Cognitive dissonance is the fundamental coping mechanism that people abusing drugs use throughout their active addiction and can often follow them into recovery. The defense mechanisms that someone places around themselves to keep cognitive dissonance at bay need to be addressed to start the recovery process. Someone spiraling into addiction knows that what they are doing isn’t good for them on some level. Still, they find substance abuse a more comfortable path because it blocks unwanted ideas, feelings, and responsibilities. We are driven to reconcile those conflicting thoughts, beliefs, and desires or behaviors to preserve harmony in our minds and make ourselves feel rationally better. Recognizing cognitive dissonance is the first step toward addressing and resolving internal conflict.

How Drug and Alcohol Abuse Affects Families

However, Festinger believed that all people are motivated to avoid or resolve cognitive dissonance due to the discomfort it causes. This can prompt drug addiction treatment people to adopt certain defense mechanisms when they have to confront it. Adolescent exposures to other substances of abuse, such as alcohol, cannabis, and MDMA, also cause persistent disruptions of cognition (Brown et al., 2000; O’Shea, McGregor, and Mallet, 2006; Piper and Meyer, 2004; Stiglick and Kalant, 1982).

How Does Cognitive Dissonance Influence Your Ability to Recover from a Substance Use Disorder?

We want you to feel comfortable and empowered to make the right decision for yourself, a friend, or a family member. This is why a counselor is waiting and available to answer your questions and help put your mind at ease regarding the next steps. If you feel you’re ready or want more information about how to help a loved one, we can help today. You can also learn why we are voted the #1 rehab for addiction treatment in Florida. Professional therapy helps individuals explore and understand the root causes of cognitive dissonance.

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• This article reviews current knowledge on the cognitive effects of drugs and their neurological underpinnings.
• Elvinesh brings his strong leadership and knowledge of food quality and safety standards from his prior experience as Meat & Seafood Manager for national grocery chains to his current role as Kitchen Supervisor.
• Family members are counselled so as identify potential risk factors for relapse, such as emotional and behavioural changes.
• Bandura 45 first introduced the concept of self-efficacy and defined it as “people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise control over events that affect their lives”.
• Carrie counsels clients with abuse trauma, helps them rebuild their self-worth and assists them in obtaining healthy coping skills.

The complexity of my situation only intensified, and my lies and fabrications escalated, resulting in deeper self-deception and failure, ultimately leading to increased drug use. There are no specific time frames within which a person navigates through the stages, and may also remain at stage for a long time before moving forwards or backwards (for example a person may remain in the stage of contemplation or preparation for years without moving on to action). Patterns of movement through the various stages are categorized as stable, progressive or unstable11.

What Are the Emotional and Cognitive Conflicts in Addiction?

• In summary, cognitive dissonance is a normal and even necessary part of the recovery journey.
• While it may seem to some social workers that details of substance abuse are hard to access, it is our experience that once an authentic and safe rapport is forged, there is no topic an adolescent substance abuser would rather talk about than drugs and alcohol.
• However, its application in the field of information systems has been limited until recent years.
• First, prior research in the field of information systems and psychology has demonstrated the importance of considering the interplay between cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors in the study of user intentions, particularly in the context of technology adoption and usage.
• Although MI incorporates the principles of the trans theoretical model, it has been distinguished from both trans theoretical model and CBT21.

Each of the sites had the youth participants conceptualize, script, act and film four drug prevention videos, one for cognitive dissonance and addiction each refusal skill (Refuse, Explain, Avoid and Leave, thus the acronym R.E.A.L.). Each site filmed on their agency grounds so the location would be recognizable to the youth and their peers who would later receive the adapted curricula. Resilience refers to those who experience challenging conditions without showing profound negative consequences (Greene, 2002).

Cognitive dissonance isn’t just a vague psychological theory — in fact, contradictory beliefs appear in our lives more often than we might want to admit. The important thing is to stay connected to yourself and make positive changes when needed. Festinger proposed this hypothesis in his 1957 book, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.

Breaking Through Cognitive Dissonance in Treatment

This process allowed for the participants’ actual experiences rather than perceptions to be captured. This process also prompted the youth to stay in touch with their own negative drug-related experiences and to prevent the tendency to want to portray “worst possible scenarios” and “scare tactics”, as substance abuse prevention programs. Involving such tactics are known to be rarely effective with young people (Darkes and Goldman, 1993; Stewart, Conrod, Marlatt, Comeau, Thush, & Krank, 2006). A bloody car crash, for example, may make an interesting movie, but unless youth have witnessed or experienced it, it has little impact as a substance prevention intervention. Some youth encounter significant “motivational barriers” when coerced into treatment (Winters, 1999). Approximately half of the youth in treatment relapse in the first 3 months following https://harveysinflatablewatersliderentals.com/best-addiction-recovery-tattoo-ideas-10/ discharge (Brown, Mott & Myers, 1990), and 65–80% relapse after 6 months (Brown, 2001; Cornelius et al., 2003).

He started using alcohol in his college, with friends and found that drinking helped him cope with his anxiety. Gradually he began to drink before meetings or interactions (maladaptive coping and negative reinforcement). He reported difficulty sleeping if he did not drink, could not get past the day without drinking or thinking about his next drink (establishment of a dependence pattern). His wife brought him for treatment and he was not keen on taking help He did not believe it was a problem (stage of change).