Coping Skills
This calming technique uses the pattern inhale 4 seconds, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4 to reduce anxiety and regulate the nervous system.
What is square breathing?
This recovery fellowship, founded in 1935, uses the Big Book and the 12 Steps to help individuals recover from alcoholism.
What is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)?
This therapeutic approach teaches that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all connected and influence each other.
What is CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
This level of care focuses on managing withdrawal symptoms safely, providing 24-hour monitoring, and preparing clients for the next step in treatment.
What is detox?
This type of aftercare support includes groups like AA and NA, where individuals share experience, strength, and hope and work the 12 steps to maintain sobriety.
What are 12-step programs?
This neurotransmitter, often called the “feel-good chemical,” spikes during substance use and reinforces addictive behavior.
What is dopamine?
This coping strategy involves writing down thoughts and emotions to help with processing, insight building, and emotional release, especially during early recovery.
What is journaling?
This program uses the “Basic Text” and the phrase “just for today” to support people recovering from addiction to any drug, not just alcohol.
What is Narcotics Anonymous (NA)?
This common visual tool in CBT shows how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact to shape our experiences.
What is the cognitive behavioral triangle?
This highly structured level of care involves living on-site for about 30 days, attending groups, individual therapy, and building core recovery skills in a controlled environment.
What is residential treatment?
This form of aftercare involves continuing individual or group counseling to address triggers, co-occurring disorders, coping skills, and emotional regulation after residential treatment.
What is mental health therapy?
This part of the brain, sometimes called the “animal brain,” controls survival instincts and hijacks decision-making during addiction.
What is the limbic system?
This coping skill focuses on paying intentional, non-judgmental attention to the present moment, often using grounding techniques like the 5-4-3-2-1 method.
What is mindfulness?
This Christian faith-based recovery program uses eight principles based on the Beatitudes and meets in churches around the world.
What is Celebrate Recovery?
CBT teaches clients to challenge these automatic negative thoughts and replace them with more balanced alternatives.
What are inaccurate or unhelpful thoughts?
Often considered the step after residential, this level of care provides 5–6 hours of therapy a day, several days a week, while allowing clients to live at home or in sober living.
What is partial hospitalization or PHP?
Programs such as Celebrate Recovery offer this type of aftercare, integrating spirituality, Biblical principles, and community support with recovery.
What are faith based recovery programs?
Addiction weakens this front part of the brain responsible for judgment, impulse control, and long-term decision making.
What is the prefrontal cortex?
This DBT skill is based on the STOP acronym describe what each letter means.
What is the DBT skill: Stop, Take a step back, Observe, and Proceed mindfully during moments of emotional overwhelm?
This program is rooted in Buddhist principles and teaches participants to use meditation, compassion, and the Eightfold Path to recover from addiction.
What is Recovery Dharma?
CBT often asks clients to name the specific emotion they’re feeling—such as anger, sadness, guilt, or fear—and then rate how strong it is on a scale of 0–10 before and after using coping skills.
What is identifying or scaling emotional intensity?
People at this stage typically attend 9–12 hours of therapy per week, focusing on relapse prevention, skill-building, and integrating recovery with work, school, and home life.
What is intensive outpatient or IOP?
This aftercare option combines behavioral therapies with medications like Suboxone, Methadone, or Naltrexone to help reduce cravings and stabilize long-term recovery.
What are medication assisted therapy programs or MAT?
This concept explains how dopamine spikes, tolerance, withdrawal, cravings, and compulsive use form a repeating loop that reinforces substance dependence.
What is the addiction cycle?
This DBT skill is based on the TIPP acronym describe what each letter means.
What is the DBT skill that teaches rapid ways to change your body chemistry—such as using cold temperatures, intense exercise, paced breathing, or paired muscle relaxation—to quickly bring emotions down?
Describe what the acronym FAVOR stands for in favor recovery.
What is Faces and Voices of Recovery, offers recovery coaching, advocacy, and non-clinical support rather than traditional 12-step meetings?
This advanced CBT skill requires identifying an unhelpful thought, evaluating the evidence for and against it, and creating a more accurate, helpful, and balanced replacement thought.
What is cognitive restructuring?
This term describes the process of moving step-by-step from the highest level of structure to increased independence, typically progressing from detox to residential, then PHP, then IOP.
What is the recovery ladder?
This individualized plan may include outpatient therapy, MAT, 12-step or faith-based meetings, relapse-prevention strategies, sober housing, and support networks to maintain long-term recovery success.
What is an aftercare plan?
Daily Double
This process describes how the brain rewires itself—both in addiction (toward compulsive behavior) and in recovery (toward healthier habits).
What is neuroplasticity?