Suffering from a substance abuse problem can be overwhelming. Addiction can seem hopeless. The emotional turmoil and guilt makes the problem even worse. The physical cravings are obvious. However, it’s the underlying mental issues that drive us to look for an escape.
When you seek to escape using drugs and alcohol, addiction can be the dark reality.
Despite swearing that you’ll stop drinking or using drugs, you invariably end right back up on the merry-go-round of relapse.
If the physical cravings subside over a few days, why do alcoholics and addicts end up falling back into the same destructive routine? It’s because the emotional and mental problems are not treated. Let’s explore why Florida rehabs successfully use psychology as part of their treatment model.
What Role Does Psychology Play in Treatment?
Early in treatment, you will be exposed to ideas that may differ from what you’ve grown accustomed. It’s a common misconception among individuals with substance abuse problems that the substance is responsible for life’s problems.
The drugs and alcohol are causing your feelings and emotions. In reality, it is nearly always the opposite. Alcoholism and drug addiction are but a symptom of other issues. The vast majority of those who seek treatment soon find that their addiction is fed by a variety of mental health disorders.
Stopping the addiction will not remove the underlying symptom that has created and continues to fuel it. These untreated mental and emotional disorders reappear. When they do, the addict has no defense against the next drink or drug. Soon afterward, there is a relapse. The role of psychology and therapy in recovery is to discover the symptoms of your addiction.
As you begin to reveal what the problems truly are, you will begin to gain an appreciation that your addiction didn’t create your problems, but problems helped create the addiction. Uncovering the symptoms behind substance abuse is the vital treatment role played by psychology.
How Can Psychology Help Your Recovery?
Since uncovering the emotional triggers and mental struggles that drive your addiction is critical to recovery, psychology can play a helpful role in treatment. There are a number of ways that psychology can help your recovery.
- Reveal Problems – Therapy is essential in addressing mental health-related problems. The psychology component of a solid treatment program will be a starting point for diagnosing what these problems are.
- Foster Healing – Addiction and drug addiction share a common attribute, suffering. However, the reasons causing you to abuse substances are frequently unique. Psychology can be extremely helpful in revealing troubles from your past or present that compel you to choose misery over happiness.
- Uncover Symptoms – Once you appreciate that addiction to substances is but a symptom of other problems, you have a chance. These emotional and mental symptoms can be complex. Through a method referred to as dual diagnosis, complex layers of emotional problems can be treated. This is not only helpful in your recovery, but essential to avoiding relapse.
- Provide Recovery Tools – The therapy involved in your treatment also gives you tools to help you stay clean and sober. Therapy helps guide you through the process of uncovering the symptoms of your addiction. However, it also provides you with various techniques to heal.
- Improve Self-Awareness – An important part of psychology in recovery is how therapy helps you improve your self-awareness. There is another common thread between addicts and alcoholics. It is the frequent existence of low self-esteem. Therapy based on psychology principles helps improve your self-awareness while improving your self-confidence.
- Develop Accountability – The therapeutic part of a treatment model does more than uncover emotional problems and improve your self-awareness. Part of this process asks that you make a commitment to your recovery. This helps you develop a healthy sense of accountability.
A goal of treatment isn’t necessarily to just show you how to stay clean and sober, but to show you why you haven’t been able to. To accomplish this, treatment methods use psychology to help expose the symptoms that are undermining your desire to recover.
By unearthing these debilitating symptoms, you can begin to heal the wounds and remove the roadblocks that have prevented you from staying off drugs and alcohol. A successful treatment program will use psychology.
Not to reveal how bad you are, but to expose the source cause for a debilitating addiction. If you think you have a problem with drugs or alcohol, reach out for help. A Florida treatment program, a model based on the psychology of addiction, can help you turn your life around. Make that call today at 833-846-5669, because tomorrow might be too late.