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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at The Raleigh House

Our feelings have a powerful effect on our behaviors. However, our behaviors can also have a powerful impact on our feelings. Learning how to recognize the interconnectedness of our thoughts, feelings and actions can help manage addictive behaviors. This approach is called cognitive-behavioral therapy for substance use treatment.

Many emotional challenges and mental health disorders are exacerbated by unhelpful thought patterns and resulting behaviors. The introduction of cognitive-behavioral therapy into addiction treatment offers clients the necessary tools to recognize how unhelpful and unhealthy thinking patterns contribute to substance use disorders. Once the psychological issues that contribute to substance use disorders are addressed, clients can manage their addiction or addictions.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a highly effective tool for treating substance use disorders and co-occurring emotional health challenges. At The Raleigh House, our multidisciplinary team of mental health specialists can help you build the self-awareness necessary to understand the role your thought patterns and emotional responses play in your substance use. Cognitive-behavioral therapy can, in essence, introduce you to yourself.

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive distortions develop as responses to negative or traumatizing life events. Such distortions often involve the following:

• Catastrophic Thinking/Catastrophizing: This type of distortion involves the immediate assumption of the worst possible outcome in any situation. This leads to intense feelings of anxiety and even an escalation of desperate behaviors.
• Emotional Reasoning: This is the belief that emotional responses are rational, reasoned responses. This is often at the root of cognitive distortions.
• Mind Reading: The assumption that you know what others are thinking. This differs from empathy because it doesn’t necessarily assign a shared emotional response to a set of circumstances; mind reading is less evidence-based than empathy, and it often accompanies other distortions, such as personalization and catastrophizing.
• Negative Bias: Viewing most or all circumstances through a filter of negativity. This involves discounting or rationalizing away positive outcomes as purely accidental, with negative outcomes being either expected or normal.
• Personalization: The assumption that the behavior of others has a personal motive or deliberately targets you.

The objective of cognitive-behavioral therapy is to enhance the client’s recognition of the outcomes of their emotional responses and cognitive distortions. This therapy is especially beneficial for dual diagnosis clients addressing addiction with depression, anxiety, and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. Many guests find this treatment highly empowering. This is because it can offer a degree of thoughtful, emotional control in a variety of circumstances.

While it isn’t always possible to prevent feelings of stress, anger, sadness, or other negative emotions, it might be possible to reduce them by engaging in healthy actions. Cognitive-behavioral therapy offers the tools and strategies necessary to refocus energies away from destructive feelings and toward productive behaviors.

Treatment strategies used in cognitive-behavioral therapy involve:

• Creating pathways towards improved self-confidence.
• Developing an enhanced appreciation of the behavioral patterns of others.
• Learning problem-solving skills to handle challenging or triggering circumstances.
• Addressing patterns of distorted thinking and learning to recognize them and their emotional triggers.
• Offering insight into the consequences of distorted thinking and the resulting actions.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps clients develop the self-knowledge and skills necessary to identify distorted thinking and correct it, even outside of the therapeutic context.

Types of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a highly flexible approach to address a diverse scope of emotional traumas and unhealthy behaviors. The therapeutic approaches include:

• Behavior therapy. This therapy gives clients strategies that help them modify unhealthy behavior patterns and ultimately replace them with productive, positive actions.
• Cognitive restructuring. This treatment gives clients the insight necessary to recognize harmful, flawed patterns of thinking and their resulting behaviors and ultimately modify them.
• Dialectical behavior therapy. This treatment focuses on managing destructive patterns of thinking caused by severe trauma. It offers a particular emphasis on interpersonal relationship management and healthy communication.

Different therapists take different approaches based upon the needs and responsiveness of the client. One therapist might act as an instructor, offering insight and education throughout the process. Another might form a partnership and provide team-focused support.

The Raleigh House Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

The struggle with addiction and coexisting emotional disorders is very real. At The Raleigh House, we offer individualized treatment strategies based upon client needs. Our approaches are designed to address a wide scope of emotional challenges that contribute to substance misuse and create a cycle of dependency. You deserve to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. If you experience continuing patterns of substance reuse and resulting emotional distress, please don’t wait. Contact the team at The Raleigh House Today.

Our Team is Ready to Help When You’re Ready to Heal. Call us Today.