Understanding Co-Occurring Disorders
This common pathway occurs when someone uses substances to temporarily reduce emotional distress.
What is self-medication?
This cycle happens when someone uses substances to feel better but ends up worsening their symptoms over time.
What is the negative reinforcement cycle?
Clinicians look at this timeline factor to determine whether symptoms came from substance use or a primary disorder.
What is temporal onset?
This approach treats both mental health and substance use disorders at the same time.
What is integrated treatment?
This grounding skill asks you to focus on what you can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.
What is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique?
This model explains how biological, psychological, and social factors contribute to co-occurring disorders.
What is the biopsychosocial model?
People with PTSD may have increased cravings after nightmares due to this type of emotional trigger.
What is trauma-related stress activation?
This mistake occurs when a provider focuses mostly on the substance use and overlooks a mental health condition.
What is diagnostic overshadowing?
CBT, DBT, and MI are examples of this category of therapies.
What are evidence-based treatments?
This skill involves noticing cravings rise and fall like a wave without acting on them.
What is urge surfing?
When two disorders occur together and worsen each other rather than simply coexisting, this effect is happening.
What is interaction or amplification of symptoms?
Anxiety, depression, or trauma may make a person more vulnerable to substance use because mental health symptoms create these.
What are high-risk emotional states?
Symptoms like low motivation, sadness, and anxiety after stopping certain substances may actually be due to this.
What is withdrawal?
This therapy focuses on emotional regulation and distress tolerance and is helpful for people with impulsive behaviors.
What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?
Planning ahead for high-risk situations and outlining specific coping strategies creates this plan.
What is an anticipatory coping plan?
This term describes when substance use creates or mimics mental health symptoms, confusing diagnosis.
What is substance-induced symptom presentation?
When emotional stress → cravings → use → guilt → more stress, this pattern is occurring.
What is the emotional-trigger relapse loop?
A short period of this is sometimes needed to better understand a person’s baseline symptoms.
What is sustained abstinence or stabilization?
When different providers communicate so clients receive consistent care, this system is achieved.
What is coordinated care?
Tracking mood, sleep, stressors, and cravings helps identify this pattern that often leads to relapse.
What is a behavioral pattern or relapse chain?
Long-term substance use can change the brain’s ability to regulate mood and stress, a process known as this.
What is neuroadaptation?
When disorders overlap so much that it becomes difficult to determine which symptoms belong to which disorder, this happens.
What is symptom overlap or entanglement?
This factor makes diagnosing co-occurring disorders difficult because both disorders can create similar mood, sleep, or attention problems.
What is symptom similarity?
A group designed specifically for people with both mental health and substance use disorders is this.
What is Dual Recovery Anonymous (DRA)?
Rapid emotional overload can be reduced by skills such as cold water, paced breathing, or short bursts of exercise.
What are DBT distress tolerance skills (TIP skills)?