21 Aug Behavioural Therapies to Treat Drug Addiction
In Vancouver, there are many intervention addiction services available to help treat people with serious substance abuse addictions. And more recently, behavioural therapies are being introduced to treatment programs.
Behavioural therapies can help patients:
- Modify their attitudes and behaviours surrounding drug use
- Learn how to increase healthy life skills
- Help them accept and continue with other forms of treatment, such as medication
Behavioural therapies can be provided in a variety of different settings and can include various approaches. The flexibility of these therapies makes it easier to find an approach and location that works well for the patient.
Some intervention addiction services in Vancouver can recommend outpatient behavioural treatment as part of a program for patients who visit a behavioural health counselor on a regular schedule.
These programs offer individual or group drug counselling, or both, and this inclusion into the drug addiction treatment program has proved to be extremely effective in helping addicts achieve long-term sobriety.
The behavioural therapy includes programs such as:
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy. This helps patients recognize and avoid situations the situations that may encourage drug use.
- Multidimensional family therapy. This has been developed for adolescents with drug abuse problems, but it also helps their families. It helps family members recognize and address a range of influences on drug abuse patterns and negative influences.
- Motivational interviewing. This therapy encourages the patient to change their behaviour and enter treatment.
- Motivational incentives and contingency management. This is a vital step in the therapy program, it uses positive reinforcement and encouragement to support the patient and them abstain from drug use.
Each of these steps can be intensive, and patients are often required to attend multiple outpatient sessions each week to ensure they get the support they need during the most vulnerable period after withdrawal.
While intervention is the first step towards recovery, support, counselling, and often, medication is necessary throughout the recovery stage.
To achieve lifelong sobriety, the patient needs to recognize that drug abuse changes how the brain functions. And as a result, there are many factors that can suddenly “trigger” an overwhelming need for drugs within the brain.
And this is why behavioural therapy can really help patients learn how to recognize, understand, avoid, and cope with the triggers that may affect them personally. It helps them build skills related to thinking, understanding, learning, and remembering.
Scientific research has proven that intervention services and drug abuse treatment programs can help addicts change their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours towards drug abuse. By changing how they perceive drugs and addiction, it can help them avoid relapse and a life of substance abuse and crime.
Behavioural therapy work focuses on developing cognitive skills to help the patient adjust their attitudes and beliefs that lead to drug abuse. These attitudes can include feeling entitled to being in control of what they want, a deep denial of the effect their behaviour has on others, and a lack of understanding the consequences of their behaviour.
Drug addiction is a complicated disease, and patients need treatment that addresses more than just the physical addiction.
If you would like more information about how intervention services can help you help a loved one get into the right treatment program. Call us. Intervention is the first step to recovery, and recovery is possible with the right treatment.