Introduction: Getting Started with Preventing Relapse

Slipping back from a recovered or improved state is never easy. This Growth Path is adapted, with special permission of Simon & Schuster, from a chapter in Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions by Dr. John C. Norcross. A companion website at Changeology Book offers additional self-change exercises and self-assessments free of cost.

Dr. John C. Norcross, an internationally recognized expert, has studied how people make transformative, permanent changes in their lives. Over the past thirty years, he and his research team have helped thousands of people overcome dozens of behavioral ailments. This growth path is based on his documented successful scientific approach to personal improvement.

This growth path will help you understand and manage relapse through awareness of new perspectives, as well as activities to formulate a workable plan to deal with slips and avoid an entire relapse through skills like perseverance.

Here are the 10 steps (which are broken down into smaller parts):

Step 1. Understanding & Managing Relapse

Step 2. Ingraining a Slip is Not a Fall

Step 3. Avoiding High-Risk Triggers

Step 4. Practicing Saying “No” to Temptation

Step 5. Resisting the Initial Urge

Step 6. Surfing the Urge

Step 7. Responding Constructively After a Slip

Step 8. Creating Your Slip Plan

Step 9. Mobilizing Your Helpers

Step 10. Assessing Your Relapse Prevention Skills