Addiction is a disease of the mind, developed through a process that starts from appetitive behavior and ends with a destructive mindset, poor choices, and complete dependence on drugs.
To break the cycle of addiction, Psychology through its various pragmatic techniques can help people fighting with addiction understand the underlying causes of addiction, replace the destructive thoughts with healthier ones and cope with cravings.
To shed light on how Psychology and its various practices can help you fight addiction, ChoicePoint invited 9 top-notch Psychologists around the globe.
Below are their responses that might help you better understand how a disease of the mind, addiction, can be better coped through behavior-changing therapies and other psychological techniques.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
First Step:
First, we clarify the problem and normalize it to calm any sense of shame or inadequacy. So we tell Steven(patient), “It makes so much sense that you are addicted to gambling. Playing cards was the only way you found to escape your scary family when you were growing up. It took away your loneliness because other kids wanted to be near you and play on your team and it made you feel competent and in control. It was your way out of your pain. So when that pain comes for you again…………..it is so hard not to turn to this escape.”
Second Step:
Next, we join the client to validate how their previous protection has become a prison. This creates a safe platform for them to look at their predicament. Both these steps were crucial to understand and break the cycle of addiction.
Further Steps:
Then we offer following resources:
- We encourage clients to access moments of mastery and safety and to shape them into explicit stories and moments of comfort .
- We offer them our respect and validation for their struggles.
- We show them how to make sense of and regulate the pain that moved them into addiction in the first place.
Conclusion:
So Stephen and I conclude, “So these moments when you are swimming and feeling strong and when you remember winning those trophies, these tell you how strong you can be when you trust yourself. And now you think of these moments every day. Especially when your deep sense of being unwanted by your Dad, of never being enough for him and being shut out and left alone in your family like you did not matter, comes for you. We can touch and walk through that pain together -can you let that hurt come up right now?”
Steve accesses a painful memory and grieves the moment he felt like he lost his Dad in the session. This grief then changes into something known and manageable.
Bonus Resource:
We especially promote the greatest resource of all to break cycle of addiction – a safe connection with others. So we examine Steve’s relationship with his wife and how he hides and shuts her out to hold onto his gambling. She comes into the session, and we create a safe open conversation where Steve can share his hurt, reach for his wife, and where we help her respond. This is the most productive, effective way to calm Steve’s nervous system and a natural, compelling alternative to turning to his addiction. Nothing protects and helps us grow like a secure bond. Becoming and belonging go together.
For research on EFT and articles on individual and couple versions of EFT, please go to www.iceeft.comor www.drsuejohnson.com
Fighting with addiction? Break the cycle of addiction by availing ChoicePoint therapy services.
Drug addiction often develops as a way of coping with challenging or painful emotions by numbing the emotional pain and discomfort they cause with various substances.
Psychology and especially psychotherapy, helps people fighting drug addiction recognize the:
- Situations,
- People, and especially,
- Emotions that trigger them into using drugs
So they can avoid or minimize these triggers to break the cycle of addiction, develop alternative coping mechanisms that do not involve substances, and find healthier ways of addressing and treating their unmet needs and underlying emotional wounds.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
What are the top three ways Psychology helps patients fight with addiction?
Drug addiction often develops as a way of coping with challenging or painful emotions by numbing the emotional pain and discomfort they cause with various substances.
Psychology and especially psychotherapy, helps people fighting drug addiction recognize the:
- Situations,
- People, and especially,
- Emotions that trigger them into using drugs
So they can avoid or minimize these triggers to break the cycle of addiction, develop alternative coping mechanisms that do not involve substances, and find healthier ways of addressing and treating their unmet needs and underlying emotional wounds.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
Many who struggle with addictions feel trapped between two opposing forces:
- The desire to use in order to escape physical and/or psychological pain
- Desire to be clean, whole, and healthy.
Addiction trap(Cycle of addiction):
This “trap” can feel like a physical and emotional tug-of-war. The word dialectical refers to the marriage of these two opposites. The foundational block of DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) is to create a space between these two opposing forces where acceptance and change are possible.
Human beings have a space between stimulus and response, something (as far as we know) other animals do not have. Animals operate strictly from reflexes. E.g., “See meat, eat meat.” Humans have conscious awareness, a space between an urge to make an appropriate response.
How addiction therapy(DBT) can help?
DBT can help to validate the inappropriate desire (to use, to act on road rage, etc.), stand in that space, and choose a response in line with one’s goals, health, and self-respect. In time, with practice, one’s higher consciousness will begin to drive their behavior vs. their automatic, unconscious reflexes.
The three main points of DBT’s “formula” for success are:
- Slowing down the mind,
- Recognizing choices,
- Trusting one can choose health and recovery.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
Drug addiction often develops as a way of coping with challenging or painful emotions by numbing the emotional pain and discomfort they cause with various substances.
Psychology and especially psychotherapy, helps people fighting drug addiction recognize the:
- Situations,
- People, and especially,
- Emotions that trigger them into using drugs
So they can avoid or minimize these triggers to break the cycle of addiction, develop alternative coping mechanisms that do not involve substances, and find healthier ways of addressing and treating their unmet needs and underlying emotional wounds.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
From a trauma perspective, addiction can be seen as an effort to:
- Self-medicate
- Manage trauma-related symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, flashbacks, panic, etc.)
- And regulate dysregulated physiological arousal (both hyper- and hypo- arousal)
Thus, addiction can begin as a survival strategy, but as time goes on, the addiction becomes more threatening to the individual than the symptoms it attempts to prevent.
Understanding psychology of addiction as a survival strategy related to the legacy of trauma promotes understanding and self-compassion, learning to identify symptoms and triggers that instigate using increases self-awareness, and developing new strategies to replace addictive behavior when these symptoms emerge empowers people to take new action on their own behalf.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
From a trauma perspective, addiction can be seen as an effort to:
- Self-medicate
- Manage trauma-related symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, flashbacks, panic, etc.)
- And regulate dysregulated physiological arousal (both hyper- and hypo- arousal)
Thus, addiction can begin as a survival strategy, but as time goes on, the addiction becomes more threatening to the individual than the symptoms it attempts to prevent.
Understanding psychology of addiction as a survival strategy related to the legacy of trauma promotes understanding and self-compassion, learning to identify symptoms and triggers that instigate using increases self-awareness, and developing new strategies to replace addictive behavior when these symptoms emerge empowers people to take new action on their own behalf.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
What actually lead to addiction?
Events in adulthood:
Adults don’t often realize they can turn to some form of addiction not only to escape pain or reality but that sometimes life can be like the needle on a vinyl record player that has jumped a groove when suddenly life can take a different and possibly unexpected turn. It’s when events in adulthood can trigger what we thought we had left behind or escaped from.
This is because childhood dysfunction, abandonment, loss, or trauma can sometimes leave us with forgotten emotional scars that cause some to feel utterly lost, lonely, and disconnected from either their parents, families, or, indeed, themselves.
Also, childhood trauma may have caused much shame. It may have induced a conscious or unconscious self-hatred that requires constant reminding through various forms of self-punishment, ranging from debt, gambling, sex, alcohol and drug addiction, and so on.
Changes in society:
Furthermore, the rapid changes within society and what is now expected has and is creating new stress, underlined by families and relationships that have become dysfunctional. As a result, people are finding it hard to cope.
This is when it may seem easier to resort to behavior that blocks out difficult feelings or circumstances, except that this choice may cause more damage in the long run. Addicts may land up losing their jobs, their relationships, their marriage, and even their connection to their children. The consequences can be devastating to all involved.
Addictions and the causes are complex, and the choice of addiction can vary from person to person. This can also depend on the family of origin and the emotional complexities within each family, and whether addictions are prevalent.
How Can Therapy Help?
Besides the 12-step program (which may also involve group therapy, including a mentoring scheme), the addict/patient/client can be helped to overcome the actual physical addiction. In contrast, therapy can help the addict discover why they need the addiction emotionally. And this is often crucial to long-term recovery.
Over 20 years of having had a private practice, I also observed the following:
1. Unlike computers, we cannot be reinstalled. In other words, we cannot change our childhoods. What’s done is done. Instead, we can look back to learn – to understand why we react as we do. Or, indeed, why we need a particular addictive behavior to hide behind.
The therapeutic process involves finding out what caused the emotional disconnection and the resulting knee-jerk reactions. And although this takes great courage and tenacity, it also brings a tremendous amount of emotional and even physical relief. Many don’t actually realize that the amount of energy it takes to suppress buried memories takes a massive toll on the body. All needless, if we can just find a way of asking for help.
2.Therapy also helps a person understand how their brain works and how this is related to any cravings and the necessary responses. And how this relates to a particular addiction, shame, or past issue is crucial to the overall awareness.
3. As the work progresses, it is important to provide techniques that will help build confidence and encourage self-worth to grow. And part of this, and depending on the situation, could be to also encourage a program of life coaching as well as physical exercise, yoga or meditation and often spending time with animals and nature is found to be helpful too
Deidré Wallace is a relationship therapist and educator. She has had a private practice for over 20 years.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
What actually lead to addiction?
Events in adulthood:
Adults don’t often realize they can turn to some form of addiction not only to escape pain or reality but that sometimes life can be like the needle on a vinyl record player that has jumped a groove when suddenly life can take a different and possibly unexpected turn. It’s when events in adulthood can trigger what we thought we had left behind or escaped from.
This is because childhood dysfunction, abandonment, loss, or trauma can sometimes leave us with forgotten emotional scars that cause some to feel utterly lost, lonely, and disconnected from either their parents, families, or, indeed, themselves.
Also, childhood trauma may have caused much shame. It may have induced a conscious or unconscious self-hatred that requires constant reminding through various forms of self-punishment, ranging from debt, gambling, sex, alcohol and drug addiction, and so on.
Changes in society:
Furthermore, the rapid changes within society and what is now expected has and is creating new stress, underlined by families and relationships that have become dysfunctional. As a result, people are finding it hard to cope.
This is when it may seem easier to resort to behavior that blocks out difficult feelings or circumstances, except that this choice may cause more damage in the long run. Addicts may land up losing their jobs, their relationships, their marriage, and even their connection to their children. The consequences can be devastating to all involved.
Addictions and the causes are complex, and the choice of addiction can vary from person to person. This can also depend on the family of origin and the emotional complexities within each family, and whether addictions are prevalent.
How Can Therapy Help?
Besides the 12-step program (which may also involve group therapy, including a mentoring scheme), the addict/patient/client can be helped to overcome the actual physical addiction. In contrast, therapy can help the addict discover why they need the addiction emotionally. And this is often crucial to long-term recovery.
Over 20 years of having had a private practice, I also observed the following:
1. Unlike computers, we cannot be reinstalled. In other words, we cannot change our childhoods. What’s done is done. Instead, we can look back to learn – to understand why we react as we do. Or, indeed, why we need a particular addictive behavior to hide behind.
The therapeutic process involves finding out what caused the emotional disconnection and the resulting knee-jerk reactions. And although this takes great courage and tenacity, it also brings a tremendous amount of emotional and even physical relief. Many don’t actually realize that the amount of energy it takes to suppress buried memories takes a massive toll on the body. All needless, if we can just find a way of asking for help.
2.Therapy also helps a person understand how their brain works and how this is related to any cravings and the necessary responses. And how this relates to a particular addiction, shame, or past issue is crucial to the overall awareness.
3. As the work progresses, it is important to provide techniques that will help build confidence and encourage self-worth to grow. And part of this, and depending on the situation, could be to also encourage a program of life coaching as well as physical exercise, yoga or meditation and often spending time with animals and nature is found to be helpful too
Deidré Wallace is a relationship therapist and educator. She has had a private practice for over 20 years.
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
- The quality of the therapeutic alliance in individual therapy and group cohesion are the best predictors of long-term patient behavior changes. Thus, the therapist’s ability to establish, maintain and monitor the quality of the therapeutic alliance on a session-by-session basis is essential to achieve positive treatment outcomes.
- Research indicates that there are ” no winners to the race” of the most effective treatment interventions with addictive individuals. There is an increasing consensus of what are the best practices. See my recent book on “Treating individuals with addictive disorders. For example, therapists cannot merely train skills and ” hope for transfer.” Therapists need to build in Generalization Guidelines in order to achieve long-term behavior change, as I discuss in my recent book.
- In order to achieve long-term behavior change in addictive individuals, the intervention should be strength-based, helping individuals develop resilience-engendering behaviors.
See the FREE copy of my book ” Roadmap to resilience” that you can access online
roadmaptoresilience.wordpress.com
REFERENCE Meichenbaum D ( 2020) Treatment of individuals with addictive disorders: A strengths-based workbook for patients and clinicians , New York : Routledge Books
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
- The quality of the therapeutic alliance in individual therapy and group cohesion are the best predictors of long-term patient behavior changes. Thus, the therapist’s ability to establish, maintain and monitor the quality of the therapeutic alliance on a session-by-session basis is essential to achieve positive treatment outcomes.
- Research indicates that there are ” no winners to the race” of the most effective treatment interventions with addictive individuals. There is an increasing consensus of what are the best practices. See my recent book on “Treating individuals with addictive disorders. For example, therapists cannot merely train skills and ” hope for transfer.” Therapists need to build in Generalization Guidelines in order to achieve long-term behavior change, as I discuss in my recent book.
- In order to achieve long-term behavior change in addictive individuals, the intervention should be strength-based, helping individuals develop resilience-engendering behaviors.
See the FREE copy of my book ” Roadmap to resilience” that you can access online
roadmaptoresilience.wordpress.com
REFERENCE Meichenbaum D ( 2020) Treatment of individuals with addictive disorders: A strengths-based workbook for patients and clinicians , New York : Routledge Books
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
The three ways in which psychology can assist patients break the cycle of addiction are as follows….
- Evidence based treatments
- Holistic approach to addiction, the biopsychosocial model
- Trauma informed care
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
The three ways in which psychology can assist patients break the cycle of addiction are as follows….
- Evidence based treatments
- Holistic approach to addiction, the biopsychosocial model
- Trauma informed care
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
Do you think mindful activities can help people fighting with addiction cope with their negativity?
We found that as little as five days of training with a form of mindfulness can reduce self reported negative mood, break the cycle of addiction, enhance self reported positive mood as measured by the profile of mood states (POMS).
We found that as little as five days of training with a form of mindfulness can reduce self reported negative mood, break the cycle of addiction, enhance self reported positive mood as measured by the profile of mood states (POMS).
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
Do you think mindful activities can help people fighting with addiction cope with their negativity?
We found that as little as five days of training with a form of mindfulness can reduce self reported negative mood, break the cycle of addiction, enhance self reported positive mood as measured by the profile of mood states (POMS).
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
One of the most important ways that Psychology can help break the cycle of addiction is actually two-fold.
More specifically, Psychology can seek to understand and work with what lies beneath addiction, without judgment, as well as remember that successful treatment does not entail a ‘one size fits all’ philosophy or approach.
Like people tend to be, addiction is often complex. Psychology can also help by maintaining hope!
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
How Psychology can help break the cycle of addiction?
One of the most important ways that Psychology can help break the cycle of addiction is actually two-fold.
More specifically, Psychology can seek to understand and work with what lies beneath addiction, without judgment, as well as remember that successful treatment does not entail a ‘one size fits all’ philosophy or approach.
Like people tend to be, addiction is often complex. Psychology can also help by maintaining hope!
Fighting with addiction? ChoicePoint offers therapy services to help recover from addiction.
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Medical Disclaimer:
ChoicePoint aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with substance use disorder and mental health issues. Our team of licensed medical professionals research, edit and review the content before publishing. However, this information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For medical advice please consult your physicians or ChoicePoint's qualified staff.
