What is cognitive-behavioral therapy? This type of therapy helps you change your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. While its goals seem basic, dig a little deeper and you’ll see that this approach is quite intensive.

A man with a beard and mustache wearing a tie.Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a therapeutic intervention method that aims to reduce the symptoms of many mental health conditions, but primarily anxiety and depression, and can be a great resource for overcoming addiction. If you are struggling with anxiety or depression on top of active addiction, CBT may help. Learn more about CBT as an addiction therapy service by reading on.

What Does Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Do?

 

While participating in CBT, you don’t have to spend years going to a psychologist to get results. It’s a perfectly suitable short-term approach. Experts understand that attitudes and decision-making typically involve thoughts, feelings, and actions and that these three facets affect one another.

The way you feel about a situation affects the way you act during it. The way you think about a person colors the way you feel about them. But what happens when one of these three components is off? For example, if you base your feelings on inaccurate thoughts, your actions become inappropriate. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps you find a balance. Some benefits of CBT include:

  • CBT has been proven to be highly effective in helping to manage anxiety and depression
  • Provides a support network for those recovering from mental disorders and addictions
  • Helps to raise self-esteem, manage anger, and form positive thought patterns
  • Improves both coping skills and communication skills
  • CBT can be a powerful tool in relapse prevention and recovery

Overall, cognitive behavioral therapy is among the fastest-acting and longest-lasting therapies available to those suffering from addiction, anxiety, and depression.

Incorporating the Therapy in Addiction Counseling

Within cognitive behavioral therapy, you work alongside a counselor to examine your perception of certain situations. From there, you revisit how thoughts affect feelings and actions. Within counseling for drug and alcohol addiction, experts recognize that feelings can be at odds with reality. Because your thoughts can’t reconcile reality and your feelings, your body calls for relief.

The relief you’ve been choosing so far has been substance abuse. Depressants that numb, stimulants that help you to be “on,” or painkillers that make you feel good are examples. Getting your thoughts and feelings to harmonize and express appropriate behavior is the challenge. To help you achieve this goal, a counselor works with you in a one-on-one setting.

Additional therapy components include journaling, relaxation, and mindfulness training. Group therapy settings also provide the opportunity to continue the treatment. There, you receive peer feedback and learn from others how to respond in certain contexts. Experiential therapy offers a way of applying newly acquired life skills in real-life situations.

How to Get the Most out of Your Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

To maximize your addiction treatment experience, you need to be open to exploring your behavior patterns. Because this therapy focuses on the present by highlighting distorted patterns from the past, you can make drastic changes. For example, CBT allows you to re-evaluate situations that tempt you to use and look for other ways of dealing with the stimuli.

Accept the challenges to certain behavioral patterns your therapist might give you. Although it might feel odd at the beginning, you’ll quickly gain momentum in changing your thought processes. Do the homework, and don’t be bashful about sharing your insights.

Because this therapy works in one-on-one settings as well as in group therapy, it makes sense to use every opportunity.

It’s important to note that this therapy moves at a brisk pace. For some program participants, it may appear as if it’s pulling the rug out from underneath them. There’s nothing wrong with you or your perception. Instead, consider that it highlights how much progress you’re making in a very brief period.

A highly individualized inpatient drug rehab program is the ideal setting for this experience. You can take as much time as you need to explore patterns of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. The availability of counseling experts also makes it possible to deal with situations as they crop up.

Could You or a Loved One Benefit from Substance Abuse Treatment?

How could psychotherapy help you or a loved one overcome drug addiction? At Memphis Recovery, you have several therapy options, including:

  • Individual therapy that quickly becomes the core of self-discovery
  • Group therapy that offers an opportunity to try out some of the new life skills you learn
  • Family therapy that provides a safe setting to re-establish family bonds
  • Music and art therapy as a means of expressing feelings you might not be able to put into words
  • Dual diagnosis and trauma therapyhelp you deal with stressors that hearken back to experiences you had earlier in life

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy at Memphis Recovery Centers

Struggling with anxiety or depression on top of active addiction can feel like an unwinnable battle; one feeds off the other and vice versa. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is not going to provide you with immediate success; it takes a lot of effort, but the reward is very worthwhile.

Stop letting addiction drag you down. Memphis Recovery Centers is ready to help you embrace a new beginning. Call us today at 901-272-7751 for immediate assistance.