Still Addicted After All These Years......

I attend Celebrate Recovery for gambling addiction. Despite having been in this program off and on for nearly five years, I have yet to achieve total sobriety over all of my addictions and compulsive behaviors. (My most recent effort was 50 days of sobriety) I recently read an article on the stages of change that an addict goes through as they step out of denial and face their recovery.

The idea behind the Stages Of Change Model is that behavior change does not happen in one step. Rather, people tend to progress through different stages on their way to successful change. Also, each of us progresses through the stages at our own rate.

So expecting behavior change by simply telling someone, for example, who is still in the "pre-contemplation" stage that he or she must go to a certain number of AA meetings in a certain time period is rather naive (and perhaps counterproductive) because they are not ready to change.

Each person must decide for himself or herself when a stage is completed and when it is time to move on to the next stage. Moreover, this decision must come from the inside you (see developing an internal locus of control) -- stable, long term change cannot be externally imposed.

The Stages of Change

• Precontemplation (Not yet acknowledging that there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed)

• Contemplation (Acknowledging that there is a problem but not yet ready or sure of wanting to make a change)

• Preparation/Determination (Getting ready to change)

• Action/Willpower (Changing behavior)

• Maintenance (Maintaining the behavior change) and

• Relapse (Returning to older behaviors and abandoning the new changes)
  
  
  What was amazing for me to learn was the idea that relapse, at least in the early rounds, was a normal part of the process. This is not to say that everyone must relapse, but it is an encouragement for those who do. The important thing is that if and when you do relapse, you don't fall all the way back to the precontemplative or the contemplative stages, (as is common) but rather you pick up at the preparation/determination stage or at the action stage where you jump right back on that horse that bucked you!