Relapse prevention: Maintenance strategies in the treatment of addictive behaviors

The legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker once said of drugs, ‘They can get it out of your blood,but they can’t get it out of your mind. ’ Many people believe this to be true and portray the drug experience as if the user is possessed by demons and on automatic pilot without a will of their own.The twelve chapters in this book go a long way in dispelling these notions about drugs and other behaviours. The techniques of relapse prevention outlined in this book are based on what has been found to work in the substance use field. Here, however, the utility of these approaches is being extended into the treatment of other behav-iours. At first sight these behaviours do not seem to have much in common. Excessive alcohol use, illicit drug use, eating disorders, gambling and sexual activity are all covered. Yet they all stem from different motivations, different emotional and situational cues, different social circumstances and different psychological processes. What these behaviours do share is that they often attract public disapprobation and all carry a risk of being harmful to the indi-vidual and harmful to others. Those who have these behaviours also often clai