subject: Cognitive Behavior Therapy For Drug Addiction [print this page] Addiction can be treated in several waysAddiction can be treated in several ways. Conventional drug rehabilitation facilities are most commonly tried for cure of addiction to drugs. One of the less used methods of treating drug addiction is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (also known as CBT). Mostly it is used to treat anxiety, phobias, depression and other psychological problems. It has been found beneficial in curing addiction to drugs.
What is CBT?
CBT assumes that behaviors and feelings of people are caused by the thoughts of the individual; not by outside stimuli such as events, circumstances, situations and people. Individuals may not be able to alter their circumstances, but they can always alter their thinking about the circumstances; therefore they can change their feelings and behaviors.
CBT tries to educate the drug abusers to identify the circumstances in which they are likely to use drugs or alcohol and to handle the behaviors and feelings that may lead to substance abuse.
CBT is a short term therapeutic approach to treating addiction to drugs by using the same learning process the addict used to develop addiction to alcohol or drugs in the first place.
Components of CBT:
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for drug addiction has two primary parts: (i) Functional analysis and (ii) Skills training.
The 1st component (i.e. functional analysis) involves working to find out and identify the feelings and thoughts of the addict before and after taking drugs or alcohol. It also identifies the circumstances and situations which lead to use of drugs or alcohol and the factors that make it difficult for the drug abuser to deal with the addiction to drugs or alcohol. This part helps to recognize the risk factors that may lead to relapse.
The second component (i.e. skills training) includes teaching the addict to change his/her thinking about the use of drugs or alcohol. The therapist tries to teach the skills to cope with and shun from the situations that lead to drug abuse. The drug abuser is taught to change old habits and develop new healthier habits. The goal of this part is to make the alcoholic learn better skills to deal with drug addiction.
Duration of cognitive behavior therapy:
CBT is usually a short term process. It is a very structured and goal oriented process that focuses on immediate problems caused by addiction. Usually there are 12 to 16 short sessions of CBT.
