How Therapy Could Change Your Life

Substance abuse is something many people struggle with. It is all too easy to get started and far harder to stop and go back. For some people, beating a substance abuse addiction can seem hopeless, but if that’s you, you should know that you’re not alone. There is help available, and the therapy you get at a treatment center can truly change your life.

Why Therapy Is Important

When you think about getting help for substance abuse, you might think first of all about medical help. Medical intervention is a crucial part of substance abuse recovery, but counseling is another key component and a mainstay of treatment.

There are several types of counseling that can be enormously helpful in getting you past your substance abuse problem and back to healthy, productive, and happy life. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been proven to help people stay clean, while family counseling can help you learn how to heal the wounds that substance abuse causes in relationships.

Because therapy is crucial, the Stillwater Treatment Centre combines therapy and other interventions to offer wholistic, effective treatment that can set you free and put you back in the driver’s seat of your life.

Therapy can empower you.

If you struggle with an addiction, you may feel as if the substance is in charge instead of you. The more often you feel this way, the harder it gets to say no: It feels impossible. With therapy, you can learn that you are still in charge. You can regain the confidence to control your life.

Therapy can teach you skills.

As you feel more empowered, you will also begin to see the need to craft strategies to beat your substance enemy. These skills may include knowing when to avoid a situation or person, when to ask for help, and how to redirect your thinking in helpful ways.

Therapy can give you a new way of thinking.

One of the common issues for people suffering from substance abuse is negative thoughts. These negative thoughts can crowd out everything else, even if you don’t realize it. Therapy can help you identify, verbalize, and then break apart these unwelcome, unhelpful, and untrue ideas.

Therapy can teach you new incentives.

One reason substance abuse happens is that the brain learns to find a reward in the substance. We all need rewards, and we all need incentives to keep going and to be happy. One of the benefits of therapy is that it helps you learn how to reward yourself with new, healthier things.

Therapy gives you accountability.

Substance abuse can creep up in part because you feel alone. Whatever your reasons for feeling this way, when you invest in a relationship with a therapist you are suddenly with someone who cares. They care enough to try to help you, and they care enough to keep you accountable. Learning the value of accountable relationships will pay off through the rest of your life.

Therapy makes you more flexible to changes.

Part of substance abuse is returning to the familiar and expected. Part of the difficulty in overcoming it is accepting a change. Change is hard for everyone, and therapy can help you see change as good and learn how to cope with it. Again, this is a skill that will come in handy for the rest of your life.

Therapy will show you how to manage stress.

Stress is a huge part of substance abuse, and it is also a huge part of modern life. There are healthy ways to keep stress under control, but many of us were never taught any useful strategies for managing stress. Therapy will teach you how to do that.

Addiction isn’t a failing or a sign of weakness, it’s caused by real changes in your brain that you need help to overcome. Recovery takes time, but it is within reach.