Sometimes in Al-Anon, we refer to slips, in analogy to slips in AA. The examples might be leaking a bit of negative emotion, making an uninvited suggestion, etc.
But there are graver slips.
This is how they work.
Gradually I withdraw from God, and go back and worship the tin-pot god of negative thinking. Grumbling, cynicism, fretting, gloom. I do this until I'm physically sick, acting out in unseemly ways, and treating everyone around me poorly. All this is accompanied by distorted thinking, victimhood, and other manifestations. It seems to have to run its course until I literally cannot stand it any more, and then I seek help.
What's the answer? Get back on the horse. Start taking all of the usual actions, and within a few days everything starts to calm down again.
After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to ... again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.