Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapy approach that can be used to help treat substance use disorders. CBT is commonly used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other mental disorders, but it has also been shown to be valuable in treating alcoholism and drug addiction. This is especially true when it's part of an overall program of recovery.
CBT helps people learn to identify better the negative and self-defeating thoughts and actions that can contribute to substance use. It is a short-term, focused, therapeutic approach to helping drug-dependent people become abstinent.
CBT uses the same learning processes that led to alcohol and drug dependence development in the first place to help people unlearn maladaptive behaviors.
What Is CBT? Cognitive-behavioral therapy is based on the idea that feelings and behaviors are caused by a person's thoughts, not by outside stimuli like people, situations, and events. While you may not be able to change your circumstances, you can change how you think about them. According to cognitive-behavioral therapists, this helps you change how you feel and behave.
In the treatment of alcohol and drug dependence, CBT can help a person:
Improve self-control
Recognize situations in which they are most likely to drink or use drugs
Avoid trigging circumstances, if possible
Develop coping strategies that will help when they are faced with situations that trigger cravings
Cope with other problems and behaviors that may lead to their substance abuse
CBT's primary goals in treating substance use are improving motivation, learning new coping skills, changing old habits, and better managing painful feelings.
Types of CBT There are several approaches to CBT. This includes:
Cognitive therapy
Dialectic behavior therapy
Rational behavior therapy
Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
Rational living therapy
How It Works In its use to treat alcohol and drug dependence, CBT has two main components: functional analysis and skills training.
Functional Analysis
Functional analysis is a process in CBT that involves looking at the causes and consequences of a behavior. Working together, the therapist and individual try to identify the thoughts, feelings, and circumstances that led to and followed drinking or using. This helps determine the risks that are likely to lead to a relapse.
When doing functional analysis, a therapist might ask the individual questions designed to elicit insight into how a person was thinking or feeling before the behaviors. They might ask the client to recall the last time they used a substance and then ask:
What were you doing before you used the substance?
How were you feeling?
What happened right before?
Did anything positive happen as a result of the behavior?
What were the negative consequences of your actions?
Functional analysis can also give insight into why they drink or use drugs in the first place. People may examine the situations, emotions, and thoughts that played a role in their drug or alcohol use, which helps identify cases in which the person has coping difficulties.
By better understanding the difficulties contributing to substance use, people can look for ways better to manage complex thoughts, emotions, or situations.
Skills Training
When people struggle with difficult situations, life stress, trauma, anxiety, depression, or other problems, they sometimes turn to substance or alcohol use as a way to manage. If someone is at the point where they need professional treatment for their addiction, they are using alcohol or drugs as their primary means of coping with problems.
CBT aims to get the person to unlearn maladaptive behaviors and learn or relearn better coping skills. By learning such skills, they can start working to apply them in situations that typically trigger drug or alcohol use. Skills training works by:
Helping individuals unlearn old habits and learn to develop healthier skills and habits
Educating people about ways to change how they think about their substance abuse
Learning new ways to cope with the situations and circumstances that led to their drinking or drugging episodes in the past
Another aspect of skills training is helping people learn to tolerate feelings of distress better. This way, people can manage their feelings of anxiety or depression in positive ways, rather than turning to substance misuse for a quick fix.
Substituting old habits that contribute to substance use with more positive and enduring actions enhances a person's ability to function and aids in long-term recovery.
Benefits of CBT for Addiction
People with substance or alcohol use disorder may often struggle with negative feelings or thoughts that make a recovery more complex. Because CBT focuses on identifying and replacing such thought patterns with more adaptive ones, it can help improve a person's outlook and support skills that support long-term recovery.
Some of the ways that CBT can be beneficial for people who have an addiction include:
Learning to identify self-destructive thoughts and actions
Finding ways to monitor such thought patterns
Learning new, more adaptive ways of thinking
Applying skills that have been learned in new situations and settings
Exploring new ways to handle stress and difficulties
Research suggests that the skills obtained through CBT are enduring and can also be applied in other areas of an individual's life. Approximately 60% of people treated with cognitive behavioral therapy for a substance use problem can maintain their recovery for a year or more. An after-care program is beneficial.
How Long Does Treatment Take?
Because cognitive behavioral therapy is a structured, goal-oriented educational process focused on immediate problems, the process is usually short-term. Although other forms of therapy can be long-term and are not time-limited, CBT is generally completed in 12 to 16 sessions with the therapist.
Effectiveness Research has shown that CBT can be an effective treatment for substance use disorders, both on its own and in combination with other treatment strategies. CBT typically involves several distinct interventions—such as operant learning strategies, skills building, and motivational elements—that can be used on their own or combined.
CBT is one of the most researched treatments, so there is an abundance of evidence and support for its use with various mental conditions, including alcohol and substance use disorders. More than 53 randomized controlled trials on alcohol and drug abuse were examined to assess the outcomes of CBT treatment.
Cognitive-behavioral treatments are one of the most frequently evaluated psychosocial approaches to treating substance use disorders.
CBT is most effective in these studies compared with no other treatment. When compared with different treatment approaches, studies have had mixed results. Some show CBT to be more effective, while others show it to be equally, but not greater, effectiveness than other treatments.
As with other treatments for alcoholism and drug abuse, including pharmaceutical treatments, cognitive behavioral therapy works best when combined with different recovery efforts. This includes participation in support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.
In short, cognitive behavioral therapy works well for some but not for everyone. This is the case with all alcoholism and drug treatment approaches because everyone deals with and recovers from addiction differently.
A Word From ANOTHER SOLUTION
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can be highly effective for treating alcohol and substance use disorders. It can be used on its own or combined with other approaches to support a person's long-term recovery. However, it is not the only option out there, so talk to your doctor about what is available to decide the best approach for your needs.
Another Solution knows recovery. We have been helping others find a way to long-term recovery since 1997. If you or a loved one are struggling with substance use or addiction, contact us at 972-669-8395 or jack@anothersolution.org.
Article Courtesy of A Very Well Mind
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