Addiction Relapse- Damage Control

So I was doing a virtual consultation with someone concerned about an addicted loved one this week, and they said to me that their loved one had recently had a relapse but keeps minimizing it. And I said, well, that's actually kind of a good thing, because, honestly, when someone has relapse, that's the first thing I try to do is I try to minimize it. I try to tell them, hey, this is a blip on the screen. We don't have to go all the way back. I'm so glad you're in here and that you're talking about it. Now, we can contain it, because the whole point here is to contain it. I know as a family member, you want to be like, oh, my gosh, in the world, like, why did this happen? And you want to make this huge deal out of it. But in the person's mind, if they feel like they've just screwed it up so bad, that's just another reason that they might justify continuing in the relapse. So the first line of defense is containment. Now, there are several ways you can do this, but the key here is don't make it seem like the end of the world. Help the person see that they can get right back on track and that this whole thing doesn't have to keep going until they hit some sort of bottom.