Addiction Basics
This is the term for a person’s intense desire for a substance, often occurring in the early stages of addiction.
A Craving
This stage of treatment involves safely managing withdrawal symptoms under medical supervision.
Detox
This well-known recovery fellowship started in 1935 to help people stop drinking.
Alcoholics Anonymous
Planning in advance how to handle risky situations—like parties or stressful events—is known as this recovery strategy.
Relapse Prevention Plan
This river, the longest in South America, flows through the world’s largest rainforest.
Amazon River
This is the term for when a person needs increasingly larger amounts of a substance to achieve the same effects.
Tolerance
A treatment setting where people live at the facility during recovery.
Residential Treatment
Programs like AA often follow this structured recovery framework.
Twelve-Step Program
In recovery, people are encouraged to avoid people, places, or situations that increase the risk of substance use; these are called these.
Triggers
This 1997 blockbuster directed by James Cameron tells the story of a doomed ocean liner.
Titanic
This neurotransmitter, often referred to as the "feel-good" chemical, plays a significant role in addiction by reinforcing pleasure.
Dopamine
This treatment approach combines counseling and behavioral therapies with medications such as Buprenorphine, Methadone, or Naltrexone
Medication Assisted Treatment
Returning to substance use after a period of abstinence is called this.
Relapse
This coping skill involves noticing thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without judgment.
Mindfulness?
This British author wrote the fantasy series beginning with The Hobbit and later The Lord of the Rings.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Repeated drug use can weaken this brain function, making it harder to resist urges or delay gratification.
This therapy teaches skills like mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness to help people manage intense emotions and reduce harmful behaviors.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
This recovery approach focuses on self-empowerment and science-based tools instead of a spiritual model.
SMART Recovery
This cognitive skill involves challenging negative or unhelpful thoughts and replacing them with healthier ones.
Cognitive Restructuring
The fastest land animal, capable of speeds over 60 miles per hour.
Cheetah
This brain region helps with judgment, decision-making, and impulse control, and is often affected by addiction.
Prefrontal Cortex
This therapy helps people identify triggers and change harmful thought patterns.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
A trained person with lived experience who supports others in recovery.
Peer Recovery Specialist
A skill taught in Dialectical Behavior Therapy that helps people survive emotional crises without making things worse.
Distress Tolerance
This 1969 event marked the first time humans landed on the Moon.
Apollo 11 Moon Landing