Coping Skills
The DEADS acronym is used for this purpose in recovery.
What is coping with urges?
This coping skill involves paying attention to your thoughts and writing them down so you can see how they affect your feelings and behaviors.
What is tracking your thoughts?
The limits, rules, or lines we set for our own personal comfort are called this.
What are boundaries
This recovery tool is something you create to follow when you begin to notice relapse warning signs or triggers.
What is a safety plan?
The DEADS acronym stands for these five coping strategies used to manage urges in recovery.
What is Deny, Escape, Avoid, Distract, Substitute?
Paying attention to physical sensations, worried thoughts, and restlessness are all tools for recognizing this feeling.
What is anxiety?
The DEARMAN technique is used for this purpose in communication and relationships.
What is resolving conflicts?
Things like your coping skills, social supports, meeting list, triggers, and possible obstacles all come together to create this recovery tool.
What is a relapse prevention plan?
This technique can be used when trying to decide if you should or should not act on a behavior/urge.
What is Pros & Cons List
This recovery concept explains that substance use is often just the visible part, while deeper issues like trauma, stress, or loneliness exist underneath.
What is the addiction iceberg?
Understanding what matters to you and where your comfort zone ends is often the first step in creating these in relationships.
What are boundaries?
According to the Relapse Triggers and Warning Signs section of the recovery toolkit, name one example of a relapse trigger or warning sign.
What is any of these answers work (traumatic life events, social isolation, social pressure, overconfidence, boredom, mental illness, positive life events, ineffective coping skills, lack of sleep, petty dishonesty, self-pity, or unnecessary arguing?)
This coping skill involves replacing a harmful behavior with a safer or healthier activity.
What is substitution?
This model explains that people often move through several steps or phases when trying to make a big life change like quitting substances.
What are stages of change?
This communication skill involves clearly stating what you need or want while still respecting the other person.
What is assertive communication?
In the tools for recovery section, this activity is described as one of the most underappreciated tools available, especially early in recovery.
What is laughter?
The SOBER breathing technique is made up of these five steps used to pause and respond thoughtfully in stressful situations.
What are Stop, Observe, Breathe, Expand, Respond?
Skills like thought tracking, recognizing anxiety, and identifying triggers all help build this ability to understand what is happening internally before reacting.
What is self-awareness?
The letters in the DEAR MAN acronym represent these seven communication steps used for assertive communication.
What are Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce, Mindful, Appear confident, and Negotiate?
In this recovery concept, relapse is seen as a gradual process involving shifts in thinking, feelings, and behavior, and includes a chart to track those changes before substance use occurs
What is relapse drift?