Treatment Glossary
Treatment Terms
Alcohol Rehabilitation – Reprieve from the domination and control of a disease through maintenance of a fit spiritual condition through prayer, meditation, active participation and use of the principles of recovery.
Sober Living – Living free of the compulsion of addiction.
Primary Care - Introduction to understanding addiction and the information and experience necessary to be free from its control.
Secondary Care – Practicing the skills and utilizing the knowledge taught in Primary Care in a safe environment; obtaining tools of self-care, safety, and protection.
Extended Care – On-going practice of the principles of recovery with therapeutic support while one begins to re-enter life. Each experience is an occasion to process therapeutically and dialogue with clinical staff.
Transitional Living (also called “step-down” care) - Minimal therapeutic support while patient re-enters life, assumes a job, returns to living context.
Residential – Living in a protected place that is removed from the context of active addiction, staffed with clinical personnel who will immerse the patient in information, experience, and therapeutic engagement that will enhance understanding of the disease of addiction and the solution available to live in recovery, free of the control of the disease.
Outpatient – Participation in a determined length of therapeutic engagement while remaining in life context – home, relationship, job, etc.
Inpatient – Usually refers to admission of a patient to a hospital setting for the purpose of medical care.
Day Hospital - Partial Hospitalization non-acute medical care of person for 24 hours or less.
Detox – Medically supervised period of initial abstinence from addiction.
Clinical Terms
HIPPA – Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act: laws insuring confidentiality of patient information. Without patient consent, it is unlawful to disclose any information about a patient, and one may neither confirm nor deny that a patient is in treatment.
PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A condition of distress – depression or anxiety – that occurs following a traumatic event that is triggered and relived by the patient through similar or flashback experiences.
Individual Therapy – One-on-one meetings with a therapist, psychiatrist, or psychologist for the purpose of understanding the way mind, body, and emotions work together in a healthy way so that one can make choices about life that are free. Integrating the conscious and unconscious self.
Group Therapy – Engagement of several individuals with a therapist for the purpose of seeing in others issues in the self.
Family Therapy – Members of a family commit to meeting with a therapist for the purpose of developing harmony in the home through knowledge and change; exploring ways to honor each individual while protecting the family unit.
Couples Therapy – Two people who have an intimate relationship with one another seek to develop harmony in the relationship while preserving the individuality of each
Process / Behavioral Addiction – (Typically eating disorder, gambling, gaming, sexual compulsivity, or relationship addiction where an object, activity, person, or relationship produces a mind-altering compulsion that is not satisfied through use).
Addictive Cycle – The pattern of desire or craving that results in use, which, in turn, produces an enhanced compulsive craving for use of the drug of choice.
Psychiatry / Psychology – Psychiatry is the medical paradigm to understanding the complex working of the components of a human being: mind, body, emotions; Psychology seeks understanding of the complex working of the components of a human being (mind, body, emotions) through image, story, dream, action – manifestations of thought, action, and feeling.
Diagnostic Terms
Dual Diagnosis - complicating co-morbid psychic disorders – usually character-based and treatable.
Trauma – event that disrupts the flow and pattern of ordinary life.
Depression – mood disorder that results in loss of energy, motivation, ability.
Anxiety – mood disorder that results in anxiety, manic energy and hyper-vigilance.
OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – person stuck in a pattern of behavior they are unable to change.
Bi-polar – Mood disorder that vacillates between hyper-anxiety and depression
List “top 10” addiction diagnoses.
Eating Disorders – Addiction and fears surrounding food: anorexia – restriction and/or eating and purging, bulimia – binging and purging or simply binging uncontrollably.
Sexual Addiction – Addiction to promiscuous, repetitive sexual behavior or obsession with sexual images without connection and without commitment – no ability to stop or regulate behavior.
Chemical Dependency – Disease of mind, body, emotions characterized by allergy in chemical use (alcohol or drugs) which affects the brain, ignites a cycle of craving, use, compulsion and obsession that in turn results in enhanced craving, use, and compulsion without the ability to stop.
Gambling Addiction – the use of high risk gaming where potential to win is negligible.
Work Addiction – Inordinate compulsion to work long hours without balance or ability to regulate or moderate behavior with other interests.
Relationship Addiction – a mind altering obsession with the need for a relationship with another – usually another person.
Gaming – High risk computer game obsession where there is no potential to win and the obsession produces a mind-altering high.
Abuse vs Dependency – A fine line where heavy and repeated usage of chemicals or other mind-altering substance, person, or event becomes obsession.
Compulsive vs Addiction – the fine line between desire to continue use and inability to regulate, moderate, or stop use.
Nicotine Issues – use of nicotine to alter mind, block feeling, and change personality and behavior.
Co-Dependency – obsession with other rather than healthy focus on self.
Cross Addiction (also called poly-addiction) – the use of more than one mind-altering substance, person, or event without the ability to choose otherwise.
Therapeutic Modalities
EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming – a technique to re-pattern the brain’s addictive cycles.
CBT (Cognitive) / DBT (Dialectical) – Knowledge based learning that provides information about tools one may employ in recovery. Dialectical therapies or talk therapy engages individuals or groups in discussion aimed at enhancing understanding of recovery and increasing self-awareness.
Experiential Therapies (High and Low Ropes Course, Equine therapy, Yoga, Tai Chi, Massage, Art Therapy) – Embodied experiences that allow a person to learn and discover non-verbally – through the body.
Psychodrama – role-playing to visual dramatic experiences from past, usually in family of origin.
Brain Mapping – reprogramming brain activity to break an addictive cycle of craving, compulsion and use.
Neuro / Bio Feedback – therapies designed to gather feedback from the body when the mind and emotions are blocked.
Medication Management – the use of medication (prescription drugs) to regulate body chemistry until it can regulate itself according to appropriate norms.
Genogram – a graphic mapping of three generations of a family that allows one to see patterns of behavior.
Nutrition – healthy balanced intake, digestion, and elimination of food on a regular basis.
Recovery Terms
12-Step Principles/Traditions/Concepts/Philosophy – The steps are the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous outlined as a path one walks to recovery. The principles outline a design for reshaping the character of an individual.
12-Step meetings – Support meetings where addicts and alcoholics learn and grow through the stories and experiences of others who struggle with the same compulsions.
Working the Steps – Thoughtfully applying the 12 steps of recovery to one’s life circumstances: a program of wholeness in relation to God, self, and others.
Relapse Prevention – a thoughtful strategy with specific plans for making healthy choices when triggers set off the compulsion to use. The plans may include calling a sponsor, leaving a situation, disrupting the cycle of trigger, craving, and use.
Relapse Autopsy – a careful analysis of a relapse that has occurred for an individual or one that an individual imagines would be likely to occur – given the appropriate trigger or situation.
Recovery – using the tools necessary to maintain balance, choice, sobriety, and serenity.
Sponsor – a mentor who shares personal experience, strength, and hope in finding and keeping recovery. A sponsor is a guide through the steps.
Contract – an agreement or commitment that the recovering person makes with one to whom he/she is willing to be accountable.
Relapse – a failure to use the tools of recovery that results in giving in to craving, obsession, and use over time.
Slip – a forgetfulness or misuse of the tools of recovery that result in a relapse.
Triggers – those people, things, situations that initiate craving and a desire to give in to one’s addiction.
Sobriety – freedom from participation in one’s addiction – exercising the choice to surrender and rely on a power greater than oneself.
Self Esteem – Feelings and thoughts of well-being and health that one has for him/herself.
Denial – refusal to recognize or accept reality (life on life’s terms); the choice to believe what one wants to believe about reality.
Shame – sense that “I am wrong.”
Guilt – awareness that one has done something that is wrong.
Addictive Thinking – the cycle of craving and obsession that threatens sobriety, literal and emotional.
Prayer/Meditation –a dialogue between the self and the higher power – involves speaking and listening.
Personal Maintenance – rigorous repetitive use of the tools of recovery.
Journaling – recorded thoughts and experience useful in objectifying and visualizing where one is in relation to reality.
Support Buddy – another person to whom one commits to be accountable.
Coping Skills – using tools of recovery.
HALT - Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired: Normal triggers when use would be more likely and craving would begin.
Enabling – unhealthy care that retards another person’s ability to experience growth and become independent.
Honesty – willing to be transparent with oneself and another.
Forgiveness – willing to let go of resentment against a person, event, and institution.
Resentment – sustained anger and ill regard.
Parenting – willingness to engage with child - listen, talk, teach, explain, demonstrate for the purpose of growth and discovery.
