How is a behavioral addiction similar to a substance behavioral addiction?
In actuality, all addictions are the same and a substance is no different than a behavior. There must be something reinforcing, it must make you feel better for you to do it again. If you go gamble and you go to Las Vegas, you get excited, you win a big amount of money, you’re gonna [...]
What is the cognitive-behavioral approach to behavioral addiction?
First of all, it’s a distinct discipline. It is based on the assumption that thinking leads to feelings that leads to behavior. It’s sort of like a triangle. And that if you change one’s thinking about something, you can change the way they feel about it. You can change the way feel about it, you [...]
Am I at risk for behavioral addiction?
At risk is a very interesting term. The reality is that anybody could, in theory, become, be at risk for developing a behavioral addiction. Certain societies though lend themselves to certain behaviors, for example, gambling is very large in certain populations. That would put someone more at risk for developing a gambling or behavioral addiction. [...]
Why is it so difficult to give up a behavioral addiction?
During the course of involvement in an addiction and we start to give up friendships and ballgames and other ways of feeling good. We go through a process I call “unlearning.” We unlearn ways of coping with life. I work with many people that knew how to ask a girl to dance and by the [...]
What is outpatient treatment like for behavioral addiction?
A typical week, if a behavioral addict were involved in a structured outpatient program, would be very structured and monotonous. Let’s say you joined a program three days a week, three days a week you would be going to the facility, you’d be having a group, maybe what’s called a process group where you just [...]
What is “recovery” from addiction?
First of all, the term “recovery” comes out of the 12-Step disease model notion. Recovery, of course, comes out of the medical model, where you’re in a healthy state, you catch a disease, and you recover from the disease. Now, that fits very nicely within the disease model of the 12-Step community. Within the cognitive-behavioral [...]