How Choice Theory Can Aid Addiction Recovery

During substance abuse treatment, programs like individual counseling and choice theory can help you learn how to manage triggers and cravings. How does choice theory aid addiction recovery? By improving your decision-making process and helping you learn how to cope with triggers. 

More than 24 million Americans used illicit drugs in the past month, while another 17.3 million people meet the criteria for a substance abuse disorder annually. Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol can cause physical and psychological addiction, meaning that treatment is commonly needed from a reality therapy program in NJ.

What is Addiction?

Addiction is a chronic condition. It causes you to compulsively use and abuse drugs and alcohol even if you experience negative consequences or have a desire to quit. Drugs and alcohol can cause both physical and psychological dependence and lead to changes in your pleasure and reward center. Drugs and alcohol cause your brain to release a rush of pleasurable neurotransmitters. Your brain associates your substance of choice with pleasure.

Addiction can also cause:

• Physical problems and organ damage
• Personality changes
• Financial issues
• Poor personal relationships
• Legal issues

During addiction, you can continue to abuse your substance of choice even if you want to quit. This makes treatment, such as choice theory and reality therapy necessary. Your brain rewards your drug and alcohol use. Learning how to change your behavior and response to cravings is an important part of recovery.

Since drugs and alcohol can cause physical dependency, you can experience withdrawal symptoms when you stop using, which can make getting through the withdrawal process difficult without help.

How Choice Theory Can Aid Addiction Recovery

If you are wondering how choice theory can aid addiction recovery, it is important to understand what choice theory and reality therapy are. Choice theory is a therapeutic treatment that focuses on helping you change negative behaviors. Choice theory and reality therapy are based on the belief that almost all behaviors are the result of free choice. This means that you can control your actions but nobody else’s.

One major recovery trigger is experiencing negative emotions because of other people’s choices or behaviors. To understand how choice theory can aid addiction recovery, it is also important to remember that successful recovery is rooted in making positive choices. Realizing that you can control how you respond to negative life events can serve as an important asset during recovery.

Another way how choice theory can aid addiction recovery is that it helps you feel empowered. During choice theory, you will learn that you can achieve your goals by making good decisions and taking responsibility for your choices.

Choice theory and reality therapy can be used with other treatments, such as group and family therapy, which makes it highly versatile.

Finding Help Today

If you are struggling with a substance abuse problem, finding help is the first step in the recovery process. Treatment can help you learn how to cope with triggers and cravings in a healthy way. This can ultimately reduce your chances of relapsing. To find out more about how choice theory can aid addiction recovery, call us today at [Direct].