Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Definition, Usages, Type, Activity and Effectivity.
Fortunately, working with a cognitive behavioral therapist during the detox and rehab process can lessen the pressure to use drugs to control negative thoughts. Finally, you will be given tools to help you reshape those negative or inaccurate thoughts. This revulsion can make it very hard to look at your addiction as something you have the power to address. Even though you know that you are not physically in that place or in that same danger, you may suffer a flashback. Make your CBT therapist aware of these reactions so you can learn the tools you need to lessen the stress of lingering feelings and memories. Using the ABC model, your therapist can help you determine the: Do you want to deal with the financial pressures that your drug of choice puts on your budget? Maybe your coworker is tired because her new baby keeps disrupting her sleep. Once you loosen your hold on those “always” thoughts, you build mental flexibility to alter your reaction to the situation. You may notice that your children avoid you, which can hurt. You may notice that your spouse doesn’t rely on you, which can damage your relationship. As you come to understand your thoughts and how they have impacted your behavior over time, you have a starting point for conversations with your spouse. You will have a way forward to rebuild connections with your children. Often, actions taken based on these deepest needs happen with no thought at all. For example, we don’t need to think about all the steps it takes to shower because it’s a habit. Repeated activities, day after day, grow into automatic routines that require little to no thought. This can be as simple as fixing a pot of coffee or walking to a bus stop. To an outsider who is not addicted, these behaviors may look like neglect or abuse, but because of the level of need in your brain, it makes sense to you. You may be given a helpful word, such as “maybe.” You may be trained to ask yourself a simple question before you act on a trigger. You can also look at yourself from a gentler viewpoint as you retrain your brain with these new tools. Because detox can often nausea as well as more severe symptoms like tremors, hallucinations, sudden high blood pressure, seizures, and coma, professional support is critical. As you move into the rehab and treatment process, you may participate in both group and private counseling that includes features of CBT. During your private sessions, you may start to look at negative thoughts or concepts that you hold about your worth. These concepts may have been acting on your view of your self-worth for a long time and may have left you feeling isolated and alone. Your therapist may have given you new tools to look at these thoughts. You may be able to look at them from a different angle and create enough mental space to understand how cognitive distortions can lower your self-esteem and harm your relationships. You can learn to alter how you look at yourself, your circumstances, and the world around you. When you enter into group therapy, your feelings of isolation and loneliness can fall away. You are not the only person struggling to take their brain and their life back from addiction. You are not the only person who has tried and failed to control an addiction on their own. As isolation falls away, you can learn to socialize without drugs and alcohol. You can learn to be more caring and altruistic; offering your viewpoint or your coping tools becomes easier because you are not judging yourself as harshly as you have in the past. Likely, everyone in your group therapy sessions is also undergoing private counseling, and for many, that may involve CBT. The coping tools and questions of other group members may be different from yours. As you loosen up the rigidity of your thinking, especially about your past, you may also be able to integrate some of their insights. More Resources on Addiction: CBT cannot train you out of attending to your instincts. You will still get hangry, and you will still steal the blankets in your sleep. However, CBT can help you to understand how to manage the pressure and urgency of thoughts that come up when you don’t need to be in survival mode. You can learn to relax without drugs and alcohol. You can retrain your brain to stop wrapping you in negativity that you need to numb or wash away. You can create mental space to understand why you have reacted instinctively in the past, with distorted ways of thinking, and what you can do to make room for new, more helpful thought patterns. CBT can benefit you both in rehab and back in the “real” world. To get started with managing your addiction, reach out to our team at White Light Behavioral Health in Columbus, Ohio today.
What to Know About Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Treat Addiction
Break the Need for Self-Medication
The ABCs of Cognitive Therapy
Healing the Brain
Humanity’s basic needs, such as those for food, water, and shelter, are driven deep within the brain, and when we lack any of them, our emotions can override rational thought. For example, if your children are hungry, but you have no food or money to buy some, stealing food quickly becomes a viable option.
Private and Group Therapies
Tools You Can Take Home
CBT is generally treated as short-term therapy involving five to 20 sessions. While you can certainly go back for a brush-up or get help tackling a new problem, the skills you learn in CBT therapy to help overcome addiction can also be taken home to help you live a better life outside of rehab.
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Dr. Ryan Wakim M.D.
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