Treatment Programs in Atascocita, TX
Addicts and their families tend to have a great deal of trouble grasping how to treat addiction; it can seem as if the medicine and cleansing of detoxification should be enough to escape addiction. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Detoxification is only the first step to treating addiction. As we tell our patients here at our treatment programs in Atascocita, addiction is a psychological disorder. The true work of addressing addiction happens after detox, in the form of therapeutic treatment programs.
It is often hard for patients to take these programs seriously, however, when they don't truly understand what they achieve. Here below, then, is a look at one of the most important kinds of therapy used in addiction treatment, namely, cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
When a person repeatedly indulges in substance abuse, often, such activity is traceable to struggles with cognitive distortions or maladaptive psychological processes. A person afflicted by poor psychological development simply does not possess natural tools and defenses against life's challenges. Life's frustrations, then, are taken out through recourse to substance abuse.
A number of such cognitive distortions exist:
- Magnification: Blowing up minor problems out of proportion in the mind.
- Disqualifying the positive: Overlooking positive occurrences in life as insignificant.
- Personalization: A compulsion to assign blame to oneself for everything.
- The need to be right: An attitude where personal fallibility seems painful and unthinkable.
- Mislabeling: Attributing the worst possible motives to the actions of others.
- Catastrophizing: Judging situations by the worst outcomes that are imaginable.
- Dichotomous reasoning: If something isn't perfect, it can seem an absolute failure.
- Illusory correlation: Making far-fetched connections to see unpleasant possibilities.
- Fear of causing hurt: Being convinced simple refusal cause grievous hurt.
It's easy to see how these cognitive distortions may make life hard. If everything seems to be your own fault, if things that go wrong seem to go terribly wrong, if you can't see what is good about life, and there is a constant need to be right, even mildly unfavorable circumstances can build negative emotional pressure to unbearable levels.
Often, it can seem as if there is little hope, and self-medication with drugs or alcohol is the only way to obtain relief. This can dangerously require dual diagnosis treatment in Atascocita. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help by putting participants through a number of exercises and therapeutic interactions.
Cognitive distortion unraveling: The participant is encouraged to keep a detailed record of how his thoughts evolve when things don't seem to go well. As an example, if you were to be rebuked by the boss, you could find yourself thinking thoughts about how mortified you are, how the boss probably has it in for you, how you are a terrible failure, and how the pain of all this is so terrible, you have to have a couple of stiff drinks to be able to process it.
Writing such a sequence of thoughts out in detail can help you review them more objectively, and see how all of it seems extreme. The therapist may go further and encourage you to think of alternative possibilities — for instance, that the boss treats everyone else that way, or that you made a mistake that came at a particularly bad time.
Treatment Programs in Atascocita Promote Positive Thinking
The more one looks for alternative possibilities, the more meaningless such thought patterns can seem. In therapy, you learn to internalize these methods to be able to practice them yourself at home until the natural way of thinking replaces the distorted way.
Behavioral experiments: When you suffer from an exaggerated belief that turning people down hurts them, a CBT behavioral experiment can show you how things could be different. The therapist shows you films that demonstrate how easily people turn other people down without fear of causing hurt. Then, the therapist invites you participate in little staged situations where you get to say no to people. The ability to turn people down can help greatly when friends offer drinks or hits of drugs.
Playing out the script: Cognitive distortions often get people worked up about the specter of things going badly wrong. It is the specter that scares most, however, rather having the actual eventuality. The playing-out-the-script therapeutic method helps you imagine the worst thing could happen, and thinking, in detail about what it would be like if it actually came to pass. Usually, you see that getting fired, having people dislike you, or hurting people, isn't really that fearsome, after all.
Finding the Right Therapist for Treatment Programs in Atascocita
There are many other therapeutic approaches that rehab treatment programs for addiction use help people, including art therapy, twelve-step programs and motivational interviewing, among others.
With each one of these methods, the most important component is finding a therapist who will work well for your specific needs. It's important to interview different therapists and find a good match. Our inpatient drug rehab in Atascocita is one of the best treatment programs offered. We bring to patients the full range of rehab treatment programs and addiction treatment therapy, and some of the best therapists in these fields. Talking to our specialists can be a great start at (877) 804-1531.