Cognitive Dissonance and Addiction Behaviors Elevate Addiction Services

If we look back at the theory of cognitive dissonance and my story, I should’ve been taking steps to try rebalancing my beliefs and actions and to correct that dissonance, but I wasn’t. The barriers that prevented me from gaining cognitive consistency and getting the treatment I needed were wrapped up in a lot of insecurities the teenagers and young adults I work with now experience themselves. It’s goal is to change patterns of thinking or behavior that are behind people’s difficulties, and to change the way they feel. Variousresearch studieshave shown that CBT leads to significant improvements in quality of life. Reminds me of the British Royal Family in March 2021, dealing with Meghan , as well as the lesser Narcissist Harry. I always wonder why the Royal Family haven’t worked it out yet, given their access to the best therapy and advice money can buy. Of course, you have to consider this kind of situation in the context of all-around family dysfunction; I would say that the Queen herself is an Empath, and her four children seem to me to be Attachment-disordered.

I did not react as they wanted to and the trust was gone. I am still struggling to entangle from the addictive narcisstistic entanglement with my mom.

Forced Compliance Behavior

As I’m sure most people don’t really know what cognitive dissonance is, let’s start at the beginning. In particular he stresses the need to enhance depressed patients’ sense of self-efficacy, and suggests strategies to foster this. In addition to this, booster sessions over at least a 12 month period are advisable to ensure that a safety net is available since gamblers are renown for not recontacting cognitive dissonance theory sufficiently hastily when difficulties arise. Recontact contracts can also be useful where it is agreed in advance what the criterion will be for a time where a gambler should recontact the therapist. The guiding strategy here is to ensure that gamblers learn to cope with minor setbacks on their own but are able to recognise more major setbacks before they become fully blown relapses.

When a person always has a rational explanation for their irrational behavior, this is known in psychology as the cognitive dissonance theory. Festinger’s theory stated that if we do not feel the mental balance then we become uncomfortable enough to begin to justify our decisions for our actions.

Myth #6: The Program Tries to Convince Non-Addicts That They’re Addicts

Growing up, I never thought I would be addicted to drugs, but addiction is so powerful that it became a central part of my identity. The first step towards resolving that uncomfortable feeling of cognitive dissonance. Building a solid support system of new friends who didn’t use helped me find that. I was able to find things I genuinely enjoyed, like going to the skatepark with my boyfriend, and had friends who encouraged me to go back to school. I started volunteering in the mental health field and started working to support myself. At this point I changed the language I was using to identify myself to be more person first and descriptive.

• They really show how it develops in individuals and how it is a pathology.
• These long sessions, where we would lose track of time as we were drawn into the amazing stories he shared, were known as God time, so called because in God time we lost ourselves and were completely devoid of ego.
• As always, there needs to be a change on a large scale of how we as a nation think of those in need of recovery from substances.
• I think I felt so bad for his history, his disease that I didn’t stop to think very often what the chaos was doing to me….

But each way of reducing dissonance requires that you recognize what feelings you have and do something about it, Curry adds. Some of that dissonance can be a good thing, but too much means we’re constantly at conflict with ourselves. And that tension and conflict can make us feel stressed, irritated, and unhappy if we let them fester for too long. Here’s what you need to do to go about reducing and reconciling the cognitive dissonance in your life. It’s the tension that arises when we think one way but act another way, or when we hold two opposing views at the same time.

Gaslighting: Another Insidious Form of Narcissistic Cognitive Dissonance

I realized that part of letting him and my marriage go was to let go of the rose colored glasses version I had in my head. I think to be honest I had to have that https://ecosoberhouse.com/ version in my head during our marriage to actually get passed the emotional abuse in a way… And I realize now I am the only one that can set myself free…