Managing Relapse Symptoms: Using the HALT Concept

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What Is H.A.L.T.?

While relapse can seem like it happens in an instant and is out of your control, psychological and physical influences often lead to relapse over time. As triggers happen, your behavior may change, such as putting yourself in riskier situations, making yourself more vulnerable to relapsing.

Changes in mental health symptoms, self-confidence, and motivation for recovery can also contribute to relapse if left unaddressed.

In recovery, you are encouraged to stop, or H.A.L.T., and pay attention to the smaller, everyday triggers that can lead to non-recovery-focused behaviors and potential relapse.

The acronym stands for:

Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired

The H.A.L.T. concept is an addiction relapse prevention tool that helps with recovery. It teaches you to focus on self-care actions and address the relapse symptoms that lead to some of the biggest red flags for relapse.

Hungry

If you feel overwhelmed and are having strong urges to use alcohol, stop and ask yourself if you are hungry. Hunger can refer to two different needs: nutrition and emotional support.

How Food and Nutrition Can Manage Relapse Symptoms

Nutrition is essential in healing the mind and body. Many individuals recovering from substance use disorders have nutritional deficiencies, including eating disorders.

Because substance use sends intense signals to the reward centers of the brain, in recovery, your brain may signal cravings for alcohol when your body actually needs food.Give yourself the time and mental space to determine if you are hungry.

In addition to the potential for mixed signals, you may feel more intense urges related to alcohol withdrawal if you have not eaten recently and your body needs certain nutrients that support chemical balance in the brain.

You can restore equilibrium by eating healthy foods rich in vitamins and minerals that reduce the urge to use alcohol. Specific nutrients that your body may need to reduce relapse symptoms include folate, vitamin A, thiamine, and vitamin B6.

How Meeting Emotional Needs Can Prevent Relapse

If you feel hungry, but you’ve provided your body with adequate nutrients, your “hunger” may be emotional.

While in recovery, you can be hungry for emotional support. You must know how to meet those needs to avoid a relapse. This is where a support system comes in. Support systems can include family, friends, and peers.

Peer support from other people with alcohol addiction can make you feel a sense of belonging, hope, respect, and empowerment. Working with peers in recovery also gives you a chance to give back to others and your community, both of which can satisfy emotional hunger and prevent a relapse.

Angry

According to AA, anger increases your risk of relapse. Your anger may be directed at anything, including the circumstances that led to your addiction, the requirements of your treatment plan, or even yourself; or can even seem like it is not directed at anything specific.

Anger is a natural emotion and a natural part of addiction recovery, but if you do not take the time to work on how you handle it, it can contribute to impulsive, spiteful, or vindictive behaviors that could include using alcohol.

The key to avoiding relapse or other negative behaviors is stopping and understanding your anger before you react. By pausing first, you can discover the correct way to respond.

Anger can appear in many forms, including feelings of:

Hostility
Resentment
Frustration
Irritation

Without the establishment of new coping skills, anger can lead to a return to past coping skills, like using alcohol. AA created a separate worksheet specifically to help members understand and cope with their emotions to avoid relapse.

Ideas used in anger management groups include ways that teach you to take time to H.A.L.T., before reacting in anger, such as:

Implementing an anger meter to assess your level of anger
Seeking social support
Taking a timeout
Using deep breathing to relax

You can also create a plan to help you respond to anger more positively on your own or with the help of your care team.

Your plan will likely look different from someone else’s and may include:

Creative activities like painting
Exercising
Listening to music
Talking to a friend
Journaling

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Lonely

Loneliness is recognized as a significant risk factor for all stages of alcoholism, including as one of the strongest relapse triggers. A lack of social support is the main contributor.

If you feel lonely, take the time to figure out why you feel this way. Is it situational? Has something specific caused a physical separation between you and your social supports? Or is your loneliness more of an internal feeling associated with mental health symptoms like depression, grief, or stress?

Answering these questions can help you better understand how to resolve the feeling of loneliness. Social factors influence recovery from addiction.

Research shows certain social aspects are particularly beneficial in preventing relapse, including:

Bonding and support
Obtaining abstinence-focused role models
Doing service work within a support group like AA

Some steps you may take to overcome loneliness include:

Attending an AA meeting or contacting your AA sponsor
Participating in a sober activity, such as a community sport
Visiting a public social space where you feel comfortable and no alcohol is offered, such as a gym class or a coffee shop
Volunteering
Reaching out to a sober friend or family member

Tired

After a long day of work, after exercising, or after spending significant time in a challenging social setting, you will likely feel tired. These types of exhaustion will typically go away after a good night’s rest. Different types of fatigue can be related to physical or psychological health.

If you feel fatigued over a long period of time, you may be more vulnerable to relapse. Fatigue can reduce your sense of willpower and your connection to the motivations you have for recovery.

Sleep is one of the first and best methods you can use to combat feelings of tiredness. Studies have linked alcohol use disorder relapse directly to sleep disturbances. Researchers call it the sleep-related relapse risk. Sleep disturbances commonly happen during early recovery.

Therefore, it is crucial to recognize when you feel tired and deal with it appropriately to avoid relapsing.

Some interventions for getting better sleep to avoid relapse include the following:

Therapy

Working with a therapist who can teach you relaxation and restorative techniques can benefit your mental and physical health, making you stronger in the fight against relapse.

Therapy can be particularly important for individuals whose alcohol use disorder is related to a history of trauma. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques have been specifically created for those with insomnia.

Pharmacological Medicines

Your primary care doctor or psychiatrist may prescribe medicine to help you sleep, especially in the early stages of your recovery. Prescribed and over-the-counter options are available for temporary use to ease sleep disturbances.

Mindfulness Techniques

Some research indicates success in improving sleep using holistic methods, including:

Tai chi
Meditation or prayer
Mantras or affirmations
Music therapy
Yoga
Relaxation
Massage
Essential oils

The mindfulness methods taught in dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) may also improve sleep quality.

Medical Interventions

If you find yourself unable to determine the cause of your tiredness, manage your feelings of fatigue, or fight extreme fatigue for an extended period, report your symptoms to your doctor. These symptoms may potentially indicate an underlying medical condition.

H.A.L.T. can help you recognize some of the common triggers of relapse. It’s vital to know other predictors of relapse.

Examples include alcohol exposure, spending time in places where you used to use alcohol, sensory cues that remind you of using alcohol, and stress. Because alcohol alters the structure of your brain, any stimuli associated with drinking alcohol can be a trigger you may need to avoid for addiction relapse prevention.

If you are struggling with triggers and need treatment to manage them, get help today by calling 800-948-8417 Sponsored . You don’t need to recover alone!