Learning to Predict When You Will Be Vulnerable to Your Addiction Can Help You Maintain Sobriety

Timothy D. Stein, MFT, CSAT

December 5, 2012

One skill that makes consistent sobriety easier is learning to predict when you are likely to be vulnerable to your addictive urges and thoughts.  If you do not develop this skill, you are always working on your sobriety in reaction to your addiction.  While you can do this, it can become tiresome and is simply not as effective as learning when you need to “double down” on your recovery.  Using your tools when you feel addictive urges or when you recognize addictive thoughts is important.  However, when you learn to predict when you will likely be more vulnerable to your addiction, you can firm up your recovery and already have in place the extra tools and support that will help you through this time.  It simply makes the work of sobriety smoother.

Here are some examples of times when addicts tend to be vulnerable:  when you are sick, when a medical procedure is coming up, visiting family, going on vacation, before or after significant emotionally charged conversations, during times of increased work stress, before and after public presentations or performances, etc.  All of these may apply to you or only some.  Difference events create different vulnerability for different people.  What is important is that you learn what events and situations tend to make you more vulnerable.

On way to recognize that you are more vulnerable is paying attention to your thoughts and urges.  When you are in a vulnerable place your addictive thoughts and urges come up with more frequency, often seem to come from out of the blue, and seem to stick a little more than normal.  Sometimes you may not notice you are vulnerable until after you have relapsed.  Either way, looking at the events or situations taking place can help you identify what makes you vulnerable.  It has been my experience that vulnerability usually falls into a window of time anywhere from two weeks prior to an event until two weeks after.  So, if you are feeling vulnerable or recently relapsed, ask yourself “What has happened in the last two weeks and what is schedule to take place in the next two weeks?”  You now have a list of possible events and situations that set you up to be more vulnerable to your addiction.

Now that you have a sense of what may make you vulnerable, you can start shoring up your recovery routine in advance instead of reacting to your addiction.  For example, if you have a family visit coming up, you can start beefing up your recovery routine and keeping a close eye out for potential pitfalls two weeks prior to the visit, during the visit, and maintain this pattern for two weeks following the visit.  There is no guarantee that you won’t struggle with you addiction but, in this way, you are better prepared for any addictive struggle and have increased the chances of getting through that struggle sober.

Keep your tools in place and use them as needed but also start to predict when you might struggle and adjust your recovery routine appropriately.