Lawrence offers a number of services dedicated to the treatment of behavioral addictions—that is, addictions that do not involve substances. These addictions can create severe mental health problems, and overall, they compromise one's well-being. Like their counterparts in the world of substance addiction, people afflicted with these kinds of problems often experience strong, uncontrollable urges to engage in the addictive behavior.
Lawrence furnishes some vital resources that can pull people out of these destructive patterns. They include traditional components of mental health care, like counseling and therapy, and a few resources and services that cater specifically to the problems of behavioral addiction.
Comprehending and treating behavioral addiction
Patterns of compulsive behavior that people frequently do exist despite negative consequences. These behaviors offer people a form of momentary escape or relief from the problems they face but can lead to serious impairment in a variety of life domains. Some common types of behavioral addictions include:
The uncontrollable urge to gamble can cause people to ruin their lives in several ways. For instance, the gambling addict may find that their financial resources have been completely depleted, forcing them to take desperate measures to dig their way out of the hole. Next, they may realize that their relationships have been seriously degraded, as they have been lying and manipulating their way through any discussions they have had about their gambling. Finally, many addicts are going to end up dealing with the law, as they will frequently have resorted to embezzlement, forgery, or theft to sustain their addiction.
When people can no longer control their use of the internet, social media, gaming, or digital devices, it often results in what is considered an addiction. This addiction can have a severe effect on one's daily life and can affect the person's relationships. It is important to remember that these addictions can take time to develop but can happen to anyone. The internet and digital addictions usually begin very subtly.
When it comes to eating disorders, there is no such thing as a healthy one. Binge eating disorder, bulimia, and anorexia are conditions of the mind and body that are simply not right. The relationships they hold with their hosts are as toxic and unfulfilling as they come. Sure, in some cases, they might work for a bit better appearance when looking at the eating-disordered individual's appearance from the outside and for a bit better mental health when looking at the person from the inside.
But the bottom line is that these are not good diseases to have.
Behavioral addiction treatment comprises several fundamental principles for achieving the goals that it sets. These principles are not always the same across the many types of addiction treatment or for different aspects of a single type of treatment, but they tend to occur in some form or another with the problems we identify. For each of our four treatment types, we will focus on some principles that seem especially important. Indeed, we suspect they are among the necessary and sufficient ones.
Behavioral addiction treatment that works in Lawrence has these elements:
Complete assessments help figure out the particular profound addictive behaviors, the essential core of the problem, the side issues (such as those related to mental health), and the unique treatment needs of the patients.
Therapeutic Interventions are Evidence-based. At College Recovery, we practice these methods because they work. CBT, DBT, ACT, and MI are just a few of the acronyms that designate the methods we use to help our clients. When you hear that neuroscience has designated these methods as EBTs (evidence-based therapies), you probably question how anything called "therapy" can be evidenced. After all, don't the people who make that determination see what all of us should clearly see? Cognitive-behavioral therapy has a common-sense side that can't be doubted, right? But, alas, that's not how you get a therapy designated as EBT.
Clients acquire the abilities and methods they need to cope with stress and to get through the lapse without going over the edge, i.e., without giving up their newly begun recovery. Key to the multitude of such skills is the development of the ability to beef up weak-willed or under-motivated individuals and to keep the hinges from coming off the doors inside their heads.
A co-listening scene exists when group therapy, peer support, family counseling, and community resources are present. For this reason, a more essential Bassiacal environment has never existed for a certain group of individuals. And history, for these people, has never been this recorded. It is this super-charged support network that creates an almost magical constellation of recovery.
People with behavioral addictions often also have mental health problems. The treatment we provide covers both the addiction and any co-occurring mental health issues.
The Significance of Mental Health Services in Lawrence
Behavioral addiction treatment is crucial in Lawrence, and its provision through the mental health services there is key.
Mental health experts expertly assess and diagnose behavioral addictions and concurrent mental health disorders. By conducting such comprehensive assessments, these professionals can make accurate diagnoses, even of an illness that is little understood.
Treatment plans that address both the mental health issues and the addiction are ensured by collaboration between clinicians who specialize in mental health and clinicians who specialize in addiction.
There are no such things as generic treatment plans in our center. Instead, our care providers take the time to get to know our clients and understand what makes them unique. Whether it's focusing on an individual's particular set of difficulties, or just an approach to recovery that an individual might consider their "own," our center prides itself on offering a truly personalized experience.
The level of care in mental health services ranges from outpatient counseling to intensive programs. And it does not stop there. Mental health services provide a wide range of supports that meet the constantly changing needs of people who are on the recovery journey.
Why You Should Consider Treating Behavioral Addictions
Behavioral addiction treatment comes with a lot of benefits for the people receiving it. Count among these the fact that the work takes place in Lawrence, so issues of availability and access are greatly reduced. The odds on seeing a trained mental health specialist who really gets what is going on when a client says, "I think I have a problem with my behavior" are very good here.
Addressing behavioral addictions results in better mental health, emotional wellness, and quality of living.
Strengthened Coping Abilities: People who engage in therapy develop more robust coping mechanisms, master innovative emotion regulation approaches, and acquire top-notch problem-solving skills.
Feeling Like Part of a Whole: In the group setting of therapy, individuals can find a place where they can relate to one another, find common ground, and be of help to each other. Support is a universal aspect of human life. The means by which it is given and the forms it takes, however, differ greatly from person to person. For the person with a serious mental illness, support often means having someone to help them through the vagaries of their existence.
The risk of relapse is significantly reduced when individuals learn the necessary skills to prevent that from happening again. That risk reduction is downplayed by some, who argue that it exists mostly early in recovery. Others recognize the potential for relapse at any recovery point and argue that learning and skill use should be a more prominent part of relapse-prevention programming. If a person is not accessing the knowledge and skill base needed to prevent relapse, then the likelihood is much higher that he or she will relapse.
The Treatment of Behavioral Addictions
The recognition of behavioral addictions is on the rise, and along with this, the number of treatment options is increasing. Despite the appearances to the contrary, the treatment of behavioral addicts is moving along a progressive path. This path recognizes the impact of these addictions on mental health; and, without a doubt, a great many addicts suffer from PTSD or some other mental health condition either as a pre-existing condition or one that came about after the behavioral addiction set in.
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