The difference between relapsing and "lapsing," according to addiction experts

Many recovering drug addicts have a recurring nightmare: You wake up one morning and suddenly all of the work you have put into staying sober is gone. "If a person is abstaining from alcohol, and they're choosing to abstain, and they have an episode where they drink some amount, that's usually considered a 'lapse.'" "If a person is abstaining from alcohol, and they're choosing to abstain, and they have an episode where they drink some amount, that's usually considered a 'lapse,'" Leonard told Salon. "One thing is clear: Addictions set up long-term changes in the brain that promote drug-seeking behavior," explains Dr. Steve Maren, who studies how highly valence memories are suppressed, and how individuals relapse, at Texas A & M. "There are important psychological variables that interact with those brain changes. "It is often said that when a person relapses, the act of taking the drug or the drink is the final manifestation of the breakdown in their recovery process," Grinspoon explains.