The Disease Model Of Relapse

Nobody is immune to a relapse. Does a relapse mean that you are a failure in the treatment of recovering individuals? No. Once a client relapses are they sentenced to live out a life within the grips of their addiction? No, absolutely not. It is important however as a treating professional to know exactly what a relapse is, triggers that may lead to a relapse, the signs and symptoms associated with relapse, and the different models in which relapse is described. As defined by Miller and Harris in their journal A Simple Scale of Gorski’s Warning Signs for Relapse, there are two terms used to describe a recovering addict’s return to substance use (e.g., alcohol and/or drugs) or behavior addiction (e.g., gambling, sex, eating), a slip and a relapse. A slip, or lapse, occurs when the recovering individual temporarily returns to substance use or …show more content…
Within the Disease Model of Addiction it is viewed that addiction is a disease much like heart disease in that the individual has physical conditions that have made them more susceptible including neurological, biological, genetic, and environmental sources of origin. The Jellinek Curve views addiction as a disease but restricts this to not including those who do not suffer from withdrawal symptoms and can stop if they wanted to. The Disease Model of Addiction regards addiction as a progressive disease, like a set of stairs, and when an individual relapses they simply stay on that step until they continue maintaining their addiction. The Jellinek curve also views that individuals who match his criteria (e.g., loss of control, suffer withdrawal symptoms) do have a disease of addiction, but he views addiction and recovery as a curve or V-chart. This means that in Jellineks’ opinion, if an individual relapses they go back to the bottom of the curve and work their way up again through recovery (Adair,