DBT for Addiction Treatment at Purpose Healing

Regain Emotional Control: DBT for Addiction Treatment at Purpose Healings

DBT for Interpersonal Effectiveness

Frequently, substance abuse causes challenges in interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal effectiveness refers to the skills you use to interact with others. Interpersonal effectiveness skills help people with addiction:

• Build healthy relationships.
• Repair existing relationships.
• Communicate their needs.
• Navigate conflict.
  

Interpersonal effectiveness skills can help you in romantic and familial relationships, friendships, the workplace, and any other situations involving other people.

Distress Tolerance Strategies

For many, distress is a trigger for substance use. When you experience painful or intense emotions, like loneliness, anger, nervousness, or sadness, it can be difficult to cope with them if you don’t have the skills you need.

DBT teaches you how to identify and mitigate distress. The first step is to notice how you feel without judging it (this is an example of how to apply mindfulness). Instead of saying “I shouldn’t be upset by this” or “I’m not upset enough to use my skills,” you instead acknowledge that you feel upset.

DBT therapists can provide a range of distress tolerance skills to use after you acknowledge how you feel. For example:

• Slow, deep breaths.
• Body movement (e.g., take a walk or run, wave arms by your side).
• Healthy distractions and activities (e.g., reading, doing puzzles, cleaning).
• Self-soothing (e.g., finding a way to soothe each of your five senses, positive self-talk).
• Temperature (e.g., holding an ice cube).
  

When calm and working with a therapist, many benefit from creating a menu of distress tolerance strategies they can use later. This way, when difficult moments arise, they can see their options and choose the most helpful one(s).

Once you learn dialectical behavior therapy, you can use distress tolerance and related skills anytime and anywhere.

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Is DBT for Substance Use Disorders Effective?

Yes. Research on DBT for substance use disorders shows that it can reduce impulsivity. Lowering impulsivity can help people overcoming alcohol and drug abuse refrain from giving in to urges to use. DBT helps you use a wise mind rather than act on initial thoughts.

In addition to aiding behavioral change, dialectical behavior therapy can help you:

• Create a positive environment for yourself.
• Improve quality of life.
• Feel confident.

Everyone in addiction recovery is different. Using dialectical behavior therapy and other treatments, our team will help you meet your unique goals.

DBT as Part of a Comprehensive Treatment Approach for Substance Dependence

Addiction is complex. The answer to why we drink or use drugs, especially if we know that it’s hurting us, the people around us, or our lives, tends to be multifaceted. Our recovery must be, too. Purpose uses DBT as part of a comprehensive approach.

This means that we combine DBT with other treatments. Depending on your needs, these other therapies  may include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): DBT is derived from CBT, a highly effective approach often used in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. CBT and DBT are both very commonly used in addiction treatment programs.
• Motivational Therapy: Feeling motivated to stop using alcohol and illicit drugs can be imperative for effective treatment, but not everyone starts their recovery program feeling as motivated as they could. Motivational therapies, such as motivational enhancement therapy (MET), can help spark the motivation to recover.
• Medications for addiction. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) involves combining effective therapies for addiction with medications for substance use disorders, such as opioid or alcohol use disorder.
• Trauma-Focused Therapy: Many people affected by addiction have past trauma. In this case, it can be crucial to work through trauma and its effects. Various trauma-focused therapies have been shown to help trauma survivors, including those with addiction, reduce symptoms of conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Family Sessions: Family therapy can help you and your family members understand one another, support each other, and communicate more harmoniously.
• Experiential Therapies: Experiential therapies involve hands-on activities. These can act as emotional outlets and skill-building opportunities for people with substance use disorders.
• 12-Step: 12-step approaches such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous have been shown to improve substance use.
  

Our goal at Purpose Healing is to make sure that people overcoming drug and alcohol dependence have everything they need to heal and thrive. It’s important to us that you gain the skills you need to address addiction not just on the surface level, but holistically and long-term.

Addressing Co-Occurring Disorders via DBT

One aspect of treating substance use disorders holistically is to address underlying causes or co-occurring concerns that make life harder when left untouched. Many people with addiction have one or more co-occurring disorders. These often include:

• Mood disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder, depression).
• Personality disorders.
• Trauma disorders.
• Eating disorders.
• Anxiety disorders.
  

DBT skills can be highly beneficial for navigating conditions like these. DBT is effective for reducing addictive behavior, but it is also a research-backed treatment for a wide variety of other mental health concerns.

What Can You Expect When Starting DBT for Addiction?

When you first start addiction treatment, you will get an evaluation. This evaluation will help us understand your current symptoms and personal history (whether you’ve been to treatment before, what did and didn’t work, how long you’ve been using, etc.).

From there, we can work with you to choose the right initial level of care. Purpose offers structured inpatient and outpatient treatment programs. At our center, DBT skills training groups will be just one part of your therapy schedule.

Other types of therapy groups, such as weekly individual therapy and other activities, are used together for the best outcomes. This approach will help you gain a thorough understanding of yourself and continue to strengthen your recovery.