Is counterconditioning in the treatment of addictions one of the fundamental techniques for achieving difficulty?But it’s not impossible to give up a destructive habit.
It is said that evil must be suffocated in the egg and that it is, although it seems simple, basically the purpose of the counter conditioning technique, which is made to eliminate stimuli that can trigger addictive behaviors. focus more on the issue of addictions, but backhaul can be done as part of any destructive habit.
- This technique is part of the self-control techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy and requires concrete actions to eliminate.
- Replace or modify the stimuli that can lead us to give the answer we want to avoid.
As we said earlier, the technique itself is quite simple: just modify the stimuli before the response to avoid emitting the behavior.
However, the fact that it seems simple does not mean that it is really so easy to obtain the final result, for this the therapist and the patient must be able to apply the technique correctly, with empathy on the one hand and commitment on the other. others In this way, the results will be practically guaranteed.
On the one hand, the therapist must show empathy towards the person in front of him, but without losing contact with reality, all the stimuli that we want to eliminate or modify cannot go through this process, and in these cases we will have to look for alternatives. .
On the other hand, the patient must be very motivated and very convinced that he wants to change, if the person is, according to the model of Prochaska and Di Clemente, in a precontemplative or contemplative state, it will be difficult for him to perform the counter conditioning. The patient must have made a decision and committed to performing the tasks proposed by their therapist.
There are many ways to practice counter conditioning, from the direct elimination of the stimulus that precedes the response to the physiological changes within our body, in all cases the therapist must ensure that the patient is able to perform it and that the act is feasible in practice.
This last point depends a lot on each case, on the resources available to the person, social support, self-control, motivation, etc.
In this sense, we know that it is much better to work on the most initial or primary gears of the behavior chain, that is, if I am emotionally dependent on a person and every time I drink alcohol, I look for it, It is better to work first in the behavior of drinking than in avoiding calling the person.
Here are some ways to practice back conditioning
Therefore, what will happen is that the patient will have a really unpleasant reaction to the substance, with vomiting, tachycardia, sweating, etc.
In addition to this extreme case of counter conditioning, another example of using changes that occur at the physiological level could be to go on the market right after lunch, without hunger, so as not to buy products with high calorie content.
Counterconditioning is a very effective technique for treating addictions when applied correctly, however, it is difficult to completely abandon the substance only with it, so conditioning must be combined with other techniques to maximize the final effect.
Some of the techniques with which it can be made compatible are generally included in the group of cognitive therapies. These aim to change any mistaken beliefs the patient may have about their problem, or other techniques such as relaxation, withdrawal syndrome treatment techniques, and even mindfulness.