Do the Christmas and New Year Holidays present the most risk for relapse?
Christmas and New Year present a great risk of relapse for people in recovery from addiction.
Christmas Parties and New Celebrations are often awash with alcohol and temptation is before us!
When things are good it can be easy “to float” back to drinking and drugging. We must remember that it is the first drink that does the damage – not the last. Some people compare our illness with being hit by a high speed train – it is the front of the engine that will surely kill us – not the last carriage. Our first drink does similar damage and it matters little how many bottles that we consume after that first drink. It is the first one that does the damage no matter how hard we try to justify that we had “one too many”.
The highly charged social events surrounding Christmas reinforce feelings of low self-esteem and low self-worth which are common in many of us. This makes it even harder to manage our addictions during the holiday period.
Addictions UK remains working as hard as ever over the holidays. Alcoholics and drug addicts cannot afford to take a day off; if we stop “working our recovery programme” we too will risk our sobriety.
Simon Stephens, Addictions UK Director of Case Work said “Christmas is a time when stress levels peak. If you are feeling stressed – pick up the phone and share your anxiety. Often this helps us as a coping method”.
Other addictions such as shopping addiction/shoplifting/eating disorders can be difficult to handle – Simon Stephens says, “The same applies – pick up the phone when you feel the impulse and share your feelings with a trusted friend”.
Remember, You are just a phone call away from addiction recovery – Addictions UK offers affordable and effective Addiction Treatment at Home including Home Detox Services. We will be staffing our clients’ help line (one for Addicts with a separately staffed Carers’ helpline) throughout the holiday period.
If you are worried about your addiction and you want to escape the Hell that it causes please telephone us on 0800 140 4044 or contact us on line.
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