Dealing with the Relapse: A Relapse Inoculation Training Program

Abstract

Most alcohol treatment programs — outpatient as well as inpatient — are plagued by many patients dropping out of treatment (e.g., Backel and Lundwall, 1977; Galanter and Panepinto, 1980). Often, the dropping out of treatment is associated with a relapse or a “slip.” The relationship between the “slip” or the relapse and dropping out of treatment is complex. Some patients have a relapse and therefore leave the treatment; others terminate their participation in a theraputic process and following such an act they relapse. One may argue that the latter case represents a behavior that is aimed at justifying the drink. When a person “slips,” or relapses, the dropping out of treatment can be explained by several reasons. First, in most programs a prevailing norm is “don’t touch a drink.” The person who has violated such a law and who has to face it in front of the community, may experience an intense feeling of shame and failure. The relapse also presents an internal conflict. We may speculate than an internal dialogue occurs between the person’s “super ego,” “ideal self,” or the moral principles and his addictive patterns of functionings. Such a conflicting internal dialogue may result in emotional reactions like anxiety, depression, or anger on the one hand, and may intensify drinking behavior, on the other hand.