Essay Of Relapse

This essay will discus to what extent relapse is viewed as a failure on the individuals part, and the reasons behind the idea of relapse being identified as a failure, also what relapse is, and what it means for the individual and professionals involved. It is important that the issues of relapse are covered and how relapse could be dangerous and what socio-economic reasons there are for relapse to occur. The official dictionary definition of relapse is “to fall or slip back into a former bad or vicious state or practice, especially into illness after partial recovery” (the Cassell English dictionary 1989), however a relapse to an addiction is not something that necessarily has to happen but it is when the individual has had a period of abstinence or recovery and returns to that addictive behaviour. …show more content…
Relapse in itself can be avoided if preventative measures are put into practice after the treatment has finished, this can only be done if the individual has combatted issues that prompt them to use. In the UK there an estimated 440,000 problematic drug users according to UK-rehab.com (2016), this statistic highlights that there is a social issue associated with drug users and so when they want to find treatment it is important that they can be fully supported and, if they are to relapse after they have received treatment it is important that they understand that it is not a failure but something that they can learn from. Relapse is something that can happen when someone has been using drugs and alcohol, then followed a treatment programme to stop using or has quit on their own but no due to whatever circumstance then have returned to drug and alcohol use. Walitzer and Dearing (2006) found that the word relapse is most commonly used to describe the consumption of a drug for example alcohol at a certain amount of an amount of time after