If you are considering seeking treatment for addiction or co-occurring disorders, one of the treatments you may experience is cognitive-behavioral therapy. This behavioral therapy for addiction can help you to fight through old habits so that you can better cope with healthful changes. The experienced professionals at Clearhaven Recovery offer cognitive-behavioral therapy in our Massachusetts center. Reach out today to learn more.
What Is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive-Behavioral therapy is a time-tested treatment for mental health and addiction therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches you to access your beliefs so that you can process your thoughts and feelings in a way that provides you with more positive everyday outcomes. This process can help you to recognize when your own behaviors are not based on logical or rational reasoning. We all learn ways of processing through our life experiences, but sometimes those lessons are best left in the past so that we can treat ourselves and our loved ones better.
Retraining Ourselves Against Negative Automatic Thoughts
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help you identify negative automatic thoughts and rewire your responses. Negative automatic thoughts are formed through traumatic experiences and can reinforce behaviors by working like a running script in your mind that tells you that the same negative outcome will occur each time. By challenging this notion and replacing it with the possibility of a positive outcome, you can grow out of addiction.
What Happens During a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Session?
When you practice cognitive behavioral therapy in a session, your care professional will help guide you toward positive changes that work toward your personal treatment goals. The following list includes some of the features of a cognitive-behavioral therapy practice:
- Set specific and achievable goals
- Shift the way that you think about stress when each instance arises
- Try new tools in safe environments
- Learn to dismiss false beliefs as they arise
- Practice deep breathing, relaxation of your muscles, and exercises that are guided by your therapist
- Better understand your own triggers and work to avoid them
- Use each stressor to face your fears in a way that is gentle and natural to you
To recognize distortions in your own thinking, you may need guidance from a caring and experienced professional. Clearhaven Recovery Center’s professional staff is here to help you learn to process negative thinking in new positive ways that will reinforce your addiction therapy.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and the Cycle Of Addiction
The cycle of addiction takes hold when you become both physically and emotionally dependent on a substance in order to cope with conditions in your life such as pain, trauma, mental health issues, or social anxiety. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an extremely helpful tool because often the coping mechanisms that drive individuals to addiction are not based on logic. By exploring more healthful ways to cope, you can release your emotional dependency on substance use and drug addiction. Behavioral therapy for addiction can help support the second tier of treating the cycle of addiction. Emotional dependency is rooted in the coping mechanisms that are learned through life experience. When you have the strength to better advocate for yourself, even against your own automatic script, you can make better decisions in your daily life.
Seek Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy at Clearhaven Recovery Center
If you feel that cognitive-behavioral therapy may be a tool that can help you work through your addiction, then Clearhaven Recovery Center can support you in your life changes. Call us at 833.970.2054 to learn more about our personalized care plans. Our team can guide you through the difficulties of emotional dependency to better support your recovery and help you maintain sobriety. If you are struggling with co-occurring disorders like anxiety or depression, as well, your treatment plan will be personalized to include specialized treatment options that are meant just for your care. Start your unique journey to recovery today.
