01
Five steps for the almost-slip
Name it out loud. Move your body. Call your person — not text. Get to a meeting if you can. Write down what happened, after. Memorize the first three. Have all five on a card you carry.
Aftercare course Session 17
Build the card on a calm day.
The five-step almost-slip protocol. The five-step already-happened protocol. The card you carry — names, numbers, meeting addresses, hotlines — for the night your front brain is offline.
What you'll learn
Three things to take with you.
02
Five steps for the slip-already-happened
Stop, as soon as you can. Tell one person, immediately. Get safe — especially if there is medical risk. Get back into structure, hard. No moral interpretation, yet. The secret is what kills you, not the slip.
03
Build the card with another person
Five names with numbers. Two hotlines — SAMHSA 1-800-662-HELP and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. One in-person meeting. One online meeting. Walk it through with your sponsor or coach. A crisis plan held privately is fragile. A plan another person has signed off on is sturdy.
What happens in your brain when you're in trouble
When the front of your brain goes offline, default takes over. Give it a different default, in writing.
When your nervous system is in crisis, the front of your brain goes offline. The part of you that can reason, weigh options, remember what you've learned — that part gets quiet. What stays online is the part that reacts. Habits. Defaults. Whatever is closest to hand.
If you have not built a plan in advance, your default in a crisis will be whatever your default has been for the last ten years. And your default for the last ten years has been the substance.
So we are going to give you a different default. We are going to put the new default on a piece of paper, in writing, with phone numbers, where you cannot lose it. The card you build this week is one you will carry, in some form, for the rest of your life. The names will change. The numbers will change. The card will not.
Your worksheet
Build the crisis card. Tell the five people they're on it. Walk it through with your sponsor.
The single most operational deliverable in the course. Ten minutes now buys you the night you cannot think.
Session 17 · Worksheet
Build the card on a calm day.
Ten quiet minutes. Answers save on this device as you type — no account, no upload.
Three reflection prompts for the week
Pick one. Or all three. Or none. Your call.
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For the card
Get an index card or pin a note in your phone. Write the first three almost-slip steps (Name it. Move. Call.), five names and numbers, the SAMHSA helpline 1-800-662-HELP and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, one in-person meeting and one online meeting, and the first three slip-already-happened steps (Stop. Tell one person. Get safe.). Read the card out loud. Put it where you'll see it.
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For the people
Reach out to each of the five and say: I am building my crisis plan. You are one of five people on it. If you ever get a call from me at a strange hour, I want you to know what it means and that I'd want you to pick up. Are you okay being on this list? Replace anyone who can't say yes.
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For the walkthrough
This week, walk your sponsor or coach through the card line by line. Let them poke holes. Let them suggest improvements. Once that conversation has happened, your plan is operational.
Up next
Session 18 · What to Do If You Relapse
If something happens — what then? The longer way back. Slip versus relapse, the protocol for each, and the inner work of metabolizing the shame instead of letting it become its own relapse.
Continue to session 18
If this brought up more than it answered
A CVR coach can sit with you on that.
CVR recovery coaches work with one client at a time. Private, one-on-one, no scripts. If you want to talk to someone, we can usually get back to you within a few hours.