For example, when they have a job interview, they immediately assume the other person will think the worst of them and self-sabotage their opportunity based on their pre-conclusions. This famous black-and-white way of thinking or an all-or-nothing approach to living can be quite dangerous. Most of the time, they’ll place themselves in “either/or” situations and make decisions using this mentality, often acting in extremist ways. These people will take the negative details of a situation and magnifies those while mental-filtering out any positive aspects.

• Still, they find substance abuse a more comfortable path because it blocks unwanted ideas, feelings, and responsibilities.
• It is the mental conflict that occurs when our thoughts and our behaviours don’t fit together.
• It may also be that damage to the insula will have a similar effect on the desire to use other drugs of abuse (for a review see Goldstein et al., 2009).
• This presents a challenge for practitioners because there are few substance abuse prevention programs that are tailored for older adolescents who have experimented with substances (Sussman, Dent, & Stacy, 2002; Sussman, Sun, McCuller, & Dent, 2003).
• The participants felt like hypocrites — but their intention to take the positive action increased.

Cognitive Dissonance and Addiction: Unraveling the Mental Struggle in Substance Abuse

The high-risk nature of the population was supported by their high rates of drug use and related attitudes and behaviors. Your therapist will https://ecosoberhouse.com/ work with you to identify the conflicting beliefs causing distress. This might involve discussing various aspects of your life, from relationships and career choices to personal values and habits. It’s like being a detective in your own mind, searching for clues to solve the mystery of your internal conflicts. One example of this type of psychological research is the studies originally done by Leon Festinger in the 1950’s.

SMART Recovery vs. A.A. – Is One Better?

Participants from both study groups were interviewed after the study, and again at six months, and one, two and three years after the study. They found that the young women who participated in the dissonance-based therapy group had less dissatisfaction with their bodies at the end of the treatment, and at the time of the 3-year follow-up interview (Stice, et al, 2011). Self-efficacy has a moderating effect on the relationship between user addiction and cognitive dissonance among users of the pan-entertainment mobile live broadcast platform. Cognitive dissonance has a positive influence on the discontinuous usage intention of pan-entertainment mobile live broadcast platform users.

Men’s Treatment

Only when they are ready can they possibly have a chance to see the cognitive dissonance for what it is and the damage their addiction has caused. Many people need to hit personal rock bottom to see through the denial and decide that they’ve had enough. This can result in a confirmation bias, where individuals only absorb confirming information. Changing deeply ingrained beliefs or behaviors can be challenging and may require significant effort and support. At start of therapy, Rajiv was not confident of being able to help himself (self-efficacy and lapse- relapse pattern).

Over time, living out of integrity with our values begins to take its toll on our psychological well-being and mental health. Well, this happens because our ego is attempting to deal with a type of mental distress known cognitive dissonance and addiction as cognitive dissonance. For someone in addiction recovery, these common negative thinking patterns can increase their anxiety, often triggering depression and relapse episodes.

Through this treatment, patients can identify negative thinking patterns and distorted thoughts. The approach also focuses on assisting patients in shifting or reframing thoughts to be more rational and positive. Measurement instruments included questions about substance use, attitudes and intentions indicative of behaviors.

Taking steps to address cognitive dissonance is crucial in the recovery process and in managing addiction. Lastly, platform supervisors should enhance regulation and management, establishing user hierarchy management, implementing and standardizing content review systems, and constructing an advanced content classification and identification system. Whether it is through platform or government regulation, users ultimately play an important role, and if users can consciously improve their own qualities, user management will be more effective with less effort.

• They were then given either $1 or $20 to tell a person in the waiting room that the task was fun.
• Each of the five stages that a person passes through are characterized as having specific behaviours and beliefs.
• The mental state of cognitive dissonance can actually have a very powerful effect on our thoughts and behaviors.
• By the time you leave rehab, your brain will be packed-full of reasons not to return to alcohol or drug use.

Mason has always shown a strong desire to help clients recover from drug and alcohol addiction and to provide a strong support system for our employees and counselors as well, allowing them to reach their full potential in their current roles. Mason is detail oriented, organized, efficient oral and written communicator, and passionate about creating a positive workplace for our staff and an excellent recovery environment for our clients. Lisa is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over 25 years of clinical experience working in the field of addiction treatment and mental health stabilization and care. She has strong communication skills, compassion for others, and a drive to provide the best services we can to each client and their family throughout their experience with Elevate. For the past 9 years, she additionally has been overseeing the detox area, health services, and office of family support. She has implemented a lot of new protocols for the operations of these areas to ensure the clients are receiving the highest quality of care that we are able to provide.

Treatment Resources

Discover how compassion for yourself leads to genuine healing and better relationships. The human brain continues to develop and consolidate important neural pathways from the prenatal period through adolescence. Throughout these years, the brain is highly malleable, and drug-induced alterations alcoholism of neural plasticity may deflect the normal course of brain maturation. Here, someone expects that other people will change to suit them if they pressure them enough. For example, a girlfriend who tries to get her boyfriend to improve his appearance and manners. She believes her boyfriend is perfect if he changes this and will make them happier.

Drug activity in these regions and processes during early stages of abuse foster strong maladaptive associations between drug use and environmental stimuli that may underlie future cravings and drug-seeking behaviors. With continued drug use, cognitive deficits ensue that exacerbate the difficulty of establishing sustained abstinence. The developing brain is particularly susceptible to the effects of drugs of abuse; prenatal, childhood, and adolescent exposures produce long-lasting changes in cognition. Patients with mental illness are at high risk for substance abuse, and the adverse impact on cognition may be particularly deleterious in combination with cognitive problems related to their mental disorders. Qualitative findings from the previous research (Holleran Steiker, Goldbach, Hopson, & Powell, under review) illustrates that participating in adaptation of the program may change knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.