Relapse: Where to Start — Diagnosis First, Prevention Second

When a relapse happens, it's tempting to immediately search for causes "in your head" through talk, theories, and intellectualization. But Dr. Saulitis insists the first step is different. First you must understand the state your brain and body are in — and only then build prevention.

First the Cast, Then the Training

Prevention and training are good. But if "your leg is broken," you first need a cast. After a relapse, priority number one is restoring homeostasis: sometimes that requires medication to quiet the thoughts and spiraling and to stabilize the state. Only then does moving forward make sense.

"Prevention is very good, training is very good, but if your leg is broken, you first need a cast."

Without Stating the Fact, Treatment Is Useless

The key practical principle: until you understand what is happening to you, any approach is off the mark. On the surface, different causes can look the same — burnout, attention deficit, age, or stress can produce a similar picture. But you must act on the cause, not on the outward sign.

"Without stating the fact of what is happening to you, what state your health, your neurons, your body are in — going to treat something is absolutely pointless."

A Specialist Doctor Makes the Diagnosis

To understand your state, you need a diagnosis, and a diagnosis is always made by a specialist doctor. Today specialists work in teams, but stating the fact — what's happening with the neurons and the body, how the brain works and why it works that way — cannot happen without psychiatry. A psychologist influences behavior and thinking, and an informational phenomenon really does cause changes in neurons, synapses, and neuroplasticity. But if you can't see the state the brain is in, you have no idea what you're doing to it — whether to "warm it or cool it."

Understand Why the Brain Behaves This Way

The brain's reaction depends on many things: how the neurons work (genetics), how the environment acts on them (epigenetics), what learning and states there were, and how healthy the surrounding environment is. Under stress, tired, overloaded by too many stimuli in too short a time, the brain can't process everything — and then characteristic reactions and syndromes switch on. Understanding this mechanism is the substance of the first step.

Practice: First Steps After a Relapse

1. Acknowledge the fact: stating your condition comes before talk and theories — that is relapse prevention.
2. Restore the basics: check whether you've slept, rested, and met core needs — the brain needs homeostasis.
3. See a specialist doctor for a diagnosis: until you understand what's happening, "blind" treatment is useless.
4. Target the cause, not the outward sign: the same picture (fatigue, anxiety, lost focus) can have different sources.
5. Stabilize the acute state if needed — and only then move on to prevention and "training."