Four Cognitive Distortions
Mood-altering drugs alter the frontal lobe of the brain, affecting judgment, impulse control, and inhibition. The breakdown of this ‘behavior safety system’ leaves heavy drinkers and users more vulnerable to the weaknesses that plague us all—anger, self-pity, greed, hatred, violence, inertia, and sexual betrayals, to name only a few. Most addicted individuals take great pains to keep Sober House their jobs, in part to pay for their drugs. They may become moody or aggressive toward fellow workers and show up late for work, or not at all—especially on Mondays or after holidays. Professional success, happiness, social behaviour – these types of ideas are best measured as part of a spectrum, where progress is continuous and it matters whether failures are slight or major.
Cognitive Distortions and Their Effects
The family life of addicted individuals is often marred by sudden or unexplained changes, including separation and divorce. Children may run away, go to live with relatives, or otherwise prematurely separate themselves from home. For reasons not yet known, some people experience a personality change when they are drinking or using other drugs.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
- Your ideas are an integral component of your substance use disorder (SUD).
- This fallacy assumes that things have to be measured based on fairness and equality, when in reality things often don’t always work that way.
- You make excuses for yourself—to yourself and to others, about why you need the substance, about not showing up, about making mistakes at work, about how tomorrow will be different.
This thinking pattern causes a person to internalize his or her opinions as facts and fails to consider the feelings of the other person in a debate or discussion. This cognitive distortion can make it difficult to form and sustain healthy relationships. When engaging in this type of thinking, https://thefremontdigest.com/top-5-advantages-of-staying-in-a-sober-living-house/ an individual tends to take things personally. He or she may attribute things that other people do as the result of his or her own actions or behaviors. This type of thinking also causes a person to blame himself or herself for external circumstances outside the person’s control.
- In this little pleasure center, your brain releases all the natural feel-good neurotransmitters.
- The limbic system houses the hypothalamus, which is responsible for regulating thirst, hunger and response levels to pleasure, sexual satisfaction, aggression and anger.
- This is a central concept in cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT, and other cognitive therapies.
- When you feel like you’re too focused on the negatives, try broadening your scope.
- Withdrawal symptoms occur when drug use is abruptly stopped or the dosage is sharply diminished.
Addiction Treatment Programs
These are a few new habits to practice in recovery as you learn how to value yourself. Get matched with a licensed therapist based on your individual preferences and needs. Reaching out to a therapist can provide expert insight into putting these strategies into practical application and offer a stable source of support and encouragement in the healing process.
How to Change Thinking Patterns and Cognitive Distortions
