1 - Dealing Effectively with High-Risk Situations

Summary

High-risk situations can be understood as events and situations that, if not effectively managed, pose a potential risk for relapse. What is important to note is that it is chiefly the individual’s subjective perception of “risk” that plays a significant role in whether a situation is high risk or not. A high-risk situation poses a threat to one’s perceived ability (what psychology calls “self-efficacy”) to handle the challenging situation at hand. Therefore, by developing more effective coping skills, thereby increasing perceived self-efficacy, one can learn to manage a high-risk situation without defaulting to substance use. This chapter provides practices that enables the reader to effectively deal with high-risk situations. The focus of this workbook is not to provide an exhaustive set of relapse prevention skills and tools but to help the reader to unlock their innate resilience through developing a Recovery Resilience Practice, so that they can effectively apply them.