Beat Addiction With Psychotherapy

There are many different treatment options available for addiction recovery. While detox is the first step, counseling and psychotherapy are important components in any treatment plan. With the right treatment, patients can go on to live healthy, happy lives.

Why Psychotherapy Can Help the Recovery Process

When someone develops an addiction, they have more than a physical dependence on drugs or alcohol. Detox can remove the physical addiction, but it will not help with the psychological and social factors contributing to the addiction.

There are many different ways that psychotherapy can help. Often, people use their addiction to handle stress and negative emotions. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can help retrain the mind to spot potential triggers and avoid self-defeating thoughts. Cues like drinking environments, bad days at work, or arguments with a loved one are often when people turn to drugs. With psychotherapy, individuals are taught ways to spot and manage these situations.

Psychotherapy Options

Besides Cognitive-behavioral therapy, clients can get help through treatments like individual addiction counseling, contingency management, and group support. With contingency management, patients are given tangible incentives to stay clean. Meanwhile, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) uses a cognitive-behavioral approach. Basically, DBT realizes that some people react intensely to emotional situations. It helps patients identify these emotions and learn how to handle them through homework assignments, new coping skills, and role-playing.

During treatment, patients participate in group or individual therapy. Group therapy helps to provide peer support as the patient progresses through recovery. Group therapy can also be continued with 12-step meetings at the rehab center or in the local community.

Individual therapy may be prescribed for patients with dual diagnoses like depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety. Depending on the patient’s unique circumstance, individual therapy, group therapy, or both may be used for treatment.

Some of the many therapy options available include:

• 12-step approach and non-12 step programs
• Group therapy
• Family therapy
• EMDR therapy
• Fitness therapy
• Mindfulness
• Art therapy
• Equine therapy
• Anger management
• Trauma therapy

Each person requires a different variation of therapies to tackle their individual issues. The best rehabs offer an individualized approach to treatment. Patients are given the treatment options that suit their unique situation the best through this type of rehab.

How Does Dual Diagnosis Treatment Work?

One of the psychotherapy options available is through dual diagnosis treatment. Many people who suffer from addiction also have a co-occurring mental disorder. Someone may have schizophrenia, depression, a personality disorder, or anxiety. Sometimes, individuals use drugs and alcohol to manage their mental disorder. When they decide to become sober, it is important to find another way to manage a mental disorder.

Dual diagnosis treatment is given to help patients who have an addiction and a mental health condition. This gives the patient a better chance to stay sober. Instead of resorting to drugs to treat their mental disorder, patients receive actual treatment for their particular issues. Once treatment for the mental disorder begins, they can focus entirely on becoming sober.

Holistic Treatment for Long-Term Success

Treating just the addiction is like treating the symptoms of a disease and not treating the disease itself. It is important to use therapy and other treatment options to target the cause of the addiction. Patients may need help handling past trauma, mental disorders, or family problems. By learning how to handle these situations in more positive and healthy ways, patients can remove the causes that trigger their addiction.

At rehab centers like Beaches Recovery, patients receive individualized treatment and adjunct psychotherapy. While becoming sober may not be simple, it is possible. You do not have to go through treatment alone. To get help and start your new life today, call Beaches Recovery at 866.605.0532, or contact us online.