Tool 4 in Substance Abuse, “Recovering from a Relapse,” is specifically geared to people who have relapsed. For those who have not relapsed, it is more appropriate to use tool 3 to discuss how to prevent relapse. If you have already completed tool 3 and want to continue the work around relapse, you could possibly reword the questions in tool 4. For example:
- question 2 in part A could be reworded as “If you were to relapse, what event would most likely trip you up?”
- question 3 could be reworded as “If you were to relapse, who would you likely be with?”
- question 4 could be reworded as “If you were to relapse, would you likely have planned to use in advance?”
You may find that many of the answers to these reworded questions are similar to those discovered in tool 3, which addresses similar issues. Repetition around key learnings can be useful. However, if the person finds this too repetitive and is not benefiting from this approach to tool 4, be prepared to stop the exercise and refocus your efforts elsewhere.