Our Relapse Prevention Worksheet Resources

This question helps you recall the healthy lifestyle activities and interests that contribute to maintaining sobriety. Once you remember these, you can take the time to re-engage.

Some people choose mindfulness meditation, deep breathing, or taking a short, brisk walk. Choose the relaxing activity that will help you.

4: What trusted friend or family member should I call for support, and why?

Developing a list of “safe people” is an essential task in every aftercare plan. It’s powerful because connecting with someone to discuss your addiction creates a sense of accountability.

Recall that list and note some names of friends, family members, or loved ones you can reach out to for judgment-free support. Sharing with another person when you struggle with cravings can help you feel less lonely in your struggle.

When you visualize tomorrow, you strengthen your motivation to stay clean and sober. You realize without self-judgment that you are worth the investment of time, effort, and energy, and that your sobriety is too precious to waste.

6: What positive steps have I already taken to support my recovery journey?

Reflecting on past successful steps in your recovery helps you shift away from those urges and regain a sense of self-confidence. You’re no longer willing to let external events trigger use.

At Ingrained Recovery, we focus on whole-person healing—not just craving and pain management. Methadone on its own can help with withdrawal symptoms, but it’s not a good fit for everyone.

We prefer Suboxone (buprenorphine + naloxone), Subutex, and naltrexone, each effective in treating addiction. Clients also receive counseling and relapse prevention education, ensuring an enriching journey.

The Cost-Benefit Analysis Worksheet can help you pause, consider the short- and long-term consequences of using drugs or alcohol as core part of your relapse prevention plan.

Writing these down makes the potential outcomes more concrete, which helps you overcome impulsive decisions and use logic to make healthy choices.

Some may write down short-term benefits, such as instant relief from cravings, they enjoy the high, or it helps them deal with stress. Frequent short-term costs are undoing the work of recovery, losing trust they’ve rebuilt in relationships, or financial setbacks.

When trying to think of long-term benefits of engaging in drug or alcohol use, many can’t think of a single thing. But when considering long-term costs, people often list such consequences and loss of driving privileges, fines or jail time, broken relationships, and losing a career.

When these are put on paper, the evidence becomes practically indisputable, underscoring the importance of maintaining a healthier lifestyle.

Writing affirmations helps you restore and reinforce self-confidence when you feel it slipping away. This sheet helps you replace self-criticism or doubt with internal motivation. This addition to your relapse prevention plan can help address your inner critic and silence any shame lingering from the past.

Self-affirming statements usually start with “I am,” followed by a positive attribute.

Some frequent examples of “I am” affirmations are the following:

• I am strong.
• I am able to learn new behaviors.
• I am capable.
• I am committed to making lasting change.
• I am loved.
• I am worthy of self-love.
• I am deserving of wellness.

Each is an emphatic, powerful statement. Some people read these aloud or note them in the margins of their journals. However, many find it very empowering to look in a mirror, smile as though speaking to a loved one, and repeat them as they look at their reflection.

There’s no right or wrong way of including affirmations in your daily routine. Do whatever feels natural to you.

Not everyone who relapses self-reports or seeks help; that poses a challenge in identifying a precise number… Though mental health experts at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have published an estimated rate of 40-60%.

This number is not intended to scare you, but to help you see the connection between negative behavioral patterns and actively working to prevent relapse.

In addition to the statistics, NIDA also states that a setback doesn’t mean failure; instead, it means that the person needs additional tools to help reshape their substance abuse behaviors.

They also remind readers that a substance use disorder is a chronic illness, like heart disease or asthma; it’s not something you decided to do.

This makes crafting a reliable relapse prevention plan even more essential!

Besides the pen-and-paper worksheets we’ve shared, several other activities can help you stay on the path to recovering from addiction. Here are a few more things our licensed therapists recommend:

Attending Support Groups

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and SMART Recovery are led by people who understand your experiences. In the support group setting, peers share stories about their struggles, seek solutions, and hold each other accountable on a weekly basis.

The encouragement you receive from attending peer support groups is invaluable, especially in the early days after treatment.

Practicing Self-compassion

It can feel awkward to show yourself the same compassion you might show a friend who struggles with a problem. But self-kindness helps reduce stress, shame, and stigma about addiction. So use kinder self-talk and remind yourself that healing and restoring family trust and friendships takes time.

Volunteering or Community Service

Serving others is an excellent way to build a more meaningful life after treatment. Helping others reduces isolation that can lead to self-doubt, uplifts your mood, and reminds you of all the progress that came from your hard work.

You might mentor others who struggle, serve food at a soup kitchen, or help clean up litter at a park – each tiny act helps you become more intentional and purposeful.

Physical Exercise or Sports

Participating in physical activities, either alone or as part of an organized recreational league, can help you continue to regain both mental and physical strength.

Research has repeatedly proven that exercise helps release endorphins, which make you feel good; they’re great for reducing stress and improving sleep quality. These are important protective factors that help prevent relapse.

Setting Boundaries within Relationships

It’s okay to say “no” to others, especially when you feel unsafe. Setting healthy boundaries with your loved ones, romantic partners, and friends can be a valuable way to protect your sobriety. You get to decide which behaviors support your wellness goals and which threaten them.

So feel free to avoid the things that could trigger a relapse and say yes only to things that support your newfound freedom from drugs and alcohol. These aren’t “walls,” but guidelines that help you uphold your commitment to better well-being.

Making a full recovery means more than abstinence from substance use. Instead, it means rediscovering who you are and the values that matter most to you.

While in recovery, you may decide to explore new creative interests, go back to school, change careers, or pursue new relationships. Every new experience helps you build a more purposeful, happier life that will continue to support your new sober lifestyle.

If you have sought long-term recovery on your own but have been unable to maintain it, know that it’s not your fault. Your addictive behaviors are the result of a chronic condition.

Like other chronic illnesses, substance use disorders are treatable and can be effectively managed.

Ingrained provides evidence-based treatment plans to help you achieve and maintain a clean and sober life. Some recovery process strategies you’d find at our rehab center include the following:

• Medical detox to manage sickness and intense cravings in the first days away from substances
• Medication management to optimize all prescriptions
• Dual diagnosis treatment for any person with an underlying mental health condition
• Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to safely stop alcohol or opioid addiction
• Working individually with a licensed therapist
• Family and group therapy
• Stress management and coping skills
• Equine therapy, music and art therapy, or exercise for a more holistic experience
• Nutritional counseling to restore physical strength
• Aftercare planning and help to craft a comprehensive relapse prevention plan to help overcome challenges to sobriety after graduating our program.

We provide a structured framework to support personal growth in ways you may never have imagined, set against the stunning backdrop of our 50-acre ranch-style campus.