A woman and her husband Rolando treat relapse as a learning opportunity, not failure. She uses two tools to process it: taking a photo or video right after to remember how it felt, and writing a 5-6 page journal entry with deep reflections. Both practices help strengthen long-term sobriety.
I knew this and Rolando did too, my husband, that relapse is a big part of success, I think, successful recovery, sustainable recovery. And so we had talked about that because that had been something that you had shared with me. And so it's not that he was great with it, but he had tools in place like I did that not shaming, but also not— also being crystal clear and accountable to what he wanted me to be doing. And the end result was there, the great tool that you have, you had me do was take a picture and a video of myself at the end of the experience. So I could see and remember how horrible it was. That was also a big game changer for me. I still have that on my phone now. And I also sat down and I wrote about 5 or 6 pages in my journal and it was like, it probably should be like christened somewhere because it was some of the best thoughts I'd ever had.
