Triggers and Cravings
A person, place, emotion, or situation that increases the desire to use substances.
What is a trigger?
Persistent excessive worry, nervousness, and difficulty controlling worry are commonly associated with this mental health condition.
What is anxiety/GAD?
A type of behavioral therapy, opposite of DBT, that involves noticing an unhelpful thought, examining whether it is accurate, and replacing it with a more balanced thought.
What is cognitive behavioral therapt (CBT)?
A written strategy identifying triggers, coping skills, supports, and actions to take when cravings increase.
What is a relapse prevention plan?
In 12-Step programs, this person serves as a recovery mentor and helps guide another person through the Steps.
What is a sponsor?
This type of trigger comes from within a person and may include loneliness, anger, anxiety, or boredom.
What is an internal trigger?
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities that were previously enjoyable is called this.
What is anhedonia? (the way you present)
What is depression? (the way you feel)
This DBT distress-tolerance skill uses Temperature, Intense Exercise, Paced Breathing, and Paired Muscle Relaxation to reduce intense emotional arousal.
What is the TIPP skill?
Returning to old thinking patterns, isolation, romanticizing substance use, and neglecting self-care can be examples of these.
What are warning signs of relapse?
The first Step begins by admitting that we are powerless over addiction and that our lives have become this.
What is unmanageable?
This coping strategy involves delaying action on a craving while noticing that its intensity naturally rises and falls.
What is urge surfing?
Seeing, hearing, or sensing something that others do not perceive is called this.
What is a hallucination?
This therapy uses bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, while helping a person process distressing or traumatic memories.
What is EMDR?
This stage of relapse may occur before substance use and can involve bottling emotions, isolation, poor sleep, and neglecting recovery activities.
What is emotional relapse?
This common recovery phrase encourages people to focus on staying sober for the present day rather than worrying about staying sober forever.
What is “One Day at a Time”?
In the acronym HALT, these four conditions can increase vulnerability to cravings and relapse.
What are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired?
Experiencing both a substance use disorder and a mental health disorder is commonly referred to by this term.
What are co-occurring disorders?
You are feeling overwhelmed, angry, and tempted to use. Name three healthy things you could do before making a decision you may regret.
What are coping skills such as calling a support, taking a walk, deep breathing, attending a meeting, journaling, listening to music, exercising, or talking to staff?
During this stage of relapse, a person may begin thinking about using, bargaining with themselves, or remembering only the “good” parts of past substance use.
What is mental relapse?
This Step involves making a list of people we have harmed and becoming willing to make things right with them.
What is Step 8?
This term describes a period in early recovery when someone feels unusually confident, happy, and optimistic, which can sometimes lead them to underestimate relapse risk or stop prioritizing recovery activities.
What is the “pink cloud”?
Flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance, hypervigilance, and intrusive memories may occur with this disorder following trauma.
What is PTSD?
In CBT, a person who thinks, “I made one mistake, so I'm a complete failure,” is engaging in this cognitive distortion.
What is all-or-nothing/black-and-white thinking?
This term describes a brief return to substance use followed by a quick return to recovery, rather than a complete return to previous patterns of use.
What is a lapse?
In 12-Step recovery, this phrase describes recognizing that you cannot control other people, places, or situations and choosing to focus instead on your own recovery and actions.
What is “Let Go and Let God”?