Brilliant Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, 2nd Edition

Stage five: relapse

Not a cheery note to end on, I appreciate, but the point is that Prochaska and Di Clemente’s cyclical model is a cycle. You may re-enter it at different points but the reality is that most of us will go round it more than once. Relapse, while not inevitable, is very normal. The thing that does the damage is usually not so much the relapse itself, but what happens to people in the wake of it. We have already mentioned the ‘abstinence violation effect’, when people relinquish control completely after a slip. It is after you have found yourself giving in to your habit or addictive behaviour that you most need to gather your resources and determination to regroup, reset and resist the urge to throw the baby out with the bathwater. ...