What are high-risk situations a behavioral addict should avoid?
There are many high-risk situations when you are recovering. But, this is an extraordinarily important point: in the disease model, in the twelve-step model, there is a belief that all high-risk situations should be avoided. Let's say there was, you were trying to recover from alcohol or something like that, and there was a big party this weekend. You would probably be advised not to attend, because that's a high-risk situation, or after work, at a bar. But in the harm-reduction, or the cognitive-behavioral approach, or the approach I sort of advocate, the belief is that those high-risk situations have to be actually reintegrated into your life. The ideal goal is maybe not the first week, or the first month, maybe, to involve yourself in these high-risk situations, but ultimately, you must be able to go into a bar or a situation that was a historical trigger, and find yourself not engaging in the destructive behavior. If you don't go into the high-risk situation and come out the other side without engaging, you are at great danger that at some time back in or at some point in the future, you're going to find yourself in the situation, and have no way of coping with it. If you, on the other hand, go into the situation now, and with the intent of not engaging in the destructive behavior, you are neutralizing the intensity and the fear that will be brought up. You are acquiring new skills of communication, of socialization, or whatever the event might involve.
