RELAPSE PREVENTION PLAN WORKSHEET



RELAPSE PREVENTION PLAN WORKSHEETON ANGERThis worksheet will help you examine your past behavior and how anger has affected your life. Then it will help you identify concrete steps to help you stay in control of your anger. The goal is to create a relapse prevention plan that will help you realize when you may be slipping back into bad habits and help you think of better ways to respond. It is important to have a relapse prevention plan when you go before the Board – but you should not rely on this alone. You need to read, reflect, and seek out programs or correspondence courses to help understand and address your anger. A) Triggers of AngerFirst, you must identify situations that triggered your anger. Triggers are situations or conditions in your past that led to your anger.To determine your triggers, it is helpful to think about your life before your anger became out of control. Write a history of your life leading up to your uncontrollable anger.Now, think about a situation that made you extremely angry. You may have experienced this situation many times, and you probably let your anger get out of control. Write a history of your life when you could not control your anger. Looking at your life, think of 5 situations or conditions that led to you losing your ability to control your anger. These are your “triggers” – make a list of them and explain each one.When did you decide to stop letting your anger control you? How did you do it?Examples: Something dramatic happened, and I realized I was out of control.I was sick and tired of being angry.Someone told me that my anger was badI thought, “If I don’t stop, something bad will happen to me.”I thought, “If I stop, certain good things will happen to me.”I joined a program Looking at why you took control of your anger, list 5 reasons why you want to stay in control.What lessons from your past programming did you use to identify your triggers for anger?Warning Signs of a RelapseWarning signs will help you identify whether a relapse is coming. Some common warning signs are:Apprehension About Well-Being: the lack of confidence in your own ability to control your anger. This can happen when you are in an aggravating situation and have difficulty controlling yourself.The Return of Denial: being unable to recognize and tell others what you are thinking and feeling. This can happen when you yourself are not even able to recognize that you are falling back into an aggressive behavior.Defensiveness: defending yourself when talking about your problems. This can happen when you don’t want to accept that you are returning to your former anger.Avoidance: this involves not wanting to believe that anything can cause painful and uncomfortable feelings to come back. You may avoid people or places that will force you to engage in introspection. Crisis building: you feel overwhelmed and unable to handle life. You may feel like every time you deal with a life problem, two more problems appear. This might occur if your parole plans fail or are too stressful.Immobilization: you feel like you are just going through the motions of life and not really engaging with the people around you. You may feel like none of your problems can be solved and instead spend all day day-dreaming.Plans Begin to Fail: you no longer follow through with your plans for healthy living. This can happen when you feel they are too difficult or are tired of the discipline of managing your emotions in a healthy way.Irritation: this involves being quick to lose your temper, and over-reacting to minor slights. This can happen as a result of your own frustration with yourself.Depression: The most common symptoms of depression are irregular sleeping and eating habits, a loss of interests in things that you used to enjoy, lethargy, and a loss of daily structure. You may feel that suicide or that letting your anger take control is the only way to end the depression.Loss of the ability to control behavior: This could manifest as an “I don’t care attitude,” not attending meetings, rejecting offers of help, and missing work/ appointments. You may feel as though being ineffective in your ability to remain in control of your anger means you are an ineffective person.Open Rejection of Help: when the people who care about you reach out and express concern, you reject their help.Being around people who are self-destructive or cannot control their anger: this might be both a warning sign and a cause of relapse. Your parole plans should involve being surrounded by people who handle their emotions in a healthy way.Conscious Lying: you find yourself explaining away the truth of your situation and instead believing lies about yourself.Now list 5 warning signs that you are potentially losing control of your anger.What lessons from your past programming did you use to identify these signs?C) Healthy Coping StrategiesNow that you can identify triggers and warning signs, you need a plan with how to deal with them. Here are some examples: Attend a meetingTalk with your sponsorThink of your daily inventory. What are your priorities? Why are you committed to sobriety?Take 10 seconds to breathe and re-assess the situation.Call a supportive friend.Relax. Engage in a relaxing activity you enjoy.Pray.Look at your list of triggers. If these triggers occur, what are five things you will you do?Look at your list of warning signs. If these warning signs occur, what are five things you will do?What lessons from your past programming did you use to identify these coping strategies?D) Managing RelationshipsList 5 people (with phone numbers) you should associate with to stay on a healthy path away from anger.Describe why you should seek out these healthy relationships.List 5 people (with phone numbers) you can contact if you feel that you are going to relapse.Describe a situation when you would need to reach out to one of these contacts and the steps you will follow to contact that person.What lessons from your past programming did you use to identify and manage these relationships?E) Taking Care of YourselfPart of preventing a relapse is ensuring that you have a balanced life. That means taking care of yourself and meeting all of your physical and emotional needs so you don’t lose control of your emotions and return to unhealthy expressions of anger.Where will you live? Will all of your needs be met?How do you take physical care of yourself? (cooking, working out, etc.)What do you do for relaxation?Is there anything else you will do for yourself so you will be comfortable and not lose control of your anger?Did you develop any of these practices through your programming? Did you learn that you needed or simply liked certain activities through your programming?CONGRATULATIONS!! You have completed the Relapse Prevention Plan worksheet on Anger. You should feel proud of your ability to think about your life and your commitment to controlling your anger. Nice job! ................
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