If you’re currently in recovery for sex addiction, congratulations! Getting help is the first, and often the hardest step.
Whether it has been days, weeks, months or even years, preventing relapse is a continual journey. One of the most effective ways to do this is to have a sexual addiction recovery plan.
From enlisting the help of a great therapist to identifying potential triggers, your plan should detail everything that will help to prevent a relapse. Below we’ve listed some important factors to consider for your sex addiction treatment.
Find a good sex addiction therapist
Having a good support network is crucial to recovery. Your friends and family will prove invaluable when you’re having a bad day or need some encouragement and a therapist will teach you the tools you need to stop the behaviors that typically lead to relapse.
There are different types of therapy and each has its own benefits.
Individual sexual addiction therapy:
- If you don’t feel comfortable opening up in front of a group, you’re likely to get more out of seeing a therapist on a one-to-one basis.
- You receive the therapist’s undivided attention.
- Your therapy is tailored to you.
- It can help improve your communication skills because you don’t have a group to hide behind.
- The pace of the therapy is tailored to you.
- You can fit sessions around your schedule.
Group therapy:
- It can be very helpful to be around people who are going through the same thing you are.
- You can speak to people further into the recovery process who will be able to provide tips and advice.
- Group therapy is a great addition to individual therapy – you can get benefits from both and there’s no harm in doing both.
- Being able to provide support to others can help you feel valued.
- It can help to develop communication and socialization skills.
Identify your triggers
Learning to identify your sex addiction triggers is crucial for relapse prevention.
Avoid places, people and activities that may cause you to feel tempted to fall back into old habits. No matter how far you’ve come in your recovery, if you’re having a weak moment you might find it too difficult to resist.
Stress is often a big trigger for many people too. If you’re currently facing a period of stress or know you will be very soon, it’s a good idea to dedicate extra time to your coping mechanisms. This may be cutting down on your workload, spending more time doing the things you enjoy, getting better quality sleep or booking in additional sessions with your counsellor.
Find some healthy coping mechanisms
Having coping mechanisms in place will help you to resist the urge to relapse when you’re struggling. Some great ideas include:
- Have a trusted person you can call to discuss how you’re feeling.
- Focus your mind elsewhere. Read a book, do some exercise, see a friend, get a hobby, throw yourself into work, go travelling or do some volunteer work. Keeping busy will stop you dwelling on the thoughts that are making you feel tempted to relapse.
- Attend individual and/or group therapy.
- Remind yourself why you went into recovery in the first place.
- Keep a journal so you can write down all your feelings.
Be aware of sexual addiction relapse symptoms
If you’re aware of the signs of a potential relapse, this will help you to put your coping mechanisms into place sooner which could be the difference between relapsing or not.
There are three different stages of relapse and this is typical across all types of addictions.
Emotional relapse
You haven’t physically relapsed but you have started to think about doing so. Your emotions and behaviors may be setting you up for possible relapse. For example, if you’re feeling very stressed out, you may stop doing the things you normally do to help calm yourself down. Instead, thoughts turn to relapsing as a way of coping with how you’re feeling.
Signs of emotional relapse include:
- Being defensive.
- Mood swings.
- Isolating yourself.
- Not asking for help.
- Not going to meetings.
- Poor eating habits.
- Poor sleep habits.
Mental relapse
In the early stages of mental relapse, you’re idly thinking about engaging in past behaviors. In the later phase, you’re definitely thinking about relapsing. You may for example start to think about what it would be like to relapse and how you would go about doing so.
Signs of mental relapse include:
- Thinking about the people you used to hang around with and the places you would go to during your sex addiction.
- Glamorizing past use.
- Seeing people or going to places you know are likely to cause you to relapse.
- Fantasizing about relapsing.
- Starting to plan your relapse.
- You’re finding it harder to make the right choices.
Physical relapse
Once you start to think about relapsing, it often doesn’t take long to do so if you don’t have a plan in place.
Relapse can start weeks or even months before the event of physical relapse so it’s important to recognize when you’re feeling the temptation and require extra support.
Early relapse prevention involves recognizing that you’re about to relapse so you can change your behaviors. If you haven’t been eating or sleeping well, for example, you will feel exhausted and less able to cope. Maybe you’ve been canceling your therapy sessions because work or home life have been busy. Recognizing this will help you to put the necessary steps in place to give you the strength and confidence you need at this crucial time.
Seek help for any mental health disorders
Many people who develop addictions do so because they have an underlying mental health condition or have experienced trauma they’ve never come to terms with.
Addictions frequently mask mental health disorders and they often become more evident when the addictive behavior stops. As long as any issues remain suppressed and unresolved, your risk of relapse will be high.
If you think you may have a mental health condition, please do address this because it will help you to come to terms with what led to addiction in the first place.
If you would like to learn more about preventing sex addiction relapse, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Toronto Trauma and Addiction Counselling in the strictest of confidence.
