Will everyone have a relapse as they recover under the 12 step program?
Depending on how you define relapse, I can't say that everyone will. I will say that relapse is common in this disease, because we we're talking about the brain chemistry and the emotional states that we go through. There's no way that we can avoid having emotional ups and downs. There is a place where we can become much more okay with the ups and downs. But that's going to be a learned behavior over time, or an experience over time. And I would say that avoiding relapse is not so much the issue as maintaining your integrity, maintaining your honesty. If you relapse, don't beat yourself up. It's about your life. It's about the quality of your life. And it's about the precious moments of your life that you have. Ultimately, you're going to make the decision of what's going to be the level of quality in your life. Whether you decide to go back to being an addict again, or whether you decide that because of all of the other consequences, you truly want to commit yourself to a life of recovery. It's ultimately going to be up to you. It's up to the individual.
