Automatic Thoughts in CBT: A Key to Breaking the Addiction Cycle

There is more to addiction than meets the eye. When a person is struggling with substance use disorder, they won’t simply have to deal with the negative impacts of the substance itself. They’ll also have to contend with automatic negative thoughts. While this type of thinking can impact anyone with mental health issues, for people with substance use disorder, automatic thoughts can make recovery even more difficult.

Fortunately, there are strategies to address this kind of thinking. For example, in CBT, automatic thoughts are considered to be an aspect of substance use disorder worthy of addressing. By understanding what automatic negative thoughts are, a person can learn to manage them, and take one step further on the road to recovery.

What are Automatic Negative Thoughts?

According to the American Psychological Association (APA) Dictionary of Psychology, Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) are instantaneous, habitual, and nonconscious thoughts that affect a person’s mood and actions. These thoughts can shape an individual’s emotions and their actions in response to events. When negative, ANTs can cause a person to be upset or otherwise impact their behavior.

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?

Responding to the problem posed by ANTs, CBT is a form of therapy in which the therapist and patient collaborate to modify a person’s patterns of thinking and improve their quality of life. CBT is structured, didactic, goal-oriented, hands-on, and practical. It works through the emphasis of three aspects of cognition: automatic thoughts, cognitive distortions, and underlying beliefs.

Cognitive distortions are errors in logic that lead to erroneous conclusions. These can include:  

• Dichotomous thinking, where a person sees things only in black and white
• Overgeneralization, where a person takes isolated incidents and uses them to make wide generalizations
• Selective abstraction, where a person focuses only on negative aspects of something
• Disqualifying the positive, where a person discounts positive experiences that conflict with their views
• Mind reading, where a person assumes another’s intentions
• Fortune telling, where a person predicts how things will turn out before they happen
• Minimization, where a person treats their positive experiences as insignificant
• Catastrophizing, where a person focuses on the worst possible outcome even if unlikely
• Emotional reasoning, where a person makes decisions based on their feelings instead of reality
• “Should” statements, where a person focuses on what “ought to be” rather than reality
• Personalization, where a person assumes they are directly responsible for a negative outcome

In addition to ANTs and cognitive distortions, CBT also addresses a person’s aforementioned underlying beliefs, which have the potential to be dysfunctional. The first level, a person’s core beliefs are their fundamental, central ideas about themself and the world, and are often generalizations. 

For example, a person might internalize a core belief that they are unlovable or inadequate. The second level, a person’s intermediate beliefs, are the assumptions they make about and attitudes they have towards the world. A person’s dysfunctional intermediate belief might be an understanding that they must always please others in order to be accepted.

Addressing Automatic Negative Thoughts with CBT

While ANTs, cognitive distortions, and underlying beliefs can cause a person emotional distress, CBT helps them develop the tools to cope. CBT is likely to be personalized and customized to the specific needs of the patient. Session by session, a patient and their therapist will develop a conceptualization of the patient, the problems they would like to work on, and their goals for recovery. 

For example, a patient with anxiety may learn to replace their ANTs or become desensitized to their triggers. A patient with chronic depression may focus on engaging in activities that bring them joy. In both cases, CBT may be used in conjunction with medications to help a person recover.

How Can CBT Help With Substance Use Disorder Recovery?

CBT is an effective treatment for mental health issues, but it can also be a key in overcoming substance use disorder. CBT for addictive behaviors may focus on addressing the factors leading to someone’s struggle with substance use disorder and preventing relapse. For example, a person in recovery may learn behavioral strategies to undermine addictive behaviors. 

These strategies can include coping skills for dealing with a plethora of situations that can lead to relapse, such as craving, arousal, and negative mood states. A patient can also learn assertiveness in order to handle social pressures, how to make sure their environment doesn’t risk relapse, and how to manage their own expectations on their recovery. A person’s cognitive behavioral program can also address a person’s sense of self-efficacy, or their understanding of whether or not they will be able to successfully cope with a situation. 

Automatic Negative Thoughts and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

In substance use disorder recovery, CBT prioritizes targeting ANTs. For example, a person in recovery may experience an ANT such as “I need a hit to calm down” or “I can’t change it.” In CBT, this patient will learn to identify these automatic thoughts and verbally respond with an alternative answer. They may be encouraged to ask themselves if these ANTs are accurate or helpful, before responding with a realistic statement.

Address Your Negative Thoughts with SoberMind Recovery

Automatic negative thoughts can increase a person’s difficulty in recovering from substance use disorder. But just because they are a hurdle doesn’t mean they can’t be overcome. In cognitive behavioral therapy, a patient is given the tools they need to address ANTs. By identifying their automatic thoughts and responding to them, a person can learn to handle the thought patterns that make recovery difficult.

However, not everyone is all the way through their recovery journey. If you or a loved one is struggling with substance use disorder, SoberMind Recovery can help. A holistic drug rehab in Los Angeles, we offer dual diagnosis treatment that can help you. Call us today at +1-213-468-0526 to learn more about our drug and alcohol treatment in San Fernando Valley. No need to look up “drug rehab near me;” our inpatient drug rehab in Los Angeles might be the right place for you.