Behavioral therapy is an approach to treatment which calls on clients to change their actions by first changing the way that they think. Treating addiction behaviorally means helping clients to understand that what they think determines how they behave.
When a person is caught up in a cycle of addiction, they no longer have control over whether they will use drugs or take a drink. Their disease is firmly in the driver’s seat. One of the symptoms of addiction is that a person will continue to use, even in the face of negative consequences.
Behavioral Therapy To Treat Addiction
In behavioral addiction treatment, our clients learn techniques to identify the types of thoughts that lead them to behave in an automatic fashion, which produce less-than-positive consequences. Our experienced therapists guide clients through this process to determine which thoughts are strongest in situations which lead or have led them to make choices which have not turned out as they would have liked.
Behavioral therapy allows our clients to take a look at a situation through the calm, rational eyes of an observer. They pick out the negative thoughts that have influenced their behavior and examine them carefully to determine their validity. If they determine that their thoughts have not been valid in the situation, they can work to change their thoughts and the behaviors that flow from them.
Healthier, more positive thoughts lead to better life choices, and this is true for the clients we treat at The Dunes East Hampton who are trying to move forward to a life that is free from drug addiction just as much as people who are seeking help from a therapist for other life issues. By challenging their beliefs about themselves and testing their thought processes, behavioral therapy helps our clients bring about real change in their lives.
This treatment method can help clients to boost their self-esteem, relieve stress, cope with anxiety and depression, and reduce the risk of relapse. It forces our clients to focus their attention on what is happening in the present, and neither drag the baggage from past events into the present, nor “borrow sorrow from tomorrow.”
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