ahangoverfreelife.com

DBT skills for overcoming addictions are included in the distress tolerance section of training (featured in last weeks blog post) and include, as displayed above, an overview of behavior patterns that indicate when one is in “addict mind” or “clear mind,” skills to plan for dialectical abstinence such as adaptive denial, the community reinforcement model, and more. These skills are intended to help people reinforce nonaddictive behaviors and end addiction-linked behaviours

DBT stands for dialetical behaviour therapy and here is the Wiki definition: Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based[1] psychotherapy designed to help people suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD). This approach is designed to help people increase their emotional and cognitive regulation by learning about the triggers that lead to reactive states and helping to assess which coping skills to apply in the sequence of events, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to help avoid undesired reactions. A modified form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), DBT was developed in the late 1980s by Marsha M. Linehan,[3] a psychology researcher at the University of Washington, to treat people with borderline personality disorder and chronically suicidal individuals. This means that the therapist helps the person in therapy to do everything possible to achieve abstinence, while also supporting a harm-reduction approach when relapse happens.

Following on from last week’s post from Dr Gabor Mate looking at trauma and addiction we now continue the MedCircle series with this 3rd post looking also at trauma – or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to be accurate. In this series Dr Cheryl Arutt, Clinical and Forensic Psychologist explores PTSD prevalence, signs, symptoms and treatment options. but I also recognise that many of us that end with substance dependence and addiction issues have trauma, PTSD or even complex PTSD (C-PTSD) in our lived experience history and memories. If any of the discussed material causes you distress please seek support and advice from your primary health care medical team or local mental health service.

What’s your poison, people sometimes ask, but Gabor Maté doesn’t want to ask what my poison is, he wants to ask how it makes me feel. Part of that price was addiction – whether to alcohol or drugs, gambling or sex, overwork or porn, extreme sports or gaming – but essential to understanding it, says Maté, is to realise that addiction is not in itself the problem but rather an attempt to solve a problem. So rather than some people having brains that are wired for addiction, Maté argues, we all have brains that are wired for happiness. This is because, explains Maté, what happens to the parent happens to the child: the mothers were terrified, the babies were suffering, but unlike their mothers they couldn’t understand what the suffering was about.