Cognitive behavioral therapy techniques are important in psychotherapy. There are many different styles, which make cognitive behavioral therapy great for catering to people’s individual needs. This type of therapy is a common method for treating mental disorders, including addiction and substance use. Below is more information about how doctors use this specific type of therapy to treat addiction.
Behavior Experiments
In general, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques (CBT) revolve around running behavioral experiments. Doctors use these experiments to test how people think. The goal is to get to the root cause of their problems. This means, in terms of addiction, the goal is to find out what triggers their dependence on drugs or alcohol.
A common example of this is how someone reacts or talks to themselves after giving into an addiction. If you criticize yourself, you may give in to your addiction even more. If you’re kind to yourself, you’re less likely to overreact to the situation.
Since it’s hard to examine yourself, it’s best to leave the analysis to an expert. Also, the key benefit of behavior therapy is that it adapts to a person’s needs. Because of this, the behavior tests that your therapist uses are different than the tests that others receive.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques and Addiction
With addiction, there’s usually a clear behavioral pattern that goes against what people want to do. For example, those who want to overcome addiction will show that they want to change. However, the addiction causes compulsive behaviors that keep them from stopping.
This therapy revolves around the idea that inaccurate thoughts lead to all addictions. The goal is to use therapy techniques to change these thoughts or negative feelings.
One of the main problems is that people have unrealistic goals for themselves. These are impossible to live up to and cause negative feelings when they aren’t able to reach them. Instead of punishing themselves for not reaching a goal, they should reward themselves for healthy behaviors.
Get Addiction Help at Pinnacle Peak Recovery
At Pinnacle Peak Recovery, our main goal is to help you get the addiction treatment that you need. We create unique addiction recovery plans that keep your needs in mind. In addition, we also use evidence-based therapy methods to help you combat your addiction. Some of the different types of therapy options that we offer through our treatment programs include:
- Cognitive behavior therapy
- Dialectical behavior therapy
- Individual therapy
- Family therapy
- Group therapy
We work with top insurance companies to ensure that we can offer help to more people. Our staff offers support for a number of addictions, including heroin, alcohol, and meth. Additionally, we offer dual diagnosis treatment to prevent mental disorders from fueling your addiction.
Don’t let your addiction control your life. Behavior therapy can put you down the path to recovery. Contact Pinnacle Peak Recovery today at 866-377-4761.