Psychotherapy is more than just meeting with a licensed therapist each week and talking about your issues. Psychotherapy is where you learn how to change negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to positive ones.
You learn to do this by acquiring new skills that help you make these changes and maintain the changes for the rest of your life.
The American Psychiatric Association reports that 75% of people who participate in psychotherapy show improvement. This number will likely rise now that the stigma surrounding mental health treatment is fading.
Psychotherapy is now recognized as an essential treatment in overcoming disorders ranging from depression, anxiety, and addiction.
Addiction has become a global pandemic, making treatment more important than ever. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you know how it can consume a person and interfere with someone's ability to work, care for family, and even care for themselves.
To overcome an addiction, you need treatment, including psychotherapy.
Below are 11 transformative benefits of psychotherapy for anyone struggling with addiction and dependence.
Expert Help
To treat the brain disorder of addiction, you need the help of professionals who can teach you how to be successful in recovery. Psychotherapy allows you to work with licensed and certified mental health and substance abuse counselors who can work with you at whatever stage of recovery you need help.
Science-Based Treatments
A benefit of Psychotherapy is that you are treated with science-based treatments. Meaning, the methods used by your counselor have a long track record of reliable results that increase value and improve outcomes. They also increase accountability from both self and others to help you maintain long-term positive health.
Individualized Treatment Methods
Although you will have to access all science-based treatment methods, not all may be appropriate for your recovery. Working with a therapist means you will be given specific treatments based on your needs. Along with treatment for your addiction, you may also need treatment for codependency, grief, premarital, marriage, and family counseling.
There may also be alternative treatment methods recommended for you, like equine, art, and music therapy.
Together, you and your counselor will create a unique treatment plan that gives you the best chance for success.
Discover the Why
Psychotherapy uses exploratory methods to determine the link from your past to your present that caused you to become addicted to substances. Genetics, traumatic experiences, and even peer pressure are examples of why some people become addicted. Once you understand why you started using, you can begin to focus on preventing future use of drugs or alcohol. Individuals discover there are mental health issues that contribute to addiction.
Dual-Diagnosis Treatment
Mental health disorders often accompany addiction. You may find you use substances to help you cope with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, or other illnesses. Or, you may find that the substances you use are creating mental health disorders.
Psychotherapists can treat both mental health and addiction issues at the same time.
Improves Physical Health
Working with a psychotherapist means you can address addiction, mental health, and physical health problems you may be facing. It is customary to struggle with getting proper sleep, mood swings, and appetite changes in recovery. Issues like this can make it hard to stay sober and lead to high blood pressure, cholesterol, and worse.
Health problems can also become triggers for relapse.
Learn Your Triggers
Everyone has triggers that cause emotions to change. Triggers can include family and friends who still are using. A bar, club, and anything else that reminds you of what it was like to feel high are just a few triggers. Some individuals are successful at coping with triggers; some have more difficulty. Those with addiction have used drugs or alcohol to cope with triggers. Psychotherapy teaches you how to recognize, encounter, and cope with triggers with confidence and strength to avoid relapse.
Improve Relationships
One of the most significant benefits of psychotherapy is that it improves all your relationships, including family, friends, and work. It does this by teaching you how to set boundaries, so you do not feel triggered to relapse. You learn healthy versus unhealthy relationship behaviors.
Psychotherapy goes one step further by including those you care about in your treatment. A licensed counselor can provide marriage and family therapy. You can learn to heal as a couple or as a family.
Learn Relapse Prevention
Recovery from addiction and mental health disorders is a process, not a one-time treatment. A benefit of psychotherapy is that you are given relapse prevention techniques that support recovery. They are specific steps you can implement at any time in your recovery. Steps can include self-care, grounding techniques, stress management, communication skills, and building a support system.
Create a System of Support
If you talk to former addicts, you will likely hear part of their success is due to the supportive people in their lives. Because you can struggle with relapse at different times during the day and night, you need support around the clock. Your support system can include sober friends and family, a sponsor, therapists, former addicts with a long history of sobriety, and peers you meet through support groups.
A benefit of psychotherapy is that your counselor will help you build this support system and connect you with local support groups.
Maintenance Therapy
When you begin recovery, it is difficult to stay sober. At this time, you need all the help you can get.
Over time, however, you will need less treatment and support. That does not mean you must stop treatment. It simply means you can scale back to attend maintenance therapy that helps you stay accountable by checking in with your therapist to assess your progress.
Maintenance therapy can be a time where you and your therapist review relapse prevention tips, discuss new obstacles, or further work on relationships with family.
Eventually, you will not need to attend therapy. Until then, give yourself the gift of psychotherapy.
Practice techniques, implement new tools, and work through the stages of recovery so you can lead the long, happy, sober life you deserve.