Self-Care & Wellness in Recovery
This basic self-care habit is often the first to be neglected but plays a critical role in emotional stability.
What is sleep?
The term for having both a substance use disorder and a mental health condition.
What is co-occurring disorder?
This person helps guide you through 12-step recovery.
What is a sponsor?
This drug is legal, socially accepted, and contributes to over 140,000 deaths a year.
What is alcohol?
This simple tool reminds you to check if you're Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.
What is HALT?
This activity helps you express what you’re feeling without needing to say it aloud.
What is journaling?
This is something that reminds you of using or makes you want to use.
What is a trigger?
This daily practice involves doing small, healthy things just because you’re worth it.
What is self-care?
These two feelings often underlie both addiction and depression
What are shame and hopelessness?
DBT, CBT, and MI are all examples of these.
What are therapeutic approaches or clinical interventions?
This synthetic opioid is 50–100x more potent than morphine and a major overdose risk.
What is fentanyl?
The three stages of relapse are emotional, mental, and ______.
hat is physical?
Learning to sit with discomfort without reacting is called this.
What is emotional regulation?
A craving is an urge—but it won’t last forever. On average, it lasts this long.
What is 15–20 minutes?
Recovery teaches that this isn’t selfish—it’s necessary.
What is setting boundaries?
Anxiety, depression, and PTSD are examples of these.
What are mental health disorders?
These people—peers, counselors, sponsors—form your emotional safety net.
What is a support network?
When you need more of a substance to feel the same effect, it’s called this.
What is tolerance?
This written plan helps you stay on track when you feel tempted.
What is a relapse prevention plan?
This DBT skill involves cooling down fast—literally—with ice or cold water.
What is TIPP (Temperature)?
This strategy means watching your craving rise and fall like a wave without acting on it.
What is urge surfing?
A personal routine, including morning and evening rituals, can prevent this common recovery risk.
What is boredom or relapse?
These invisible thoughts can lead to real relapse if they go unchecked.
What are distorted beliefs or automatic thoughts or cognitive distortions?
This type of thinking says, “I’ve already messed up, so I might as well keep using.”
What is all-or-nothing thinking?
Long-term substance use often damages this part of the brain responsible for judgment and decision-making.
What is the prefrontal cortex?
These two words describe a dangerous mindset: “I’ve got this, I don’t need help anymore.”
What is overconfidence or complacency?
These are positive, go-to actions that help you manage urges and stress.
What are coping skills?
This technique helps you redirect focus during cravings by using your five senses.
What is grounding?
This wellness strategy uses your five senses to ground you in the present moment.
What is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique?
These two things must be treated together to support long-term recovery.
What are mental health and addiction?
This model includes five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.
What is the Stages of Change model?
Substance use often numbs emotions—but it also blocks access to these three key recovery skills.
What are insight, connection, and emotional regulation?
Name three subtle signs that your recovery may be slipping before a relapse happens.
What are isolating, skipping meetings, and negative thinking?
This skill means staying present and aware, without judgment.
What is mindfulness?
This type of trigger can be emotional, like feeling lonely, or physical, like walking past a bar.
What are internal and external triggers?