Along the way to permanent cessation or stable reduction of a bad habit, most people experience relapse. In fact, it is much more common to have at least one relapse than not. Relapse is often accompanied by feelings of discouragement and seeing oneself as a failure. While relapse can be discouraging, the majority of people who successfully quit do not follow a straight path to a life time free of self-destructive bad habits. Rather, they cycle through the five stages several times before achieving a stable life style change. Consequently, the Stages of Change Model considers relapse to be normal.
There is a real risk that people who relapse will experience an immediate sense of failure that can seriously undermine their self-confidence. The important thing is that if they do slip not to give up and fall back on the unhealthy habits. Rather, they should analyze how the slip happened and use it as an opportunity to learn how to cope differently. In fact, relapses can be important opportunities for learning and becoming stronger.
Relapsing is like falling off a horse the best thing you can do is get right back on again. However, if you do relapse, it is important that you do not fall back to the precontemplation or contemplation stages. Rather, restart the process again at preparation, action or even the maintenance stages. People who have relapsed may need to learn to anticipate high-risk situations and more effectively, control and navigate environmental cues that tempt them to engage in their bad habits . It is important to learn how to handle unexpected episodes of stress without returning to the bad habit. This gives them a stronger sense of self control and the ability to get back on track.
If you have relapsed here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What factors were involved in your setback?
- How can you prevent self sabotage?
- What did you find encouraging at the onset of your initial change?
- Do you have a support network to turn to when the going gets tough?
- What strategies can you devise to support your new habits?
- What is the next step in your action plan?
- What did you do to reward yourself with for your small victories and accomplishments?
- What did you learn from this experience?
That covers all the stages of change model, however there is another stage which is not formally part of the model which needs to be mentioned. It is sometimes called transcendence. This is when we have been in the maintenance stage for a prolonged period of time and the unhealthy behaviours are far and well behind us. It is as this point that we can have successfully completed a lifestyle change. Transcendence is change at its best, it is actual transformation.
