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Table of contents

Past relapses are taken as proof that the individual does not have what it takes to recover [ 9 ].

Living a Life of Passion and How to Rise Above Addiction - Rehab Spot

Cognitive therapy helps clients see that recovery is based on coping skills and not willpower. One of the important tasks of therapy is to help individuals redefine fun. Clinical experience has shown that when clients are under stress, they tend to glamorize their past use and think about it longingly. They start to think that recovery is hard work and addiction was fun.

How to Live in the Present & Overcome Fear

They begin to disqualify the positives they have gained through recovery. The cognitive challenge is to acknowledge that recovery is sometimes hard work but addiction is even harder. In the early stages of substance abuse, using is mostly a positive experience for those who are emotionally and genetically predisposed. Later, when using turns into a negative experience, they often continue to expect it to be positive.

1) Fear of Detox and Withdrawal Symptoms

It is common to hear addicts talk about chasing the early highs they had. On the other hand, individuals expect that not using drugs or alcohol will lead to the emotional pain or boredom that they tried to escape. Therefore, on the one hand, individuals expect that using will continue to be fun, and, on the other hand, they expect that not using will be uncomfortable. Cognitive therapy can help address both these misconceptions. How individuals deal with setbacks plays a major role in recovery. A setback can be any behavior that moves an individual closer to physical relapse.

Some examples of setbacks are not setting healthy boundaries, not asking for help, not avoiding high-risk situations, and not practicing self-care. A setback does not have to end in relapse to be worthy of discussion in therapy. Recovering individuals tend to see setbacks as failures because they are unusually hard on themselves [ 9 ]. Setbacks can set up a vicious cycle, in which individuals see setbacks as confirming their negative view of themselves.

Introduction

They feel that they cannot live life on life's terms. This can lead to more using and a greater sense of failure. Eventually, they stop focusing on the progress they have made and begin to see the road ahead as overwhelming [ 16 ]. Setbacks are a normal part of progress. They are not failures. Clients are encouraged to challenge their thinking by looking at past successes and acknowledging the strengths they bring to recovery [ 8 ]. This reaction is termed the Abstinence Violation Effect [ 8 ].


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More broadly speaking, I believe that recovering individuals need to learn to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. Therefore, they feel it is defensible or necessary to escape their negative feelings. The cognitive challenge is to indicate that negative feelings are not signs of failure, but a normal part of life and opportunities for growth.

Helping clients feel comfortable with being uncomfortable can reduce their need to escape into addiction. Recovery is a process of personal growth in which each stage has its own risks of relapse and its own developmental tasks to reach the next stage [ 2 ]. The stages of recovery are not the same length for each person, but they are a useful way of looking at recovery and teaching recovery to clients. Broadly speaking, there are three stages of recovery.

It is commonly held that the abstinence stage starts immediately after a person stops using and usually lasts for 1 to 2 years [ 1 ]. The main focus of this stage is dealing with cravings and not using. These are some of the tasks of the abstinence stage [ 2 ]:.

From Sex Addiction to a Meaningful Life

There are many risks to recovery at this stage, including physical cravings, poor self-care, wanting to use just one more time, and struggling with whether one has an addiction. Clients are often eager to make big external changes in early recovery, such as changing jobs or ending a relationship. It is generally felt that big changes should be avoided in the first year until individuals have enough perspective to see their role, if any, in these issues and to not focus entirely on others. The tasks of this stage can be summarized as improved physical and emotional self-care.

Clinical experience has shown that recovering individuals are often in a rush to skip past these tasks and get on with what they think are the real issues of recovery. Clients need to be reminded that lack of self-care is what got them here and that continued lack of self-care will lead back to relapse.


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    6. Dealing with post-acute withdrawal is one of the tasks of the abstinence stage [ 1 ]. Post-acute withdrawal begins shortly after the acute phase of withdrawal and is a common cause of relapse [ 17 ]. Unlike acute withdrawal, which has mostly physical symptoms, post-acute withdrawal syndrome PAWS has mostly psychological and emotional symptoms.

    Its symptoms also tend to be similar for most addictions, unlike acute withdrawal, which tends to have specific symptoms for each addiction [ 1 ].

    I: Getting Legal Help

    These are some of the symptoms of post-acute withdrawal [ 1 , 18 , 19 ]: 1 mood swings; 2 anxiety; 3 irritability; 4 variable energy; 5 low enthusiasm; 6 variable concentration; and 7 disturbed sleep. Many of the symptoms of post-acute withdrawal overlap with depression, but post-acute withdrawal symptoms are expected to gradually improve over time [ 1 ]. Probably the most important thing to understand about post-acute withdrawal is its prolonged duration, which can last up to 2 years [ 1 , 20 ]. The danger is that the symptoms tend to come and go.

    It is not unusual to have no symptoms for 1 to 2 weeks, only to get hit again [ 1 ].


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    This is when people are at risk of relapse, when they are unprepared for the protracted nature of post-acute withdrawal. Clinical experience has shown that when clients struggle with post-acute withdrawal, they tend to catastrophize their chances of recovery. They think that they are not making progress. The cognitive challenge is to encourage clients to measure their progress month-to-month rather than day-to-day or week-to-week.

    In the second stage of recovery, the main task is to repair the damage caused by addiction [ 2 ]. Clinical experience has shown that this stage usually lasts 2 to 3 years. In the abstinence stage of recovery, clients usually feel increasingly better. They are finally taking control of their lives. But in the repair stage of recovery, it is not unusual for individuals to feel worse temporarily. They must confront the damage caused by addiction to their relationships, employment, finances, and self-esteem. They must also overcome the guilt and negative self-labeling that evolved during addiction.

    Clients sometimes think that they have been so damaged by their addiction that they cannot experience joy, feel confident, or have healthy relationships [ 9 ]. These are some of the developmental tasks of the repair stage of recovery [ 1 , 2 ]:. Clinical experience has shown that common causes of relapse in this stage are poor self-care and not going to self-help groups. The growth stage is about developing skills that individuals may have never learned and that predisposed them to addiction [ 1 , 2 ]. The repair stage of recovery was about catching up, and the growth stage is about moving forward.

    Abandonment & Love Addiction

    Clinical experience has shown that this stage usually starts 3 to 5 years after individuals have stopped using drugs or alcohol and is a lifetime path. This is also the time to deal with any family of origin issues or any past trauma that may have occurred. These are issues that clients are sometimes eager to get to.