Mental Health
A group of mental health conditions characterized by excessive worry, fear, or apprehension that interferes with daily functioning.
What are anxiety disorders?
The most commonly abused substance in the United States.
What is alcohol?
The stage in the Stages of Change Model where an individual begins to implement the plan and actively modify behavior.
What is the Action Stage?
A professional who can diagnose and provide treatment for mental health and substance use disorders, but cannot typically prescribe medication.
What is a therapist?
When practicing mindfulness, the goal is to empty your mind of all thoughts.
False - The goal of mindfulness is to observe thoughts and feelings without judgment, acknowledging them without getting carried away by them.
Any thought, behavior, or action used to manage difficult, stressful, or painful emotions.
What is a coping mechanism?
An example of this AA step could be paying someone back money that you stole from them.
What is Step 9 (Direct Amends)?
Name five different levels of care for Substance Use Disorders.
Ex: IOP, PHP, outpatient therapy, CSS, detox, outpatient psychiatry, residential, etc.
In the U.S., this three-digit number is the universal dialing code for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
What is 988?
Chronic alcohol use can induce a distinct, reversible form of dementia that may improve with sustained abstinence.
True - Conditions like Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (due to Thiamine deficiency secondary to alcohol use) cause severe, but potentially partially reversible, neurocognitive deficits.
The sudden onset of intense fear and discomfort, often mistaken for a health emergency.
What is a panic attack?
DAILY DOUBLE This chemical messenger in the brain's reward pathway is responsible for the pleasurable feelings associated with substance use.
What is dopamine?
A core skill taught in DBT that helps a person stay focused on the present moment without judgment.
What is mindfulness?
A written document created with a therapist that lists coping skills, support contacts, and steps to take during a crisis.
What is a safety plan?
Sharing my diagnosis with an employer is a legal requirement if my condition is stable and managed.
False - Disclosure is generally voluntary unless you are seeking reasonable accommodations under laws like the ADA, or if the job involves specific safety-sensitive duties.
A major risk factor for developing both mental health and substance use issues, especially when it occurs in childhood.
What is trauma and/or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)?
Name three symptoms of PAWS (Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome).
PAWS symptoms can include irritability, depression, insomnia, fatigue, restlessness, alcohol cravings, and distractibility. These are most severe in the first 4 to 6 months of abstinence and diminish gradually over several years of sustained abstinence.
Using the 5-4-3-2-1 technique to focus on things you can see, touch, hear, smell, and taste is a skill used for this purpose.
What is grounding?
A free space offering support for people recovering from substance use disorders and their families, located throughout Massachusetts?
What is a Peer Recovery Support Center (PRSC)?
Acceptance in therapy means agreeing that a painful situation is right, good, or fair.
False - Acceptance means acknowledging reality as it is, regardless of whether it is fair or desirable, to stop fighting what cannot be changed.
This defense mechanism involves unconsciously pushing uncomfortable thoughts, memories, or impulses out of conscious awareness.
What is repression?
A program of recovery based on Buddhist principles, which integrates scientific, non-theistic, and psychological insight. Viewing addiction as cravings in the mind and body, the author shows how a path of meditative awareness can alleviate those desires and ease suffering.
What is Refuge Recovery?
This widely used talk therapy focuses on changing unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
In Massachusetts, these serve as integrated hubs for seamless access to mental health and substance use care, providing 24/7 crisis intervention and a range of routine and urgent outpatient services to quickly connect individuals to treatment and divert them from hospital emergency departments.
What is a Community Behavioral Health Center (CBHC)?
In a crisis, the TIPP skills (Temperature, Intense Exercise, Paced Breathing, Paired Muscle Relaxation) are examples of emotional regulation skills.
False - TIPP skills are Distress Tolerance skills, used to get through a high-intensity crisis moment without acting destructively.