Overcoming Cognitive Dissonance in Addiction Recovery

They may rationalize their behavior or deny the severity of the problem, even when presented with evidence of its harmful effects. It refers to a state of congruence between a persons beliefs and behaviors. When an individual’s values are well-aligned and consistent with their actions, they are more likely to experience cognitive consonance.

Cognitive Dissonance in Recovery

• Furthermore, they may devise justifications for their addictive behaviors, deceiving themselves and avoiding the harsh reality of their addiction.
• Even in recovery, individuals may still battle cognitive dissonance and justify relapses.
• Once a choice has been made, however, people need to find a way to reduce these feelings of discomfort.
• The abstinence violation effect is characterized by two key cognitive affective elements.
• The fox overcomes their discomfort with the situation by deciding that these grapes are not good to eat anyway.

Individuals who experience an intense AVE go through a motivation crisis that affects their commitment to abstinence goals30,31. Social skills training (SST) incorporates a wide variety of interpersonal https://ecosoberhouse.com/ dimensions15. SST is particularly useful when patients return to drinking due to social pressures. Patients may also require communication skills to deal with interpersonal conflicts.

Conflicting Information

If cognitive dissonance fueled your self-destructive behavior, adding cognitive behavioral therapy to your treatment plan can help. Maintaining a rift between your beliefs and deeds is a form of false reasoning, but CBT aims to help you replace negative thought patterns with positive ones. A therapist trained in CBT techniques can teach you to use willpower and logical thinking to work through distorted justifications and deconstruct all the mechanisms you put in place to validate your drinking or drug habit.

Personality Predictors of IT Addiction

• This phenomenon leads individuals to rationalize their addictive behaviors and ignore any information that contradicts their beliefs.
• The truth is, most of us have experienced dissonance at one time or another.
• In the context of dieting, a person who intends to lose weight has dissonance because of his conflicting strong desires for fattening foods and to lose weight.
• These internal conflicts are hard to live with, and if not dealt with the individual will feel bad about themselves.
• Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort you feel when you have two contradictory beliefs or values.
• Changing deeply ingrained beliefs or behaviors can be challenging and may require significant effort and support.
• After all, it takes only a single moment of weakness during a high-risk situation for a recovering addict to reconsider drug use and relapse.

Many experiments have established that, as learning takes place, selected neurons increase their levels of activity and form new connections, or strengthen established connections, with networks of other neurons. Moreover, experimental techniques that prevent neuronal activity and networking inhibit learning. The first step in planning a cognitive behavioural treatment program is to carry out a functional analysis to identify maintaining antecedents and set treatments targets, select interventions.

Practical examples of this process in everyday life can help us understand it a little better, and understand how this theory is important for helping people change behaviors that may be harmful to them. People experiencing addiction often have conflicting beliefs about the negative consequences of their behavior and their desire to continue engaging in that behavior. This internal conflict between the knowledge that addiction is harmful and the compulsion to engage in addictive behaviors contributes to cognitive dissonance. This article explores the relationship between cognitive dissonance and addiction, shining a light on the psychological struggle individuals face when dealing with addictive behaviors. Cognitive dissonance plays a significant role in the recovery process for individuals with addiction.

• People experiencing addiction often have conflicting beliefs about the negative consequences of their behavior and their desire to continue engaging in that behavior.
• They might join a support group, read books on addiction, and get rid of their cigarettes.
• After living with cognitive dissonance for so long, it will take you some effort to break those thought patterns and concentrate on your newly healthy lifestyle.
• A person who cares about their health might be disturbed to learn that sitting for long periods during the day is linked to a shortened lifespan.
• One of Festinger’s experiments revealed how forced compliance could lead to cognitive dissonance.

But you can feel caught off guard when those values and beliefs are shaken by social pressures, the presence of new information or having to make a rushed last-minute decision. Sometimes, we can even get caught up in behaving or reacting a certain way that doesn’t necessarily align with how we really feel — and then we end up feeling lost. People who learn that greenhouse emissions result in global warming might experience feelings of dissonance if they drive a gas-guzzling vehicle.

But you also enjoy smoking so much and you tell yourself it’s worth the risk. You also tell yourself that people really exaggerate how dangerous smoking is.  After all, you know people who smoke who have lived very long lives. You also think that no one can avoid every dangerous thing in life, right? Then, of course, you tell yourself that if you quit smoking, you might gain weight, which is also bad for your health. So now your smoking behavior is consistent with your beliefs about smoking.

This internal conflict between what they believe and what they do leads to cognitive dissonance, and this will lead to mental discomfort. The individual has to find a way to resolve this contradiction, and there are three strategies that they can use to do this. A better understanding of how substances of abuse change cognitive processes is needed to develop new therapeutic agents to treat addiction and ameliorate cognitive deficits. This is a complex issue, however, as different drugs of abuse appear to alter different cognitive processes and cell signaling pathways.

Their research helps us understand the connections between our thinking, our behavior, and our emotions. In addition to trying to answer questions like these, psychological research can also to help behavioral health professionals develop more effective treatments for mental illness and emotional distress. Cognitive dissonance is the tension that arises when there is a conflict between a belief and a desire or behavior. It occurs when individuals hold opposing beliefs and experience psychological stress as a result. If you or someone you know is facing the psychological struggle of addictive behaviors, it is crucial to seek help and support. Recovery is indeed possible, and there are numerous resources available to assist in the journey toward a healthier and happier life.