Chaser effect
Also called the chaser
- Basis
- A practice
- Last updated
- Updated
The chaser effect is the name people in recovery communities give to a pattern many report: the strongest urges arrive not after a long stretch of abstinence but in the day or two after a slip. It is not a clinical term and its mechanism is not settled. The practical rule stands regardless: treat the day after a slip as a high-alert day and prepare for it like day one.