Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps individuals understand the relationship between their thought processes, behaviors and emotional state. This kind of addiction therapy is skill-oriented therapy and assists in learning how to use adaptive thinking, which leads to healthier behaviors. It also helps those suffering from addiction learn how life experiences contributed to their addiction and helps identify destructive patterns.
CBT tools are designed to assist individuals in their recovery process. They include, but are not limited to:
Enhancing motivation to quit drinking and to remain abstinent
- Risk/reward analysis (costs/benefits of drinking/quitting)
- Setting sensible, measurable, achievable, reasonable and timed goals and working towards achieving them
Learning how to refuse to act on urges when they arise
- Understanding internal and external triggers and how to manage them
- Understanding normal social situations that can create anxiety and better ways of coping with them
Learning how to manage life’s problems in an effective way
- Using CBT to identify irrational thinking and how to change self-talk
- Learn self-acceptance and others-acceptance
Developing a positive, balanced and healthy lifestyle
- Recognizing the importance of exercise and nutrition in the recovery process
- Utilize available nutritional supplementation to assist brain chemistry repair
- Replacing destructive thinking with constructive thinking
Motives and Goals
Motivation is a key element in nearly everything that one does. At Awakening, we believe in developing internal motivation as opposed to remaining fixed on fear or incentive motivation. The old way of thinking must be addressed and internalized. When motivation is an inside job, we will feel better about the idea of changing our lives. Setting positive goals and achieving them is the key to lasting recovery from addiction and a healthy new life.
Beliefs
What you believe about your addiction is important, and there are many ideas around about addiction. Some people believe things such as, “I’ve tried and failed before, so I can’t do it. I need alcohol (or other drugs) to cope.” Or even worse, “Because I’ve tried to quit and failed, I must just be weak.” These beliefs, and many like them must be overcome for recovery to happen.
Emotions
People often use alcohol and drugs to cope with their emotional problems, including guilt, anger, anxiety and low self-esteem. At Awakening Recovery Center, we teach you how to change your old thinking and how to increase your self-acceptance. You can then have greater motivation to begin early recovery and to live more happily and productively.
Behaviors
Changes in thinking and feelings are a good beginning. Commitment and follow-through are essential. We encourage patients to work at solving their problems and to become involved in enjoyable and beneficial activities in place of their chemical dependence.
Addiction treatments must help patients identify and address the triggers of their addiction. Whether its self-medicating, numbing unwanted feelings or filling an emotional void, CBT therapy can help.
Relapse will likely happen unless patients understand the why of their addictions. A comprehensive addiction treatment program takes into account the overall health and wellbeing of patients.
