Experiential Therapy for Addiction Treatment

Discovery is an essential part of any kind of therapy. Relevant to addiction treatment, the goal is the discovery of potential causes for the development of a substance abuse disorder, what specific triggers bring about the urge to indulge in alcohol or drugs, and what things might hamper the recovery of the patient.

The development of self-awareness is not necessarily limited to things that are related to addiction recovery. In many instances, the patient discovers that they apparently have a hidden talent that is brought out by the activities they participate in, and this sense of accomplishment goes a long way to helping build the confidence of the patient and to a greater sense of self-worth.

Much like talk therapy, there is a need to get the patient to open up about complex or deep-seated issues that could have either sparked the interest in using substances or could be a recurring source of stress which hinders complete recovery. In many cases, these issues or emotions are not as simple as most people think. They could be highly complex issues that need a good deal of processing just to sift through. Unless these issues are brought out and processed, they could be a constant hindrance to any kind of progress in therapy.

As with anything that has to do with emotions, these complex issues could only get worse as time goes by. Most people would dismiss emotional issues with the saying “time heals all wounds,” but there are some concerns that simply get worse the more it is ignored and later on manifests themselves in a destructive form of self-harm, such as substance abuse. Certain activities in experiential therapy, such as music, arts, free-form writing, and poetry, often help patients bring out complex emotional issues that could be too painful for them to confront and discuss openly, and this could be the only gateway for such issues to be explored through.

Trauma is believed to be one of the most powerful things to ever influence a person to get into alcohol or drug abuse. This is particularly true for deep-seated trauma, such as abuse experienced as a child or domestic assault at home, or for unprocessed trauma, such as those experienced by those who have seen great conflict or warfare. It could also be a harrowing experience like a potentially lethal accident or injury. These things tend to settle deep in the consciousness of people and fester.

What makes this worse is that the longer it is kept inside, the more the person tends to not want to talk about it. Experiential therapy could become an alternative outlet of sorts where the patient could allude to the trauma they have through the result of the activity they participate in, and this is where the therapist picks up on it. As the patient often does not want to broach the subject, it would be immensely helpful if the therapist could glean it from the outcome of the experiential therapy. Chapters Recovery offers dual diagnosis treatment in Massachusetts for anyone suffering both addiction and mental health disorders.

There are many instances when people fail to notice that their emotional response to certain forms of stimuli could lead to a negative outcome. There are just some incidents or events that seem to bring out the worst in some people. In others, these events could become a trigger for them to either indulge in the use of alcohol or drugs to deal with the emotional upheaval that they feel or if they had already quit using these, get back into their addiction because they never learned to cope with these emotional responses properly.

Identifying these negative responses is important because when a person has become so accustomed to these things, they will not seem wrong at all. These emotional responses could be clearly seen in some of the results of the activities used in experiential therapy, as most of these activities often bring out or reflect what is on the patient’s subconscious.

All of the activities done in experiential therapy are designed to not only identify the possible issues that need to be worked out so that the patient could achieve a full recovery but also to equip the patient with the necessary mindset and skills needed to cope with whatever it was that bothered them before. This is the ultimate goal of every form of therapy intended to help people recover from a substance abuse disorder.

The positive change does not always come in the form of a massive, life-changing transformation that reflects the triumph of a hero in popular media. In many cases, it could come as small victories for the patient as they work their way towards getting better and ensuring they do not fall back on bad habits. These small victories, or milestones as they are called in therapy, become the foundation for the lasting sobriety that every patient in men’s rehab or women’s rehab hopes to achieve.