Recovery and Addiction
What is the term for a strong urge or desire to use a substance?
Craving
True or False: Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can all influence each other.
True!
True or False: People in recovery can still experience triggers even after long periods of sobriety
True
What is the term for using healthy actions or strategies to manage stress instead of substances?
Coping Skills
What is the hardest substance in the human body?
Tooth Enamel
What term describes people, places, emotions, or situations that increase the risk of using substances?
Triggers
What is the term for when someone focuses only on the negative parts of a situation and ignores the positive?
Negative thinking (or negativity bias)
How can this be seen in addiction/recovery
True or False: Someone must “hit rock bottom” before they can recover
False
What coping strategy involves noticing your thoughts and feelings without reacting to them right away?
Mindfulness
Who was the first U.S. President to appear on television?
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to appear on television. He made history on April 30, 1939, when his speech opening the New York World's Fair was broadcast on NBC
What does MAT stand for?
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
It is an FDA-approved medications that assists with substance use disorders, primarily for opioids and alcohol
What is the term for a pattern of negative or inaccurate thinking that affects how a person sees situations?
Cognitive Distortions
Magnification and minimization
Catastrophizing
Overgeneralization
Magical thinking
Personalization
Jumping to conclusions
Mind reading
Fortune telling
Emotional reasoning
Disqualifying the positive
“Should” statements
All-or-nothing thinking
True or False: Relapse can begin with changes in thoughts, emotions, or behaviors before any substance use happens.
True
What coping skill involves focusing on your surroundings using your senses to help bring yourself back to the present moment?
Grounding
What color is the "black box" on an airplane?
Orange
What chemical in the brain is primarily affected in addiction?
Dopamine
Addiction primarily affects dopamine, the brain's "feel-good" neurotransmitter that controls pleasure, motivation, and reward. While other chemicals like serotonin and glutamate are also involved, dopamine is the driving force behind the powerful cravings, tolerance, and compulsive behaviors that define addiction
What is the term for when someone focuses only on one part of a situation and ignores everything else happening around them?
Tunnel Vision
True or False: Recovery success is primarily determined by personal willpower rather than environment, support, or structure
False
What outside factors affect recovery the most for you?
What coping skill involves intentionally taking care of your physical, emotional, and mental well-being to reduce stress and prevent burnout?
Self-care
How many hearts does an octopus have?
3
Two branchial hearts: These pump oxygen-depleted blood through the gills to pick up oxygen.
One systemic heart: This larger heart circulates the oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body’s organs and muscles
What part of the brain is responsible for decision-making, impulse control, and judgment, and is often impaired in addiction?
Prefrontal Cortex
Poor impulse control → harder to resist cravings or urges
Weakened decision-making → choosing short-term relief over long-term consequences
Reduced judgment → underestimating risk or consequences
Decreased self-regulation → difficulty stopping or delaying behavior
Impaired planning → trouble following through on recovery goals
Stronger emotional-reactive brain activity → the “survival/reward system” overrides logic
What is the ability to resist an immediate reward in order to achieve a better long-term outcome called?
Delayed Gratification
True or False: Emotional discomfort is always a sign that someone is doing something wrong in recovery
False
“Why do you think discomfort is can be common in recovery growth?”
What does HALT stand for in recovery?
H - Hungry
A - Anger
L - Lonely
T - Tired
What is the largest desert in the world?
The largest desert in the world is the Antarctic Desert, a massive polar desert covering approximately 5.5 million square miles (14.2 million km²). Although entirely covered by ice sheets, it qualifies as a desert because it receives minimal precipitation (usually less than 2 inches a year).
Antarctic Desert: ~5.5 million square miles
Arctic Desert: ~5.4 million square miles
Sahara Desert: ~3.5 million square miles (the world's largest hot desert)