Triggers/ Warning Signs
Loss of interest in these might be a red flag.
Hobbies and activities that you enjoy
This coping skill will involve doing something to keep your mind occupied and may include things like reading, games, cleaning, watching a movie, etc. It will give your mind a temporary break.
Distraction
We use this thinking error when we try to make things seem smaller than they really are. Often, we will use words like, “just” and “only” to make what we did seem smaller.
Minimizing
The three stages of relapse.
Emotional, Mental, and Physical
True or false: the decision to relapse is usually made long before you actually use.
True.
One common trigger that can often be resolved by keeping yourself busy with positive things and reaching out to positive supports.
Boredom/ isolation
This coping mechanism may involve specific breathing techniques and visual cues. It may guided or alone.
Meditation
Linking our present situation to a disastrous conclusion/ the worst possible outcome. We use "what-if's".
Catastrophizing
Warning signs of this stage of relapse may include: isolation, bottling up emotions, mood swings, etc.
Emotional
If you're feeling the urge to use, try waiting ___ _______. If you distract yourself for this amount of time, your cravings will lessen in intensity and become easier to resist.
30 minutes
You might feel that you have overcome your addiction and tell yourself that you can have "_____ _____ _____"
This coping skill involves using body and senses to help stop dissociation (feeling numb or disconnected) and reduces the physicality of anxiety.
Grounding
Statements you make to yourself about how the world ought to be and judge yourself and others based on that. Typically seen when holding yourself to excessively high standards.
Shoulds
This stage is often described as "a war going on inside one’s mind"
Mental
Don't become _________. Relapses can happen years after quitting use.
Complacent
Changes in your behavior or attitude can be considered warning signs, especially if you catch yourself acting _______ or beginning a pattern of denial.
Defensive
This coping mechanism requires you to be curious about your emotions, thoughts, and sensations. It also involves being accepting and non-judgmental of these emotions, thoughts, and sensations.
Mindfulness
Judging your experiences as "black or white", "good or bad", etc. instead of seeing any grey area or middle ground.
Polarized Thinking or All-or-Nothing Thinking
Warning signs of this stage may include: lying, minimizing consequences of use, fantasizing about using, etc.
Mental
Create new _______. You may need to find new ways to celebrate, take a new route home to avoid the liquor store or bar, new plans for how to spend your evenings, etc.
Routines and/ or rituals
Remembering only the "good times" of drinking or drug use.
Romanticizing
This coping skill is great in reducing the pressure of overwhelming emotions. It may involve journaling, allowing yourself to cry, listening to music that connects with you, yelling or screaming (not at others), etc.
Emotional Release
You think of a single negative event as a never-ending pattern. You draw conclusions from on experience and extend it to all future experiences (applying one thing to the whole). Typically uses terms like "always", "never", "everyone", etc.
Overgeneralizations
Self-care and support are important and helpful for which stage(s)?
All!
A lapse represents a temporary slip or return to a previous behavior (usually a onetime occurrence), whereas a relapse represents a full-blown return to a pattern of behavior that one has been trying to moderate or quit altogether