The Brain, Addiction and Substance Use
When someone needs increasingly larger amounts of a substance to achieve the same effect, this is called what?
What is tolerance?
The body becomes less responsive to a substance, requiring more of it to achieve the same effect.
What is the clinical term for the inability or significantly reduced ability to experience pleasure from activities that were previously enjoyable?
What is anhedonia?
A reduced ability to experience pleasure or interest in previously enjoyable activities.
This therapy focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
A form of psychotherapy that focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
People, places, situations, or experiences associated with previous substance use are commonly referred to by this term.
What are triggers?
Internal or external stimuli that can prompt cravings, emotional reactions, or urges to return to substance use.
What is the term for the ability to recognize, understand, and name your own emotional state rather than simply reacting to it?
What is emotional awareness?
Emotional awareness is recognizing what you're feeling, identifying the emotion, and understanding what may be contributing to it. It is an important first step toward emotional regulation and healthier responses.
This term describes the body's adaptation to a substance that can cause withdrawal symptoms when use is reduced or stopped.
What is physical dependence?
A physiological adaptation to a substance that can result in withdrawal when the substance is reduced or discontinued. Physical dependence is not automatically the same as addiction.
According to DSM-5-TR, symptoms of a major depressive episode must generally persist for at least this length of time.
What is two weeks?
A major depressive episode requires at least five symptoms during the same two-week period, including depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure.
In Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), what are the four main skill modules taught to help individuals manage emotions, tolerate distress, and improve relationships?
What are mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness?
DBT teaches practical skills in four areas: staying present, surviving difficult situations without making them worse, managing emotional responses, and communicating effectively with others.
An old song, smell, or location associated with previous substance use can trigger cravings through this type of learned association.
What is a conditioned cue (conditioned stimulus)?
A previously neutral stimulus that becomes associated with substance use through learning and can subsequently trigger cravings or responses.
Ex= Someone regularly smokes while driving home from work. Over time, that particular drive becomes associated with smoking. Eventually, simply getting into the car and starting the drive home may trigger cravings, even when they don't have a cigarette.
In healthy communication, what is the term for expressing your needs, feelings, and opinions clearly and respectfully while also recognizing the rights and feelings of others?
What is assertive communication?
Assertive communication means advocating for yourself without becoming aggressive, dismissive, or passive. It helps people set boundaries, express needs, and navigate disagreements respectfully.
This neurotransmitter plays a major role in reinforcement, motivation, and learning associated with substance use.
What is dopamine?
A neurotransmitter involved in motivation, reinforcement, reward learning, and behavior.
According to DSM-5-TR, how many of the 11 substance use disorder criteria must be met within 12 months to qualify for a mild diagnosis?
What are two or three criteria?
DSM-5-TR substance use disorder severity:
Mild: 2–3 criteria
Moderate: 4–5 criteria
Severe: 6 or more criteria
This medication used to treat opioid use disorder is classified as a partial opioid agonist.
What is buprenorphine?
A partial opioid agonist used to treat opioid use disorder.
Telling yourself, "I've been doing well for months. I can use just once without consequences," is an example of this type of relapse warning sign.
What are permission-giving thoughts (rationalization)?
Thought patterns that minimize risk or justify returning to substance use.
In psychology, what is the term for the tendency to assume you know what another person is thinking or how they feel without having sufficient evidence?
What is mind reading?
Mind reading is a cognitive distortion in which someone assumes they know another person's thoughts, intentions, or feelings without checking the facts. For example, assuming someone is angry with you because they didn't respond to a text.
This region of the brain is heavily involved in planning, decision-making, impulse control, and weighing long-term consequences.
What is the prefrontal cortex?
The brain region involved in executive functioning, planning, decision-making, impulse control, and evaluating consequences.
Both mania and hypomania involve an unusually elevated, expansive, or irritable mood accompanied by increased energy and activity. What is the key difference between the two in terms of severity and impact on daily functioning?
Mania: At least seven days, unless hospitalization is necessary sooner.
Hypomania: At least four consecutive days.
Mania involves marked impairment, hospitalization, or psychotic features.
Hypomania does not involve marked impairment, hospitalization, or psychotic features.
Why is it dangerous to combine benzodiazepines, such as Xanax or Valium, with opioids, even when both medications are taken in amounts someone has previously tolerated?
What is it causes CSN or respiratory depression?
Both substances depress the central nervous system and can suppress breathing. Combining them significantly increases the risk of respiratory depression, overdose, and death.
This relapse-prevention strategy involves identifying a high-risk situation in advance and deciding exactly how you will respond when it occurs.
What is a relapse prevention plan?
A proactive strategy that identifies high-risk situations and establishes specific responses before those situations occur.
Someone receives constructive criticism from their therapist. They immediately feel attacked, become defensive, and accuse the therapist of judging them. Later, after calming down, they recognize that the feedback was helpful. What skill would help this person recognize their emotional reaction, tolerate the discomfort, and choose a response rather than reacting defensively?
What is emotional regulation?
Emotional regulation doesn't mean preventing yourself from feeling upset. It means recognizing the emotion, tolerating the discomfort, and choosing how to respond rather than reacting impulsively.
When someone continues using a substance primarily to avoid withdrawal symptoms or escape unpleasant emotional and physical states, what type of reinforcement is maintaining the behavior?
What is negative reinforcement?
Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior is strengthened because it removes or reduces something unpleasant. For example, someone may continue drinking alcohol to avoid withdrawal symptoms. The relief reinforces continued drinking.
A person experiences symptoms of depression while actively using a substance. Why can't a clinician automatically assume the person has Major Depressive Disorder?
What is a substance-induced depressive disorder versus an independent depressive disorder?
Because the depressive symptoms may be caused by or related to substance intoxication or withdrawal. The clinician must evaluate whether the symptoms are better explained by a substance-induced depressive disorder or an independent depressive disorder.
Being honest with your care team about substance use is important. Withholding information because of fear of being judged can delay appropriate treatment. Honesty isn't about getting in trouble; it's about getting the right help."
In trauma-informed treatment, what is the difference between a trauma trigger and a trauma response?
trigger = an internal or external reminder that activates a trauma-related reaction
Trauma response = the emotional, physical, or behavioral reaction that follows, such as fear, hypervigilance, avoidance, or dissociation.
In relapse prevention, what is the difference between a lapse and a relapse, and why is recognizing that distinction important?
A lapse generally refers to an isolated episode of substance use, while a relapse refers to a return to a more sustained pattern of problematic use.
Recognizing the distinction is important because an isolated lapse does not have to become a full return to previous behaviors. Regardless of terminology, any return to use is an opportunity for immediate assessment, safety planning, and renewed support
Someone has a difficult interaction with a family member. They feel angry, embarrassed, and rejected. Instead of addressing the situation, they isolate themselves, replay the conversation repeatedly, and become increasingly convinced that everyone is against them. What is the term for repeatedly focusing on distressing thoughts or experiences without moving toward problem-solving?
What is rumination?
Rumination can intensify negative emotions and reinforce distorted thinking. There is a difference between reflecting on an experience to learn from it and repeatedly replaying it without reaching a resolution.
Recognizing rumination can help someone interrupt the cycle through grounding, mindfulness, perspective-taking, or constructive problem-solving.