Relapse Prevention: A Problem of Wineskins —Not Motivation or Grace March 1st, 2018 posted by: John Leadem to Addiction Treatment [apss-share networks="facebook, twitter, google-plus, pinterest, linkedin" counter="0" total_counter="0" http_count="1"]

Relapse Prevention: A Problem of Wineskins —Not Motivation or Grace

The addict’s journey from the wreckage of relapse can be fraught with anxiety for an uncertain future and fear that past failures will be repeated.  Struggling Christians report that the grip appears to be more powerful than their connection to the source of redemptive freedom. The maelstrom you might find them in has more to do with shame and self-anger than it does with the lack of motivation or ignorance of the Lord’s Grace.

Many addicted Christians have revealed the painful reckoning that either God had abandoned them or they were no longer eligible for Grace. This spiritual deprivation deteriorated to the hopeless position that recovery was impossible. We have found many an addict shipwrecked following their failure to escape the whirlpool of addiction.  Our mission has led us to the beaches where they have been stranded and to imagine those who might guide them to safety as Relapse Prevention Navigators. Your church’s efforts to help them understand relapse as a process that can be identified, intervened on and prevented can provide the waypoints necessary to enable addicts to find their way to a safe port.  Once they can trust their plan for sobriety, you will find as we have, that they are free to return their gaze to God. Your work with them as Relapse Prevention Navigators will help them make the characterological changes needed to fashion a new wineskin capable of retaining all the tools you provide  them with to support a drug free life.

 

A New Wineskin

An unofficial recovery slogan, “the person I was will drink again”, appears to be a prophetic statement.  Simply put, an addict will return to his or her drug of choice if they do not change the way that they cope with the emotional challenges of life.  Every addict can relapse.  And every addict who relapses will do so for exactly the same reason: to alter the way he or she feels.  When we do not change the way we cope with emotional challenges the old self (wineskin) will begin to leak the benefits of sober living it had been gifted and a spiritual void is created.  The sense of emptiness grows, without intervention, to the point that the addict returns his or her gaze to the view of enslaving drugs of addiction. Every addict will need a new wineskin to retain the fruits of sober living.  The training we are proposing will help you to provide the alternations he or she might need.

 

Benefits to the Addict, the Church and the Community at Large

Empowering a church member(s) to become Certified Relapse Prevention Navigator(s) will enable those who have been called to the mission to be able to:

• educate addicts and their families to identify the symptoms in the phases of relapse to be addressed so that character changes can be fabricated into a new wineskin
• guide addicts and their families toward understanding a model that unites family members and friends in the process of recovery from addiction rather than encouraging the family to cheer from the sidelines or prayerfully await an awakening
• enhance the scope of the addict’s support system to include a faith based community that has joined forces to assume an active role in healing

If you are interested in becoming a Certified Relapse Prevention Navigator we encourage you to take the first step by attending our upcoming training this may: Register HERE

If you would like to learn more about what becoming a Certified Relapse Prevention Navigator entails: Click HERE

 

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See our book: An Ounce of Prevention: A Course in Relapse Prevention

Related Article(s): Identifying the Stages of Relapse and Recovery from Relapse

The Process of Relapse Recovery and How to Commit Yourself to Sober Living

What is Relapse? What is Relapse Prevention?

About the Authors

Both John and Shawn Leadem are Licensed Clinical Social Workers in private practice in Toms River, New Jersey.
John has recently celebrated his 45th year in recovery and believes that “service to others is the cornerstone of spiritual maturity.” His professional service to addicted individuals and their families has included the development and direction of addiction treatment services in a full array of modalities from half-way houses to large residential treatment facilities over the past 44 years.

Shawn’s lifelong exposure to the recovery culture and his personal recovery experience has left him with a deep personal empathy for the social and emotional suffering endured by others and a strong faith in a person’s ability to change. He has received his certification as a Sexual Addiction Therapist and as a Multiple Addictions Therapist by the International Institute for Trauma & Addiction Professionals.

Together, John and Shawn have co-authored and brought their unique treatment model of relapse prevention, An Ounce of Prevention: A Course in Relapse Prevention, to residential treatment centers across the United States, they have trained therapists at numerous national and international conferences, and most recently have trained many EAP programs associated with many State Unions.

Copyright, John Leadem & Shawn Leadem, 2018

You are free to copy this article for future reference, to post it on other web sites and to share it with family or friends.  If you would like to have permission to include it in a publication of your own you can request written permission by contacting the authors at www.leademcounseling.com.

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