Post Acute Withdrawal
This recovery principle emphasizes avoiding triggers, building healthy routines, and seeking support to reduce relapse risk during post-acute withdrawal.
What is relapse prevention?
This grounding technique encourages individuals to name five things they see, four they feel, three they hear, two they smell, and one they taste.
What is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique?
This cognitive distortion involves thinking in extremes like “I’ve already messed up, so I might as well give up.”
What is all-or-nothing thinking?
This relationship pattern involves excessive emotional or psychological reliance on another person, often at the expense of one’s own needs.
What is codependency?
This candy promised “taste the rainbow” in its long-running ad campaign.
What are Skittles?
Difficulty sleeping during post-acute withdrawal is known by this medical term.
What is insomnia?
Calling a sponsor, attending meetings, or reaching out to sober friends strengthens this protective recovery factor.
What is a support system?
In recovery, skipping meetings, isolating, or avoiding support systems are examples of this self-sabotaging behavior.
What is avoidance?
This behavior involves covering up, making excuses, or taking responsibility for someone else’s addiction.
What is enabling?
This yogurt brand’s commercials featured kids dramatically slurping colorful tubes and twisting them into shapes.
What is Go-Gurt?
Unlike acute withdrawal, which may last days to weeks, post-acute withdrawal can persist for this much longer timeframe.
What is 6 months to 2 years?
This coping strategy involves identifying triggers in advance and creating specific action steps to handle them.
What is relapse prevention planning?
This emotional state, often rooted in past behavior during active addiction, can drive people to believe they don’t deserve recovery.
What is shame?
This communication skill involves clearly expressing needs and feelings without aggression or passivity.
What is assertive communication?
This lunchbox staple came with crackers, cheese, and sometimes a tiny red stick for spreading.
What is Lunchables?
Mood swings, irritability, and this common mental health condition frequently occur during post-acute withdrawal.
What is anxiety? (Also acceptable: What is depression?)
This mindfulness practice involves paying attention to cravings without acting on them, allowing them to rise and fall naturally.
What is urge surfing?
This four-letter acronym reminds people to check if they are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired—states that increase vulnerability to self-sabotage.
What is HALT?
This feeling often drives codependent behaviors, rooted in fear that others will leave.
What is fear of abandonment?
This chocolate candy’s 90s commercials featured colorful characters debating who would be eaten first.
What are M&M's?
This neurotransmitter, heavily involved in reward and motivation, is often dysregulated during post-acute withdrawal from substances like opioids and stimulants.
What is dopamine?
Setting clear limits with people, places, or situations that threaten sobriety is known as establishing these.
What are boundaries?
Telling yourself “I’ve been sober 6 months—I’ve earned this” is an example of this self-justifying mental trap.
What is rationalization?
Saying “yes” when you mean “no” in order to avoid conflict reflects this communication style.
What is passive communication?
These fruit-flavored drinks came in plastic squeeze bottles shaped like barrels.
What are Hug Juice Barrels?