A short YouTube talk by Amber Hollingsworth explaining why many people relapse after leaving rehab, emphasizing that transitions are high-risk moments. She recommends concrete, pre-planned aftercare steps (scheduled appointments, structured accountability like drug screening or Soberlink, and clear alignment with family/work expectations) to reduce relapse risk, and points viewers to links and related videos in the description.
Chapters
You go to rehab, you spend a ton of time and even more money to get your addiction to drugs and alcohol under control. So why is it that so many people fall through the cracks and go right back out to using as soon as they leave rehab? Because you've worked way too hard to get this thing under control to have to start all over again. I do not want that for you. For those of you who are new here, welcome to put the shovel down. I'm Amber Hollingsworth, and this YouTube channel is all about helping you understand, understand the science and psychology of addiction so you can get your family and your life back on track. Get back out there and live the life that you want to live. If you want to be back in control of your life, subscribe to this channel and I'll make sure you are always five steps ahead of addiction. And don't forget, hit the little bell if you want access to the bonus episodes. Now let's take a look at some of the really common reasons why people fall through the cracks after leaving drug and alcohol program. Sometimes people fall through the cracks right after leaving it because, like, the whole time they were in there or part of the time they were in there, they were literally counting down days, planning and waiting to go use. Now, if this is what you're doing, you've already made your mind up to do that, so it's really difficult to stop. I'm not even talking to those people. I'm talking to the people who actually want to stay sober. They want to keep on the right track because they've worked so hard already. You know, they've worked really hard and they're tired and they're ready for a break. So all they can think about is just like, getting home, relaxing for a little bit. But this is not the time to let your guard down with your recovery because most people that fail, this is when they're going to fail. It's in the transitions where people fall through the cracks. And I don't want that to happen to you. So as hard as it is, when you leave treatment, I want you to hit the ground running with your after care program. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean, before you ever leave, I want you to have these things lined up more than just like on your little relapse prevention plan. Right now. I'm gonna go to some meetings or something. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about have appointments, have them scheduled for the day you leave and the day after and the day after. Whatever it is that you're gonna do. Now, different people work different programs. Some people go into an IOP program, some people go into sober living, some people go and have an aftercare counselor, other people do go to 12 step meetings or they get a sponsor or whatever it was, go ahead and make those appointments and, and if at all possible, another thing that you can have set up before you ever leave treatment is you can have your system for accountability set up. Now, what does that look like? That can look like recovery monitoring systems. If you're a professional recovery, like if you're like a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, like you have a license of some sort, you can set up recovery monitoring program. You can set up with your family or with some outside agency to do regular drug and alcohol screening. Or if the problem is alcohol, you can, you can choose to go ahead and arrange and have it already set up. A soberlink device. Have you heard me talk about soberlink? If you've watched a lot of my videos, you might have because soberlink is a sponsor of this channel. But more importantly than that, because I love soberlink, Seriously. I have been using soberlink for years and years and years and it is one of my top recommendations for anyone trying to stop drinking. What soberlink is, it's just like a high tech breathalyzing device where you and your support system, you come up with a schedule of when you're going to be tested, usually like three times a day. And you can decide a schedule that works for you. Usually you're going to want to test in the morning, somewhere in the middle and before bed at night. And don't worry, you won't forget because you get a text message from the soberlink system that just says, hey, heads up, you got a test in 15 minutes or whatever. And don't freak out because you have longer than 15 minutes. You actually have an hour from your test time. If you'll set up soberlink and have that going before you even get home from treatment, your chances of success are going to skyrocket because once you get the soberlink hooked up, you're not going to drink because you know you're going to get caught if you do and it like takes it off the table as an option. Now, I'll put the links to soberlink in the description below. If your issue is not alcohol, but, but it's drugs. On the other hand, there are other ways of screening. We mentioned drug screens before. We mentioned other recovery monitoring programs. There's also something out there called a drug patch, which is kind of like this big band aid you put on yourself and it's like 247 monitoring through your sweat. So there are definitely ways to do this accountability thing. Now, the other big thing I want you to do to make sure you do not have a relapse and you don't have to start over is I want you to make sure that you are in alignment with the people around you about what's going to happen when you get home. That could be family, that could be work, that could be friends. If you go ahead and set the stage properly, you're going to save yourself a lot of stress and fighting and arguments, which is the other big thing that leads people to relapse. If you know you're only going to go to three meetings a week because that's what you've decided is best for you, but your family thinks you're going to go to a meeting every day and you kind of went along with it because you just didn't want to start anything because you want to leave treatment when you really need to focus on make sure your recovery is solid and steady those first few weeks. Because if you'll get in that rhythm immediately and you'll stay in that rhythm, it's just easy because you're already in that rhythm and you can keep it going. Now, up next, I want you to watch this video about different kinds of aftercare options, because that'll definitely help you sort through what's helpful and maybe what's not so helpful. And as always, there are more resources in the description, including the Sober Link link.
