Cognitive-Based Addiction Treatment
Cognitive based addiction treatment, also known as cognitive behavioral therapy, is one of the most widely used forms of recovery services in the field of drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
Through this form of therapy, you will be taught how to find and understand the connections between your actions, feelings, and thoughts. You will also learn how to increase your awareness on how these things have an impact on your substance abuse and recovery.
Additionally, cognitive based therapy will help you identify, understand, and start changing all the dysfunctional behaviors that are linked to your drug taking and addiction. Through this form of psychotherapy, you may also learn all the skills that you need to turn your life around for the better.
As a structured form of addiction treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy will also help you identify all the triggers that lead to your substance abuse. You may also learn how to manage cravings while also recognizing the various high risk situations that often lead to your drug taking and alcohol drinking.
Brief Definition
Various research studies report that cognitive behavioral therapy, or cognitive based addiction treatment, is a form of psychotherapy that is used in the treatment of various substance abuse related problems and co-occurring mental health disorders. These disorders include suicidal thoughts, depression, and anxiety, among many others.
It has been used for many years now alongside other traditional addiction treatment modules. If you are asked to go through this form of therapy, you will get the opportunity to learn how to change your perceptions on substance use as well as your drug related behaviors. In the long term, it could help you start living a healthier lifestyle free of addictive substances.
It comes in the form of talk therapy and is based on the various psychological principles of behavior. This means that you will learn how to modify or control your behavior using the theories of cognition. These theories will also be focused on improving your understanding of how you understand, feel about, and think about yourself as well as the world and the environment around you.
Behaviorism, on the other hand, will be focused on the actions and behaviors that you take while the cognition theories will focus on your perceptions - including your emotions, thoughts, feelings, and what you see and hear.
Today, cognitive based addiction is taken as a different variation of behavioral therapy. This means that you will learn how to change your behavior through negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement - or punishments and rewards - alongside behaviors that you wish to decrease or increase.
Who Is Cognitive Based Treatment Best For?
Cognitive based addiction treatment might be the right solution for you if you are struggling with any, some, most, or all of the following issues:
- Anxiety
- Attention deficit disorder (or ADD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Chronic physical and psychological symptoms
- Conflicts and issues in your relationships at work, home, and/or school
- Difficulties managing your emotions
- Eating disorders
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (or OCD)
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD
- Problems coping with some of the stressful situations you find yourself in on a regular basis
- Sexual addiction
- Substance use disorders
- Trouble coping with the losses you have suffered due to divorce, death, or any other event
- Trouble relating to an unresolved mental health disorder
Cognitive based therapy might also be suitable if you need a form of treatment that will not only target your substance abuse and addiction but will also change the general actions, emotions, and thoughts that are associated with your ongoing drug taking and alcohol drinking.
It may also prove effective if you need to deal with a dual diagnosis that involves both addiction as well as a co-occurring mental health and medical disorder such as anxiety and depression.
How Long Is Cognitive Based Treatment?
Through cognitive based therapy, you will be provided with a hands-on alternative to other therapies that might not always be fully engaged. During the treatment sessions, you will do more than simply talk to your therapist. Additionally, the therapist will do more than simply listen to what you have to say. Instead, you will work together with the therapist to try and overcome your substance abuse and addiction.
Due to the time that it takes to work through these issues, you can expect the treatment to be provided as part of your ongoing addiction recovery program. In many cases, cognitive based therapy is applied in many 60 day and 90 day drug rehab programs.
Further, you need to understand that cognitive behavioral therapy may take several years before it can have any positive impact in your life. In fact, research studies often show that you need a minimum of 16 sessions of this form of therapy before you can start witnessing meaningful results.
That said, CBT - as cognitive behavioral therapy is also known - tends to be adaptable. This means that it can be effective in both outpatient and inpatient treatment settings - as well as in group and individual counseling sessions. It is for this reason that many addiction treatment therapists and centers include it as part of the recovery plans that they provide their clients with.
In the same way, cognitive based treatment will incorporate several steps that will help you identify all the thoughts, emotions, and patterns of behavior that are associated with your substance abuse and addiction. This means that it could take several months to a few years before you can succeed through this form of therapy. These steps include:
- Identifying beliefs, thoughts, and emotions that you associate with the key problems you are struggling with
- Pinpointing negative thinking
- Recognizing difficult situations
- Reshaping inaccurate or negative thinking
Although cognitive based treatment will take place over 10 to 20 recovery sessions, you need to understand that its duration will vary widely based on many different factors. These factors include but are not limited to:
- The levels of stress that you struggle with
- The severity of the symptoms that you are displaying
- The type of addictive disorders that you are trying to treat
- Whether or not you are making improvements in your addiction recovery
It is for this reason that you should work with your therapist to determine just how long you need to stay in the cognitive behavioral therapy program so that you can achieve a state of full recovery.
Average Cost of Cognitive Based Treatment
In the same way that the duration of cognitive based addiction treatment will vary based on many factors, you can also expect that its cost will also vary widely. Further, you need to understand that this form of therapy is often provided as part of a larger scale recovery program - both on an inpatient and on an outpatient basis.
For this reason, the cost of cognitive behavioral therapy will largely depend on the duration of the program you choose, the type of addiction treatment program you are enrolled in, whether or not you are taking it as a standalone form of treatment, and the progress that you have been making over time.
It is important that you consult with the program that you are enrolled in to find out how long this treatment will take and how much it will end up costing you in the long term. In many cases, however, this should not be a problem because cognitive based treatment will be provided as part of your comprehensive drug and rehab program.
How Do I Go About Finding Cognitive Based Treatment?
You can find cognitive behavioral therapists all across the country. Many addiction treatment and recovery programs also use this form of treatment alongside other evidence based therapies. For this reason, it should not be difficult for you to get the right treatment center that offers CBT.
Further, you can continue practicing the CBT techniques you learn outside of the therapist's office. This means that you will be able to do some cognitive based exercises on your own - either in a group setting or at home.
Whether you are enrolled in an inpatient or outpatient drug rehab program, you might still benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. However, you still need to ensure that the dynamics between you and your therapist are balanced. This way, you will be able to benefit from this form of therapy.
Even so, you need to take your time looking for the right addiction treatment program that offers professional cognitive based addiction recovery services. Once you find such a program, you should get started on it as soon as possible so that you can work through your addiction and all the issues associated with it.
To be able to overcome your substance abuse and addiction, you need to take advantage of all the resources that are at your display. Enrolling in both outpatient and inpatient drug rehab programs can help you start your journey to full recovery, sobriety, and health. As long as these programs offer cognitive based addiction treatment, they should be able to help you overcome your addiction as well as manage any other co-occurring mental health disorders that you have been struggling with. In the long term, it can also teach you the necessary life skills that are going to prove useful in your recovery journey.
CITATIONS
https://beckinstitute.org/treating-substance-misuse-disorders-cbt/
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/evidence-based-approaches-to-drug-addiction-treatment/behavioral
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/140087
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2897895/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149718911000176
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460309000495
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740547204000261
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10720169408400028