Breakthru House Inc.

Glossary

Abstinence
Refraining from the use of alcohol or drugs.
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ACOA
Adult Children of Alcoholics refers to individuals who have grown up in an alcoholic household and the 12-Step recovery program that was developed to assist such individuals.
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Addictive Society
A society in which addiction is normalized by a culture of "quick fix", "more is not enough", and "pleasure without pain." Addictions to work, money, relationships, media, materialism, and religion are ways to numb out and ignore feelings.
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Addictive Thinking
A pattern of thinking that begins with obsession and compulsion. Obsession is a continuous thinking about the positive effects of using alcohol and drugs. Compulsion is an irrational urge or craving to use the drug to get the positive effect even though you know it will hurt you in the long run. This leads to denial and rationalization in order to allow continued use. Denial is the inability to recognize there is a problem. Rationalization is blaming other situations and people for problems rather than drug use.
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Al-Anon and Nar-Anon
Al-Anon is a twelve-step program that was developed in 1951 to facilitate the recovery of family members and friends of alcoholics. It also includes Alateen, a similar program for younger members, between the ages of 12-20. Nar-Anon is also a twelve-step program designed to help relatives and friends of addicts recover from the effects of living with an addicted relative or friend. All are modeled on the 12 Steps of Alcoholic Anonymous.
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Alcohol; Alcoholism
Alcoholism is progressive disease of compulsive drinking that interferes with one's normal life. It affects a person mentally and physically and affects everyone who has contact with the alcoholic. Total abstinence from drinking is the only way to arrest the disease. Alcohol is a liquid made by the fermentation or distillation of sugar, present in intoxicating drinks. It is the drug of choice for an alcoholic.
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Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is a book, first published in 1939, containing clear cut and precise instructions on how to recover from alcoholism. Recovery takes place as a result of an alcoholic following the AA 12 Steps of Recovery as they are laid out in the book. These processes will enable the alcoholic to discover a power that is greater than their self. Recovering alcoholics find that this power can and will do for them what they have been powerless and unable to do for themselves. In addition this power will aid them in helping other alcoholics to recover, a requirement for recovery.

Alcoholics Anonymous is also a fellowship of men and women who share their experiences, strengths, and hopes with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership in the Alcoholics Anonymous Fellowship is a desire to stop drinking; there are no dues or fees for AA membership as it is a self supporting organization through member contributions.

An offshoot of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous began in 1940's in Los Angeles, California for those recovering from addiction to narcotics. Like Alcoholics Anonymous, NA also emphasizes the spiritual side of recovery and the importance the discovery of a higher power plays in recovery.
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Blackout
"Blacking out" is commonly confused with passing out. Alcohol interferes with the ability to form new memories. A blackout is an alcohol induced period of amnesia during which the person is awake and active but the brain is unable to form new memories for what has happened. The person is not able to remember what has gone on when they are no longer intoxicated. It is possible for a person to be in a blackout and appear to be only moderately intoxicated to the outside world. "Passing out" means a person has drunk alcohol until they are unconscious.
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Clean and Sober
A combination of abstinence and working in the recovery process.
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Codependence
Codependence is a psychological condition or a relationship in which a person is controlled or manipulated by another who is affected with a pathological condition, such as an alcohol or drug addiction. A codependent personality can also be someone who takes great care and pain-staking attention to the needs and feelings of those around them, while neglecting themselves. This trait is often seen in those who come from dysfunctional families and the children of alcoholics or drug addicts. Depression, anxiety, dysfunctional relationships and a high/low activity level are common in codependents.
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Compulsion; Obsession
The involuntary repetition of a behavior. Compulsion is functionally equivalent to addiction when the repeated behavior is harmful to self or others. Compulsion contrasts with obsession, which is an involuntary repetition of a purely mental process such as a thought, daydream, image, or emotion. Obsession is the mental equivalent to physical compulsion.
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Crack
Cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant. "Crack" is the street name given to cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for smoking. The term "crack" refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked (heated). There is great risk for dependency when cocaine is smoked because smoking allows extremely high doses of cocaine to reach the brain very quickly and brings an intense and immediate high. Smoking crack cocaine can produce a particularly aggressive paranoid behavior in users.
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Denial
A defense mechanism used to disguise and ignore feelings or situations that might prove painful. A primary characteristic of addition, denial is the psychological process by which human beings protect themselves from things which threaten them by blocking knowledge of those things from their awareness. It is a defense mechanisms which distorts reality. If we cannot feel or see the consequences of our actions, then everything is fine and we can continue to do what we have been doing without making any changes.
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Depression
Depression is a common mental health disorder that is often described as a feeling of numbness, rather than a feeling of sadness. Depression is an illness and is more than a passing mood. Symptoms vary from person to person and often involve one's body, mood, and thoughts. It can affect the way a person eats and sleeps, the way he or she feel about him or herself, and the way one thinks about circumstances.
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Dissociation
Dissociation is a psychological state or condition in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories are separated from the rest of the psyche. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "splitting." Individuals experience dissociation when painful feelings or memories are triggered in the present and the person responds by "going away" mentally. They may drift off in a day dream, shut down emotionally, or distract themselves.

Some addicts begin to abuse substances in an attempt to separate themselves from emotional turmoil and traumatic memories; they try to use alcohol or drugs disassociate themselves from complex and often painful emotions.
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Drug; Drug Abuse
A drug is any chemical substance that alters mood, perception, or consciousness. Drug abuse is the pathological use of a prescribed or un-prescribed chemical substance.
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Dry Drunk
An abstinent addict who is not engaged in the recovery process, therefore they continue to exhibit behaviors such as grandiosity, judgmentalism , intolerance, impulsivity, dishonesty, and indecisiveness
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H.A.L.T.
Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired. These describe triggers for relapse.
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H.O.W.
H.O.W. is an acronym for Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness. They are values and behaviors an individual must emulate and strive for to recovery from addiction and alcoholism.
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Higher Power
This is a term used in the 12-Step program of recovery. It refers to "a Power that is greater than ourselves." Many people chose to call this Higher Power "God." In the 12 Step programs it is up to the individual to find a their own Higher power or a "God of their understanding."
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Insanity
A semi-permanent mental disorder. It is a derangement of the mind. In the legal court, insanity is known as a severe mental malfunction. In AA circles, insanity is defined as doing the same thing repeatedly, yet expecting different results.
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Intervention
An effort by the loved ones of an addict to change the lifestyle, habits, and feelings of the addict by calling attention to their destructive behaviors and the suffering they are causing their friends and family. For more on interventions, see our resource page
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Meth or Methamphetamines
Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant drug that strongly activates certain systems in the brain and is made in illegal laboratories and has a high potential for abuse and dependence. Methamphetamine damages certain brain cells, and over time, abuse can result in symptoms like those of Parkinson's disease, a severe movement disorder.
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Minimize
To make light of situations or experiences that could prove harmful to recovery.
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Open Meetings
The two types of 12-Step meetings are open meetings and closed meetings. Open meetings are meetings that anyone can go to whether they have a problem with alcohol and drugs or not. A closed meeting is limited to those recovering from drugs or alcohol only. They provide an opportunity for those recovering to share with one another problems related to drug abuse patterns and attempts to achieve stable sobriety.
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Powerlessness
Recognition by an individual that he or she is no longer able to control his or her behavior. Desire for use becomes the driving force or directive for all behavior.
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Prevention
Stopping drug use before it starts, intervening to halt the progression of drug use once it has begun, changing environmental conditions that encourage addictive drug use. Because of these changes, the brain and body eventually come to require the presence of the drug to work properly.
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Recovery Process or Recovery
The process of reducing or ceasing one's consumption of destructive substances and/or the enactment of compulsive behaviors followed by the creation of a new personal life within a supportive social environment. Regularly participating in the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, step work, a support group, sponsorship relationships, and service work are all integral parts of the recovery process.
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Relapse; Regress
In general meaning to fall back to a former condition, here relapse means resuming the use of a drug one has tried to stop using. Relapse is a common occurrence in many chronic disorders that require behavioral adjustments to treat effectively. A return to use of alcohol or drugs following a significant period of abstinence of recovery is also considered to be relapse.
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Relapse Traps
People, places, things, and situations that remind addicts about their using and trigger their desire to start using again.
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Self-will
The desire to always do things our way regardless of the consequences.
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Splitting
The setting of one person or group against another, usually for the purposes of maintaining power ("divide & conquer"), or by ACOA's as a survival strategy
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Sponsorship
A process in which a person in a 12 Step program shares what they have learned in the recovery process with a newer member of the 12 Step program. A sponsor will usually guide their sponsee in working the 12 Steps. They will be available to listen and support the sponsee, help the sponsee become active in service work, attending meetings, and reading the literature.
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Support System
A network of people, agencies, communities, and facilities that interact and provide support for each other during recovery.
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Surrender
Individual recognizes that his or her life has become unmanageable and decides to stop following self will and become teachable.
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Therapeutic Community Model
First practiced roughly 40 years ago, the Therapeutic Community Model operates as a residential treatment facility. As treatment it uses a hierarchical model with different treatment stages. These facilities use the peer influence of the other residents to help clients understand social norms. The community is used as the main aspect of each addict's treatment.
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Trigger
A specific cue that can cause an addict or alcoholic to crave drugs or alcohol again. Because the brain experiences changes in gene expression which effects learning and memory, certain environmental cues can provide a signal that will cause the recovering person to want relapse.
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12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
The treatment method used by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Similar versions are used in many treatment facilities. The 12 steps of AA are:

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Each step has a corresponding principle, which are featured on the Breakthru House Recovery Quilt. The Principles of the Steps are:

Step 1 HONESTY
Step 2 HOPE
Step 3 FAITH
Step 4 COURAGE
Step 5 INTEGRITY
Step 6 WILLINGNESS
Step 7 HUMILITY
Step 8 LOVE
Step 9 DISCIPLINE
Step 10 PERSEVERANCE
Step 11 AWARENESS OF GOD
Step 12 SERVICE/RESPONSIBILITY
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Withdrawal
Physical, mental, and emotional symptoms in the body and brain that occur after cessation of drug use in a person who is physically dependent on that drug.
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