It is no secret that substance abuse has been a major issue in the United States for quite some time. Be it alcohol, prescription drugs, or illicit substances like heroin and meth, millions of people struggle to find their way back to sobriety every day. For those who struggle with addiction or are in the process of recovering, there is hope.
Therapy is used widely to help those with addictions learn how their thoughts, feelings, and actions impact the process of getting better from addiction in general. There are different kinds of therapies that will help you in your recovery. These treatments aim at changing behaviors associated with drugs while also targeting cravings, so people don’t relapse after leaving rehabilitation centers.
How can you tell which type of therapy is best suited for your needs? Here are nine of the most effective therapies to help with substance abuse recovery.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive-behavioral therapy aims to change harmful thinking patterns. It teaches individuals how to recognize those bad habits, use problem-solving skills when dealing with difficult situations such as substance abuse problems, develop self-confidence by learning about themselves better or even gain insight into why people take drugs. CBT helps individuals change destructive thought processes into more productive ones.
- Contingency Management for Addiction
Contingency management is a type of behavior therapy that rewards individuals for making positive changes in their lives. The principle behind it lies with the idea that one is more likely to act responsibly when they know there will be a reward, or perhaps even just natural reinforcers like improved relationships and health problems decreasing due to sobriety.
- Dialectical Therapy Behavior
Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a revolutionary way of helping people who suffer from addiction. It has been proven to work because it teaches recovering adults how to live in the moment. Its principles include mindfulness meditation, finding healthy ways to cope with stress, such as practicing sports and developing good relationships.
- Person-Centered Therapy
Person-Centered Therapy is an alternative form of therapy that has been proven effective in treating patients with addiction and is a powerful tool for people recovering from addiction.
In this type of therapy, the therapist meets with you regularly and provides unconditional love to build up your self-worth. Therefore, when things get tough again, it will no longer feel necessary or even possible to turn back to drugs because there’s always someone right by your side cheering on every step forward. This type of therapy usually starts off very empathetic before gradually becoming more objective, allowing patients to understand themselves.
- 12-Step Facilitation Therapy
The 12-Step Facilitation Therapy is one of the most effective and popular addiction treatment programs. It uses 12 step programs to treat addiction and is fueled by active involvement in the sober community. This idea posits that being continuously involved will have individuals staying sober if they are surrounded by other recovery-minded people who offer support through shared experiences while avoiding judgment from others outside their program.
- Family Therapy
Family therapy is an effective way to treat addiction because it focuses on the individual’s family, which can significantly shape their actions. It’s a well-known fact that addiction can have lasting effects on one’s family. In the case of substance abuse, it may mean neglecting your children or not being there when they need you most. However, with family therapy comes many opportunities: from improving relationships between each member and addressing issues like stress which might be causing difficulties at home. All this contributes directly toward promoting continued abstinence.
- Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
The theory behind Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is to identify negative patterns in your thoughts and beliefs that contribute towards emotional distress while helping you replace these faulty, irrational thoughts with more logical ones.
One significant difference between this type of therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy is that the former deals more with an individual’s belief system rather than focusing solely on their behaviors themselves.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment for trauma developed in the late 1980s. It’s been used to help clients with PTSD, but it can also be effective when you have an addiction, especially when it comes from a traumatic experience. Supposing someone who survived an accident started using substances to cope with their anxiety from remembering how it happened, EMDR can be used, so they associate those painful memories with positive beliefs.
- Motivational Interviewing for Addiction
Motivational interviewing is a powerful tool that helps people find the motivation they need for substance abuse recovery. The approach relies on collaboration and evokes change internally. It’s particularly effective in treating addiction because it gets to the root of issues rather than just providing consequences or correcting behavior without understanding why someone behaved addictively in the first place.
Drug addiction is a severe problem in society. Many different types of therapy can help people recover from substance abuse, and this post outlines some of them here. After all, it’s not enough just to stop taking the drug; healing the addictive behavior is also important. You deserve personalized care and support when recovering or supporting someone else who is struggling with addiction.
