cases learning from the mistake means some more time in a drug rehab.