• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FHE Health - Addiction & Mental Health Care Homepage

Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Treatment

ContactCareers

Call for Immediate Help (833) 596-3502

MENUMENU
  • About
        • About FHE Rehab
          • About FHE Health
          • Our Staff
          • Locations We Serve
          • Testimonials
        • Our Campus
          • Gallery
          • Our Videos
          • The Health and Wellness Center at FHE Health
        • Our Locations
          • Alcohol Rehab
          • Detox Center
          • Drug Rehab
          • Mental Health Center
          • Outpatient Rehab
        • Careers at FHE Health
          • Employment Opportunities
        • Our Expertise
          • Accreditations
          • Educational Opportunities
          • Community Impact Award
          • First Responder Families Podcast
          • First Responder Paws
          • Education Scholarship
  • Addiction
        • Treatment Programs
          • Treatment Program Overview
          • Alcohol Addiction
          • Drug Addiction Treatment
          • Behavioral Addiction
        • Levels of Care
          • Continuum of Care
          • Addiction Detox
          • Inpatient Addiction Treatment
          • Outpatient Addiction Treatment
        • What We Treat
          • Alcoholism
          • Amphetamines
          • Benzodiazepines
          • Cocaine
          • Heroin
          • Opioids
          • Sedative
  • Mental Health
        • Mental Health Rehab
          • Mental Health Rehab
          • Onsite Psychiatric Care
          • Dual Diagnosis
        • Levels of Care
          • Residential Mental Health Care
          • Outpatient Mental Health Care
        • What We Treat
          • ADD & ADHD
          • Anxiety Disorders
          • Bipolar Disorder
          • Depression
          • Eating Disorders
          • Personality Disorders
          • PTSD
          • Schizophrenia
          • Substance Use Disorder
          • Trauma
  • Programs
        • FHE Programs
          • Specialty Program Overview
          • Restore (Mental Health)
          • Empower! (Women's Program)
          • Shatterproof FHE Health(First Responders)
          • Compass Program
        • Support Programs
          • Alumni
          • Family Support
        • Therapies
          • Acupuncture
          • Breathwork Therapy
          • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
          • DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
          • EMDR Therapy
          • Expressive Arts Therapy
          • Individual Therapy
          • Group Therapy
          • Gambling Therapy
          • Massage
        • Medical Care
          • Medical Integration
          • Ketamine Infusion
          • IV Vitamin
          • Fitness & Nutrition
          • Medication-Assisted Treatment
          • Medication Management
        • NeuroRehab Services
          • Neuro Rehabilitation
          • Neurofeedback Training
          • Neurostimulation Therapy
          • EEG Brain Mapping
          • Insomnia Treatment for PTSD
  • Resources
        • FHE Guides
          • Understanding Drug Abuse
          • Signs of Addiction
          • The Disease of Addiction
          • Confronting Addiction
          • Staging an Intervention
          • Rehab Success Rate – Does It Really Work?
          • Withdrawal Timelines
          • Life After Rehab
          • LGBTQ+ Community Resources
          • Veteran Resources
          • FHE Podcasts
          • Remote Resources Toolkit
        • Learning Center
          • Help for You
          • Help For Loved Ones
          • Help For Alcoholism
          • Help With Substance Abuse
          • Behavioral & Mental Health
          • Life in Recovery
          • Rehab Explained
          • Addiction Statistics
          • Our Research Articles
          • View All Articles
        • The Experience Blog
          • Addiction News
          • Alumni
          • Community Events
          • Expert Opinions
          • FHE Commentary
          • FHE News
          • Treatment Legislation
          • View All Articles
  • Admissions
        • Insurance
          • Blue Cross Insurance
          • Beacon Health / Value Options Insurance
          • Cigna Insurance
          • Humana Insurance
          • TRICARE Insurance
        • Admissions
          • Steps to Addiction Help
          • Will Insurance Cover Behavioral Treatment?
          • Self-Pay Rehab
        • FAQ
          • Keeping Your Job in Rehab
          • Example Day in Rehab
        • Contact Admissions
          • Contact Us
          • Secure Payment Form
  • Contact
  •  
Home > Featured in Experts > What Are the Most Common Struggles in Early Recovery?

October 24, 2020 By Kristina Robb-Dover

What Are the Most Common Struggles in Early Recovery?

Early Recovery Struggles: Unveiling the Most Common Challenges

This article has been reviewed for accuracy by our peer review team which includes clinicians and medical professionals. Learn more about our peer review process.

Rates of relapse in early recovery from drug and alcohol addiction are quite high nationwide: 40-60 percent, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has said. (That percentage is similar to those for other chronic diseases.) But why?

For answers, we turned to Art Jacob, who is the director of our Sober Skills program. Jacob has lots of experience—both personal and professional—with the most common struggles that can contribute to relapse and ways to address these core issues of addiction. For more than 20 years, he has been helping people in early recovery achieve long-term sobriety.

Those efforts are working. Eight out of ten clients in Sober Skills are successfully sober at any time, meaning that clients in the program are achieving much lower rates of relapse (closer to 20 percent) than the national average of 40-60 percent.

Which begs a question: If high relapse rates are an indication of the challenges people face in early recovery, what’s the working solution for a vast majority of Sober Skills clients? With Jacob as our guide, we took a closer look….

Biggest Challenges in Early Recovery from Addiction

On the subject of the biggest challenges in early recovery from addiction, Jacob pointed to several things:

“Getting Distracted”

“The biggest obstacle is getting distracted with life,” Jacob said. “The new job becomes more important than going to meetings; the wife and the kids become more important than meeting with your sponsor; the client has been away at treatment for 40 days and he has kids and responsibilities and the wife misses him.”

An Inability “to Make Recovery the Priority”

While this challenge can often be a function of distraction, it can also be its problem. When life’s many commitments and other priorities pile up, it can be tough logistically and psychologically to prioritize recovery.

The acronym that Jacob uses to describe this phenomenon is “SLIP,” for “Sobriety Lost Its Priority.” While this challenge can occur for anyone in early recovery, Jacob said he sees it most commonly affect young adult clients who haven’t yet had to be independent in life. Those most vulnerable to SLIP are often those who have not had to “have a job … Mom and Dad have been covering everything, so the client has been relying on them to clean and cook and provide shelter.”

Jacob went on to share that “a lot of times we have these younger clients who are recommended for sober living and are like a deer in the headlights … They don’t know what it’s like to pay their rent, and if they go home [after treatment] there’s a tendency to revert to old ways and the parents taking care of everything … But that’s not healthy or good for sobriety.”

Stress

“It’s a huge contributor to relapse: the inability to handle stress—we self-medicate,” Jacob said. In these instances, alcohol “is not the problem; it’s the addict’s solution.” Jacob explained:

The client goes home. He’s got the family, the kids, the job, and no defense against the first drink because he’s powerless. Life becomes very stressful and we come apart.

Stress can dredge up painful and difficult emotions. “I’m restless and full of discontent, fear, depression, anxiety, boredom, etc.,” Jacob said. “Alcohol or drugs is the solution to these problems.”

And because “the mind is where the disease centers,” it’s the mind that “permits us after 40 days in treatment to think, ‘This is stressful. I’m uncomfortable. I can have a drink just to take away the stress.’”

Hidden Resentments

A common example is the person who gets into a relationship early on in their recovery. When they break up, those resentments in the form of anger and hurt feelings boil over, triggering a relapse.

Untreated Co-Occurring/Substitute Addictions

Jacob said sometimes people in early recovery will develop substitute addictions (food, shopping, workaholism, etc.) that essentially allow them to avoid dealing with the root issues of addiction.

The Biggest Reason People Relapse in Response to These Challenges

While many people relapse in response to these common challenges, some manage not to. The defining difference that makes or breaks sobriety is whether the person in recovery knows what their real problem is and has an effective solution for it.

Only with a clear-eyed understanding of the problem and its solution can a person stay on the path of recovery, a process that Jacob likened to walking up a downward-moving escalator. He said he had probably talked to 1000 people in early recovery, many of whom had been to rehab multiple times, and had asked them to define their problem. Rarely, though, did he hear the right answer—and yet, “If they don’t know what their problem is, how are they going to fix it?” he reasoned.

What, then, is the problem that explains why many people relapse when confronted with challenges in early recovery? The problem is a spiritual one, Jacob said, and it’s an addicted person’s “powerlessness” over alcohol or drugs, as the first step of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous puts it.

Step 1 entails admitting you’re powerless over drugs and alcohol. Jacob explained it as a surrender and acceptance of one’s powerlessness that has to occur for recovery to stick.

“It’s the only step you have to get perfect.” In starker terms, as the further definition of what it means to be “powerless”: “The first step means you’ll use until the day you die.”

The Solution to the Problem of Powerlessness Over Drugs/Alcohol

Like the problem, the solution is spiritual, according to Jacob. He said, “I’m powerless until I’m in a relationship with my Higher Power.” The 12 Steps pave the way to getting there and experiencing a true spiritual transformation from the inside out. Long-term sobriety is a byproduct of this transformative process that starts and ends with humble acceptance of one’s powerlessness.

12-step support groups can also offer a critical lifeline in times of stress. Jacob said that a “fellowship helps me deal with whatever life throws at me; if I’m going through a divorce, maybe someone in the room has gone through it; if I need new tires, somebody has gone through it.”

The wealth of support and resources in the room is a powerful reminder that you’re not alone in your struggles.

How FHE Can Help

Even so, it’s not uncommon for people who have just completed a program of treatment to quickly get overwhelmed by the demands of life in the real world. The temptation can then be to give up on recovery and believe it’s too hard. Jacob offered the following advice for people who find themselves in this place of discouragement: Consider joining a program like Sober Skills.

Jacob explained that people coming out of treatment actually “need more structure rather than less,” (so if you’re struggling after rehab in the absence of a daily structure, it just means you’re like a lot of people). Sober Skills “bridges the gap between treatment and a halfway house or your home.” In the meantime, the program:

  • introduces clients to what their problem is (powerlessness)
  • gives them a spiritual solution, by taking them through the 12-step process
  • teaches them important life skills to help them navigate life challenges
  • provides them with a daily structure and routine to help them stay sober—that they can replicate after finishing the program

Programs like Sober Skills are “Ideal for chronic relapse or the client who feels overwhelmed and needs more structure.” And, when eight out of 10 former Sober Skills clients are now in successful long-term recovery, the odds of succeeding in recovery are better than the odds of failing.

Are you struggling in recovery and tempted to drink or use again? Call us first. Our Sober Skills program has helped many people in the same shoes. We can also help you.

Filed Under: Featured in Experts, Expert Columns

More Questions about Treatment?

More Questions about Treatment?

We offer 100% confidential and individualized treatment

Contact Us

About Kristina Robb-Dover

Kristina Robb-Dover is a content manager and writer with extensive editing and writing experience... read more

Primary Sidebar

The Experience Blog

  • Addiction News
  • Alumni
  • Community Events
  • Expert Columns
  • FHE Commentary
  • FHE News
  • Treatment Legislation
  • All Articles

Sign up for the Blog

Our Facilities

Take a look at our state of the art treatment center.

View Our Gallery

Learning Center

  • Help for You
  • Help For Loved Ones
  • Help For Alcoholism
  • Help With Substance Abuse
  • Behavioral & Mental Health
  • Life in Recovery
  • Rehab Explained
  • All Articles
Contact Us
  • Call Now:
  • Best Time to Call:

Footer

FHE Health

© 2025 FHE Health

505 S Federal Hwy #2,
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33441
1-833-596-3502
youtube facebook instagram linkedin twitter
  • Contact
  • Careers at FHE Health
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
A+ BBB and Top Places to Work - Sun Sentinel

Copyright © 2025 · FHE Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.

If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at marketing@fhehealth.com.

833-596-3502

Text/Call Me