When it comes to addiction recovery, change doesn’t just happen overnight. While most addicts who seek recovery services experience a sudden “wake up call,” that decision to turn their lives around was actually a long time in coming.
At Duke City Recovery Toolbox in Albuquerque, we teach our participants about the Stages of Change Model to help them understand their recovery process and what to expect along their journey.
The Purpose of Teaching the Stages of Change
While change is the only constant, humans often avoid it. We seek comfort in the “known.” But when what you know is a life of addiction, what is comfortable is not healthy or safe or allowing you to realize your full potential.
Teaching the stages of change model of behavior makes change less foreign, less scary. When you know what to expect, you can move through the behavior change process with more awareness and more confidence. You can prepare for the change and what it will take to make the change stick so that you can prevent relapse into addiction.
What Are the Stages of Change?
The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change breaks the process of changing any behavior into five stages:
- Precontemplation—not aware of or willing to admit to a problem
- Contemplation—recognizing a problem and entertaining the possibility of change
- Preparation—getting ready to change
- Action—making the actual behavior change and practicing the new behavior
- Maintenance—maintaining your commitment to the new behavior
Some models include relapse as a sixth stage, acknowledging that falling back onto old behaviors and patterns is likely, but it does not end the recovery or change process—it’s just part of it.
The Progress One Call Can Make
With one call to Duke City Recovery Toolbox, you can move from the contemplation stage of change to preparation and action! When you contact us, we will try our best to schedule an intake appointment as soon as possible. When you show up to your intake appointment, you get treatment that day! That’s a lot of progress…and we’re going to be here to support you through the rest of the process.
