What Type Of Therapy is Best For Addiction

Why Addiction Treatment Is Critical To Recovery

Substance use disorder, more colloquially known as drug addiction or alcohol addiction, is a complex mental health condition characterized by a compulsive need to engage in substance abuse despite serious negative consequences.

And though addiction recovery is often a difficult and complex process, moving beyond substance use disorder is incredibly possible, especially if the person struggling with drug addiction is given access to substance abuse treatment programs at the earliest possible opportunity.

However, since addiction treatment can take many forms, understanding the different types that you or your loved one may encounter as you move towards recovery from addiction may be a challenge to those are unfamiliar with the topic.

Exactly which types of therapy may be offered will depend on the specific treatment center at which you plan on attending treatment, as well as on any underlying mental health conditions that may complicate recovery. But the following brief overview will provide a basic introduction to some of the more common types of therapy that you might expect in American addiction centers.

Types Of Therapy For Drug Abuse

First, while some facilities that treat addiction require patients to live at their treatment centers full time, which is known is inpatient rehab, other treatment centers provide the option of outpatient rehab, which allows patients to live at home while undergoing intensive substance abuse treatment.

In either case, the cornerstone of substance abuse treatment programs is often talk therapy, with cognitive behavioral therapy for addiction being one of the most common and established options.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy works by encouraging patients with substance use disorders to identify their negative thinking patterns. A substance abuse therapist will then help the cognitive behavioral therapy patient to replace these negative thinking patterns with more realistic and productive modes of thinking.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy will also help patients to identify factors that tend to trigger their drug abuse and to find healthier coping mechanisms they can resort to when they feel the urge to abuse drugs.

Other behavioral therapies commonly utilized for addiction issues is dialectical behavior therapy. Dialectical behavior therapy works by teaching clients to better regulate their emotions, an important skill for maintaining sobriety. For instance, patients will be taught how they can better tolerate distress and communicate their feelings more effectively rather than resorting to substance abuse problems.

Similar types of therapy include rational emotive behavior therapy. Rational emotive behavior therapy is similar, but more focused on the idea that rational thinking must come from within and on goal achievement as a means of well being.

Another form of talk therapy is person centered therapy, which is more focused on self-discovery and self-acceptance. In person-centered therapy, the treatment provider will make an effort to reflect your thoughts and feelings back to you, which will help you to develop a more nuanced understanding of your own perspective.

Then, there’s motivational interviewing, which helps patients enhance their commitment to recovery by helping them to understand and to develop their own unique motivations to recover. These motivations should be related to the patient’s values rather than to values or morality externally imposed by treatment providers, making motivational interviewing uniquely powerful among treatment modalities.

Addiction treatment may also take the form of contingency management. In contingency management, proof of sobriety like negative drug tests will be met with material rewards like cash or gift cards. While this may seem a little unorthodox compared to more conventional behavioral therapy, contingency management has been shown to facilitate relapse prevention and to motivate individuals to continue to receive treatment who may otherwise have dropped out.

Aside from individual therapy, behavioral therapies can also take the form of group therapy. These types of therapy for addiction work by encouraging people with substance use disorder to connect with and share experiences with one another, which can help to create a shared motivation for recovery.

Patients in group therapy may also learn useful strategies that others have put into place that help them to conquer substance abuse, and gain a useful sense that they are not alone in their substance addiction struggles.

Another alternative to individual therapy is family therapy. In family therapy, family members of the person struggling with addiction are invited to participate in therapeutic interventions.

Family therapy has a unique role in addiction treatment as it acknowledges the intense effect that drug abuse can have on family members, as well as the important role family members can have in shaping an addict’s psychology and behavior. With the help of mental health professionals who can serve as mediators and guide the conversation in a productive way, newer and healthier dynamics can be established.

Any discussion of types of therapy will also be incomplete without a nod to medication-assisted therapy, which helps to alleviate the acute agony of substance withdrawal so that the person is freer to pursue the emotional aspects of their addiction recovery in behavioral therapy. Though treatment plans including medication-assisted treatment are still controversial at many American addiction centers, the evidence supports this as one of the types of therapy that has the strongest success rate when it comes to people recovering from certain types of drug abuse, including opioid addiction.

Some patients with substance use disorders, especially those who also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, may also benefit from newer addiction treatment options like eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy.

These types of therapy work to treat addiction and related mental health issues by physically reprogramming the brain. They do this through a process called eye movement desensitization that helps patients to physically process repressed pain from traumatic experiences.

At many American addiction centers, treatment plans also include types of therapy more focused on leading patients to a more holistic physical and mental wellness as opposed to substance use alone. For instance, substance abuse treatment can involve treatment options that attend to patients’ physical health as a road to mental wellness.

For instance, one popular addition to addiction treatment plans is yoga, which combines physical exercise with training in mindfulness and self-awareness through specific spiritual teachings. During the course of substance use disorders, physical health is also often neglected in favor of substance abuse, so programming teaching the value of nutrition and exercise can help patients to correct imbalances that may have emerged in their self-care habits.

Mental health counseling provided in American addiction centers may also be specific to certain mental health disorders. Some addiction treatment centers also incorporate training on practical life skills and career counseling into their treatment plan, which helps to prepare graduates of their treatment programs to assimilate to the outside world.

Substance Abuse Treatment At Reco Intensive

Known as one of the best American addiction centers, Reco Intensive is a comprehensive addiction treatment facility offering a wide variety of types of therapy for addiction, including many of those discussed above as well as many more more holistic therapeutic techniques.

We are accredited by the National Institute of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and a variety of other authorities with expertise in American addiction centers. A medical provider is also on staff to oversee the prescription of any necessary medication, while all behavioral therapy is provided by the appropriate certified addiction professional.

We also offer treatment interventions aimed at members of demographics who tend to require a specific treatment provider sensitive to their needs, such as older adults, veterans, and LGBTQ identifying individuals.

To learn more about why Reco Intensive is unique among treatment providers and the best choice for achieving recovery from substance abuse, you can peruse our testimonials and other resources offered on our website.

You can also call 844.955.3042 anytime or contact us online anytime here for more information about admission to our treatment center. Together, we can move beyond substance abuse and back towards a brighter future.