Building a Life in Recovery: Aftercare and Relapse Prevention

As it does throughout an individual’s personal history of alcohol use, stigma plays a significant role in one’s experience of recovery. Exploring aspects of stigma can help identify the role and meaning that alcohol has taken in an individual’s life and, thus, what is at stake to be both gained and lost for that person in moving toward recovery. In addition to the practical criteria of symptom remission and heavy drinking cessation, we view recovery as a holistic process of behavioral change and psychological growth toward greater health, wellness, and meaning. This understanding can help guide an effective aftercare plan and the employment of relapse prevention strategies that address the affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiologic/psychiatric dimensions of recovery over time.