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Part of the Relapse Prevention Workbook for Chemically Dependent Criminal Offenders

Exercise No. 3: Alcohol/Drug/Legal Calendar

Purpose. This exercise will help you to examine your past and how things have gone for you. By doing this exercise, you will begin to understand how your alcohol or drug use and legal problems are related.

Instructions. Write a history of your problems with the law, alcohol, and drugs. Include all the times you went to jail, were arrested, and went into treatment, the times when you were clean and sober, and the times you relapsed. Complete a month-by-month calendar of your alcohol/drug/legal activities. (A sample calendar appears in the hard copy of this TAP.)

Do this by writing in the year you first got into trouble with the law or began to use alcohol and drugs on a regular basis. Make a wavy line through the middle of each month that you used alcohol and/or drugs. Write the name of the drug you usually used during that time under the line. Draw a straight line where you weren't using any alcohol or drugs. Write in the name of any treatment centers or jails you were in under either line and put a line up and down to show the beginning and the end of that time. Above the line for each period you weren't using, write a word that reminds you of that time. Do the same for any period you were using. Write in parentheses the things you used to help you abstain from alcohol/drugs. Write this information in each line for every year up to and including the present. Make additional copies of the calendar if necessary.