What Is Addiction Relapse Prevention?

The answer to the question of what is relapse prevention in addiction recovery, lies greatly in the definition of relapse. Simply put, relapse, for the recovering addict or alcoholic is commonly thought to be the act of taking that first drug or drink after maintaining a period of abstinence. Even though this is a generally accepted definition, the recovery, and drug and alcohol treatment communities generally agree that there is a relapse process that begins long before the actual first use has occurred.