Chapter 6: Relapse Prevention

You’ve worked so hard to deal effectively with your Operational Stress Injury – and you have achieved wellness that once upon a time, you felt was impossible. You can relax now.

That’s not exactly the case. Although it doesn’t seem fair, you have to actively maintain your wellness or it is in danger of slipping away. In other words, you need to guard against a relapse. Relapse cannot always be prevented but you are in a much stronger position to avert it if you know that it is possible and if you have strategies to prevent it (or make it as short as possible), as much as you can. It means keeping a close eye on things.⁴⁷

• Know the language of response and remission and how these terms relate to your situation.
  • Response: You may respond to your medications, meaning things are much better, but you’re still not back to normal. There is more that can be done and you need to work with your doctor or therapist to find options. Don’t wait.
  • Remission: You feel back to normal. Remission implies that there could be a relapse.
• Just knowing that relapse can occur puts you ahead of the game. If it does happen, it can be disheartening but you will be well again. No, it’s not easy to hang onto hope but you’ve gotten better before and you will again.
• Identify the early warning signs of not doing well. Don’t wait. Take action. Hope is generally a good thing but when you use hope as a form of denial – to delay facing facts, it stops being helpful and starts being dangerous.
• Enlist trusted friends and family in your relapse prevention plan – you may not be your own best observer but family and friends have seen you when you are well, when you start to slide, and at your worst. They know what to look for and will tell you – because you have informed them that your wellness journey is now at the point where you will listen to their feedback and act on it.
• Keep working on your support strategies. After all, they are just plain good for you. Who wants to argue with maintaining mental and physical health?
• Maintain contact with your physician and psychiatrist, for regular wellness checks.
• If you have included peer support in your personal wellness strategy, stay engaged with your group or other peers.
• Do not discontinue your medication unless on medical advice. One of the pitfalls of the joy of achieving wellness is feeling like you don’t need medication anymore. You begin to feel that it’s over and done with – when it may not be at all. Never discontinue medication suddenly, even when you get the go-ahead from your medical supports. Your body has become used to it and will react in what is called a rebound effect. Taper off slowly as rebound is serious and can tip you right back into having symptoms.