Relapse Prevention Plan Worksheet: Map Your Triggers and Coping Skills
A relapse prevention plan organizes your triggers, warning signs, coping skills, and support contacts. This free worksheet helps you prepare practical steps for cravings or a return to use.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
About this tool
A relapse prevention plan is a written guide to your triggers, warning signs, coping actions, and support contacts. This Relapse Prevention Plan Worksheet helps you decide what to do when cravings rise or substance use resumes. It draws on Alan Marlatt's relapse prevention model, which treats a return to use as a process influenced by context, coping, and responses to setbacks. Recognizing a familiar warning sign gives you a reason to use your plan and seek support.
Relapse can involve emotional changes, such as stress, isolation, or poor self-care, before a conscious thought of using. Ambivalence, cravings, and bargaining may also appear before actual use. Emotional, mental, and physical stages can be a useful teaching framework, although people do not always experience them in a predictable order. A good plan maps your own patterns so you can respond to signs that matter for you. Feeling stressed alone does not establish that a relapse will happen.
It is just as important to plan for a slip, because interpreting a lapse as personal failure can add guilt and discourage further effort, a reaction described in Marlatt's abstinence violation effect. A lapse deserves a prompt response and compassionate review of what happened; it does not erase the work you have already done. Your plan should include a calm, prepared response: what you will do, who you will call, and what you will tell yourself, so that one hard moment does not become many.
A finished plan is only useful if you can get to it fast, so keep the PDF somewhere reachable, a phone note, a wallet card, or taped inside a cabinet, not buried in a folder you would have to search for under stress. Choose a regular review point with your care team, and revisit it after any close call or return to use: triggers and warning signs shift as your life changes, and a plan written before a move, relationship change, or change in treatment may miss what is going on for you right now.
If you find yourself hitting warning signs repeatedly despite following your plan, or if cravings feel bigger than the coping skills you have listed can handle, that is a sign to bring the plan to a counselor, sponsor, or addiction therapist alongside your own revisions. They can help you build in additional structure, such as more frequent support meetings or a higher level of care, and the SAMHSA National Helpline provides treatment referrals and information for people seeking services. The Psychology.com therapist directory can help you look for an addiction therapist to review the plan with you.
Hendershot and colleagues reviewed relapse prevention research in Relapse prevention for addictive behaviors. They found support for the approach while noting that it is often included within broader treatment programs, making its separate contribution difficult to evaluate. Evidence for clinician-delivered relapse prevention does not establish that completing this worksheet alone prevents relapse. Bring the finished plan to your treatment appointments so it can fit the care you are already receiving.
Make the plan usable in the situation where you expect to need it. For example, replace a vague reminder to get support with the name of a person you have agreed to call and a backup contact. Consider how you will leave a gathering, get home safely, or reach help outside appointment hours. The Identifying Triggers Worksheet and Coping with Cravings Worksheet can help you fill in missing details. Addiction Recovery Worksheets offers related exercises. The Drug Addiction Test is a screening resource for discussing concerns, not a diagnosis or a forecast of relapse.
A worksheet cannot manage overdose or dangerous withdrawal. If someone may be overdosing, call emergency services and give naloxone if an opioid overdose is suspected and it is available. Follow the emergency dispatcher's instructions. Heavy, prolonged alcohol use can make abrupt withdrawal life-threatening; seek medical advice when planning to stop. Include your clinician's instructions in the emergency part of the plan so an attempt to get back on track also accounts for medical safety.
References
- Marlatt GA, Donovan DM. Relapse Prevention: Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors. 2nd ed. Guilford Press; 2005.
- Witkiewitz K, Marlatt GA. Relapse prevention for alcohol and drug problems. Am Psychol. 2004;59(4):224-235.
- Gorski TT, Miller M. Staying Sober: A Guide for Relapse Prevention. Herald House; 1986.
- Hendershot, C. S., Witkiewitz, K., George, W. H., & Marlatt, G. A. Relapse prevention for addictive behaviors. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1747-597X-6-17
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. National Helpline. https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/helplines/national-helpline
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What to Do If You Think Someone Is Overdosing. https://www.cdc.gov/stop-overdose/response/index.html
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Understanding Alcohol Use Disorder. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/understanding-alcohol-use-disorder
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 16). Relapse Prevention Plan Worksheet. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tools/relapse-prevention-plan
Relapse Prevention Plan Worksheet FAQ
What is a relapse prevention plan?
A personalized roadmap that gathers your triggers, early warning signs, coping skills, support people, and an emergency plan in one place, so you know what to do when risk rises. It is a practical planning exercise to review with your care team, and it cannot predict whether you will return to use.
What are warning signs of relapse?
Often emotional and behavioral changes that appear before any use: isolating, skipping routines and support, poor sleep, rising stress, irritability, and romanticizing using. Spotting them early gives you time to act. These signs are personal and can have other causes. Look for changes in your own pattern and discuss repeated concerns with your care team.
What should I do if I slip?
Get to a safe place and contact your support person or treatment team promptly. A return to use deserves care and a review of what led up to it. If overdose is possible, call emergency services. Seek medical guidance about withdrawal risk rather than assuming that stopping abruptly is safe. Once immediate safety is addressed, update the plan with your care team.
Is my information saved?
No. Everything stays in your browser and nothing is uploaded. The PDF is created on your own device.
How often should I update my relapse prevention plan?
Choose a regular review point with your care team, and update it after any close call or return to use. Your triggers, warning signs, and support network change as your life changes, so a plan written before those changes may no longer match your current needs and available support.
Is a relapse prevention plan the same as a safety plan?
They overlap but focus differently. A relapse prevention plan maps triggers, warning signs, and coping skills specific to substance use, while a safety plan is typically built around suicide risk. If you are at risk of harming yourself, use a safety plan and reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.