In most instances, mental health issues and drug and alcohol addiction overlap. This is because when faced with various psychological problems, most people turn to drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism. Moreover, the intake of alcohol and drug abuse has been shown to worsen the symptoms of underlying mental health diseases. To address this issue, most addiction treatment centers now simultaneously address mental health issues.
The treatment approaches used in a sober living community in Scottsdale, AZ, are nonetheless customized to address the specific issues a person is battling. Most therapies include psychotherapy, substance abuse counseling, group therapy, behavioral therapy, and detoxification, among others. Behavioral therapy in addiction treatment primarily focuses on automatic thoughts, underlying beliefs, and distorted thoughts that contribute to a patient’s diagnosis. The following are the types of behavioral therapies used in alcohol and drug addiction treatment.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
This is the most popular therapy in psychiatry and psychology. CBT for addiction treatments provides a way for those dealing with addiction to understand their issues and recover from them. The sessions are aimed to help a patient set treatment goals and modify the unhealthy thought patterns contributing to an addiction. CBT is also designed to improve a patient’s mood and generate long-term positive behavioral changes.
Dialectal Behavioral Therapy
This encourages patients struggling with addiction to accept their issues and make the necessary changes for a healthy and meaningful life. DBT is focused on helping people develop new and healthy behaviors and enhancing their capabilities. It also provides the patient with a highly structured environment for learning how to break their harmful habits.
Habit Reversal Training
This therapy exposes people struggling with addiction to their problematic behaviors. In the past, it was used for the treatment of disorders like hair pulling and others. Habit reversal training includes several stages, and its overall goal is the alleviation of addictive behavior. In habit reversal therapy, an individual identifies the specific trigger for his or her addiction and develops healthy habits to replace it. The addiction treatment centers often have a supportive environment for the person to learn how he or she can apply the techniques learned in real-life circumstances.
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy
The primary principle of REBT is that particular events will not directly influence emotions or behaviors. A person’s beliefs about a certain event might instead cause him or her to react in a certain way. REBT trains people to manage their emotions and behaviors as well as identify unhealthy thoughts and experiences that lead to addictive behaviors. The therapy ultimately helps people transform their unproductive and negative thoughts and actions into productive ones.
It is generally hard to diagnose a mental condition when dealing with alcohol addiction. Most people assume that alcohol addiction is just a consequence of unhealthy lifestyle choices. Appreciating the overlapping of both disorders allows an integrated approach to your treatment. The above behavioral therapies, when coupled with other treatment modalities, not only address your existing mental issues but also increase the odds of leading a sober life after treatment.