There are many, many, literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of ways to prevent a relapse.

Everything from putting yourself in a residential treatment center, to locking yourself up in a closet (not to be funny), or surrounding yourself with a community.

Let's say that this is you and you're afraid that you're relapsing; well, put yourself in a community, put the community around you, your husband or wife or support group. That's one way of preventing relapse.

Other ways are seeking insight, tools, techniques, and strategies to keep going on your recovery and create less likelihood that you'll relapse.

There are medications available to help prevent relapse, meaning that they mitigate some anxieties and depressions that may trigger a relapse.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of ways that relapse can be prevented - but on the other side, relapse is normal. There are very few people I've ever met that haven't relapsed at least once or twice or more.

It is my position that relapse should be, not necessarily encouraged, but actually relapse is the juncture where the most important information is found and relapse can be very, very helpful in helping you sustain a long-term progress, because you've leaned what it is that causes you to fall back on your negative behavior and you learn it only during the relapse.