Back to Module Intro

Metacognitive Training

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  1. Introduction
    Identify your fire
  2. Choose your own adventure
  3. Self-Esteem & Stigma
    Introduction
  4. What are self-esteem and stigma?
  5. Self-esteem, stigma and substance use
  6. Activity 1- Communication tools
  7. Activity 2- Creating a positive self-concept
  8. Activity 3- Focusing on your strengths
  9. Summary
  10. Quiz
  11. Explaining Situations
    Introduction
  12. What are attributions?
  13. Attributional styles and substance use
  14. Activity 1- Balanced explanations Part 1
  15. Activity 2- Balanced explanations Part 2
  16. Activity 3- Practicing explanations
  17. Summary
  18. Quiz
  19. Worrying & Coping
    Introduction
  20. What is rumination?
  21. Worrying and substance use
  22. Activity 1- Observe your thoughts
  23. Activity 2- Postpone rumination
  24. Activity 3- Shift your attention
  25. Activity 4- Sensory grounding
  26. Activity 5- Relaxed breathing
  27. Summary
  28. Quiz
  29. Attention & thinking
    Introduction
  30. Terms are related to thinking and memory
  31. Attention and substance use
  32. Activity 1- Card games
  33. Activity 2
  34. Activity 3- Problem Solving
  35. Summary
  36. Quiz
  37. Relapse
    Introduction
  38. What is relapse?
  39. Cravings, triggers, and relapse
  40. Activity 1- Managing triggers
  41. Activity 2- Alternative strategies
  42. Activity 3- Emergency plan
  43. Activity 4- Learning from each relapse
  44. Summary
  45. Quiz
Metacognitive Training Activity 1- Communication tools
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Lesson 6 of 45
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Activity 1- Communication tools

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Communication is an important tool to share experiences while struggling with substance use. 

However, sometimes it can be difficult to share your experiences. It is always up to you whether to share your experiences with substance use with other people. If you want to share your experiences, try this exercise to help you feel more confident in communicating to others about substance use. 

This can be particularly useful when sharing your experiences with someone who has never used substances themselves. It can help them better understand what you are going through so you can get proper support.

A good strategy is breaking substance use down into meaningful components, rather than focusing on big ideas such as  “substance use disorder”, “drug use” or “addiction” as a whole.  

Steps: 

  1. Think of a symptom, feeling, or experience of substance use.
    • Ex. Cravings:
  2. Think about what this symptom, feeling, or experience of substance use means or feels like to you:
    • Ex. The intense want for a substance, both the desire for pleasant (ex. high) effects and the desire to avoid the withdrawal (ex. dope sick) experienced when not using the substance.
  3. Now think about how you could communicate this same concept to someone who has no experience with it. Try putting it into terms that they are more familiar with:
    • “Cravings are like having a very itchy, uncomfortable rash that you absolutely need to scratch, but you can’t pinpoint it. This need to relieve this itch intensely consumes all your thoughts, your body, your senses, you can’t think of anything else.” 

Here are some other concepts to practice communicating about. This list is not exhaustive, if you can think of others feel free to use them in this activity. 

  • Withdrawal, or what it feels like when you try to stop using 
  • Relapse
  • Inability to stop using despite health problems
  • Overdose
Click here to download a practice worksheet