Your best bet in
kicking addiction is to understand how it works. Addiction is not a
mystery. Most professionals consider addiction a mood disorder. It is
an attempt to distract the individual from thinking about bad things. I
was pleased with the response from other researchers and therapists
after I presented this model at the 20th Annual Conference on
Prevention, Research and Treatment of Problem Gambling in St Paul, MN,
June 22, 2006. Cognitive theory for addiction.
Beau's Cognitive Model of Addiction. Copyright 2005.
Addiction = ([S + CD] X R) + D
Addiction = ([Stressors + Cognitive Distortions] X Rumination) + Distraction
The
addiction model is the same as the depression model except it has the
addition of distraction. Through research,we are finding out that
addicted individuals ruminate more than others. Hence, there is a
greater need to escape from their own unpleasant thoughts by
distraction, often called self-medication. Distraction starts out as an
adaptive coping strategy to stress and later develops into a
maladaptive coping strategy. Distraction, I believe, allows the
individual to turn off the unpleasant thoughts of rumination about their
stressors (adaptive). However, the distraction (maladaptive) prevents
the individual from facing and dealing with their problems in a healthy
manor. This often creates more problems. With a person who has an
addiction, the cognitive distortions need to be corrected and rumination
needs to be stopped.