Drug Rehab Center

By Geoff Thompson – MA, CCC
Program Director
Sunshine Coast Health Center

If you are in early recovery, you may be familiar with the social pressure that comes along whenever we see others drinking or partying. This could be at a wedding, during the Grey Cup or Super Bowl, or the Christmas season. Sadly, some people in recovery talk themselves into joining the party. They seem to forget what they learned in treatment or at a 12-step program.

But we know from psychology it’s not really a matter of forgetting or ‘being an addict’ or ‘stinkin’ thinkin’’. In psychology we call this “confirmation bias.” A few years back, there was a shift in psychology known as the “cognitive revolution.” What this meant was that we began to get quite good at figuring out how individuals process information—how your brain works. One of the things that we discovered is that the brain is not like a computer.

Information goes into your brain and gets processed. That’s true. But we learned that the brain is not particularly logical. You have a natural tendency to pay more attention to and overvalue things that confirm how you make sense of the world, and you tend to dismiss or undervalue those things that contradict it. This is ‘confirmation bias’.

Here are two examples of confirmation bias that might affect you. Maybe a family member picked up on one single thing you did—such as miss an AA meeting or have a slip—and then let you know that your recovery is all a sham. They see the single incident as confirming what they already think about how well you are doing. Another example: Perhaps in recovery you got angry at your family for an incident when you felt they were trying to control you, just as you thought they did when you were in active addiction. They may have treated you as the author of your life 50 times in a row, but you jumped all over that one incident because it seemed to confirm how you make sense of their attitude toward you.

Confirmation bias works both ways because all human beings do it. And it can lead us into all sorts of difficulties. One of the more public examples that psychologists have pointed out is the decision to invade Iraq after 9/11. Although it later became obvious that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, because of confirmation bias many in the Bush Administration pursued information that seemed to confirm their preconceived ideas and discounted evidence that there were no weapons…

The real trick to deal with confirmation bias is to see it in yourself. That’s a lot tougher than seeing it in others. But since everyone has it—it’s a human thing—then you have it, too.

Confirmation bias is complicated, but two of its dynamics are known as ‘defensive motivation’ and ‘accuracy motivation’. Defensive motivation means that the person becomes very skeptical of information that contradicts his attitude, beliefs, or actions. This is usually because the information threatens him in some way. Let’s say that you are skeptical of information that says if you hang out in bars they you will likely be lured back into addiction. You might dismiss the idea of keeping out of a bar or away from a drinking party because you believe it’s the holidays and that’s where all the fun is; in fact, if you don’t go to the bar or drinking party, then you will miss out.

Accuracy motivation means that a person sees some value in the information. As one researcher described it, the person has a tendency to process information in an “objective, open-minded fashion that fosters uncovering the truth.” You may believe that the bar is a dangerous place, because you get caught up in the music, sexual interests, and camaraderie. If you believe this is dangerous for you, then you will pay more attention to information that tells you that you are right. You don’t need to drink to be in the festive spirit at a social gathering.

In this article we’ll look at confirmation bias and your recovery. With the wedding season and summer holidays coming, this topic is very important. So we’ll provide a few things you can do to deal with it.

Part One: Defensive motivation: Wrestling with your addiction

Cognitive psychology—the psychology of how we process information—has taught us that confirmation bias appears when we confront information that is threatening to us. We tend to take a defensive stand, becoming more skeptical. In psychology, we call this “defensive motivation.”

In a typical experiment, psychologists ask participants to write down what they are passionate about. A normal topic is capital punishment. Then the experimenters present studies for and against the idea that capital punishment deters criminal behavior. Inevitably, the participants are skeptical about the study that disagree with their stance but fully endorse the study that agrees with them.

Here’s an example of defensive motivation from the world of drug use. Although there are many reasons why those in early recovery wrestle with their recovery, a common reason is that they try to pin their addiction to their drug of choice. If you believe that it’s okay to have a couple of beers because your drug of choice was cocaine, then you will likely be skeptical of any information that says a drug is a drug is a drug. Or you will likely remember information about someone’s uncle who was an alcoholic but who now drinks with no ill effects on his life. If you are an alumni of Sunshine Coast, all that scientific information you learned at the Drugs & Your Brain workshop won’t make much of an impression on you, because of confirmation bias.

Logically, of course if you pin your addiction to your drug of choice, then you fly in the face of all those scientists. If you were being very logical, you’d have to say, ‘I’m right, and all those research scientists at Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities are wrong’. But people are not particularly logical, so they pretend the science doesn’t exist or, at least, doesn’t apply to them.

On the other hand, if you are firmly convinced that all drugs will hurt an addict, then you will likely pay more attention to articles and narratives that promote this; and you will likely shake your head and smile when someone says that it’s okay to drink because their drug of choice was cocaine.

Part Two: A solution to wrestling with your addiction

If you are debating with yourself on whether to join in the drinking festivities or be one of the sober ones, then here are some ideas that might help you choose the latter. These tactics are merely tricks to disrupt confirmation bias—the tendency to grasp hold of information that confirms your preconceived ideas.

Tip #1 – Get involved with a recovery support group – AA and NA have many activities throughout the year, particularly during the holiday season. In larger cities, they run meetings 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They usually provide Christmas dinners at the local Alano club or recovery center. Many groups have service activities that you can join, such as helping out those less fortunate. Most recovery centers have dances and music and other social events.

Tip #2 – Be grateful – If you were a client at Sunshine Coast during the past year, you will remember the power of being grateful. Psychology has confirmed that being grateful for what you have—your sobriety—will help you feel better. The 12-step program has a saying that those who are grateful do not relapse. The reason for this saying is that those who recover through AA or NA tend to think that their sobriety was a gift from their higher power.

Tip #3 – Make a decision to not drink for the holidays – This is a remarkably powerful tactic because it takes the pressure off.

Tip #4 – Remember the racehorse – This is psychologist Paul Wong’s saying: “Everyone has a racehorse and a donkey. If you don’t pay attention to the racehorse, you’re stuck with the donkey.” If you don’t pay attention to your goals and dreams, then the little things (immediate boredom, immediate loneliness) will take on a power that they don’t have in reality.

Part Three: Accuracy motivation: Remembering what you want

One of the interesting dynamics of confirmation bias is that people are more open to reality if they see some positive outcome in the information, even if it disagrees with them. During the holidays, it’s important to remember what you want in life.

Clients come to Sunshine Coast because the lives they have been living are not working out for them.

If you were a client in the new program, you learned that your suffering was due to the fact that your addiction did not allow you to be true to yourself, disconnected you from family and friends, and disconnected you from any sense of meaning and purpose. If you were a client under the old program, you discovered that the suffering from addiction came from the addict’s self-centeredness.

In either case, you were hardly living a live that was full and vital and satisfying. Your life was likely, as NA says, “meaningless, monotonous and boring.” In fact, people come into recovery because they begin questioning how they make sense of their lives.

So, they might be more willing to listen to Drugs & Your Brain, Medical Aspects, Relapse Prevention, and other workshops. They might be less skeptical when they hear that Viktor Frankl defines addiction as a response to living a life that has little personal meaning.

They might be willing to take Frankl’s advice that means “that being human is always directed, and pointing, to something or someone other than oneself: to a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter, a cause to serve or a person to love. Only to the extent that someone is living out this self-transcendence of human existence, is he truly human or does he become his true self.”

Part Four: Accuracy motivation: Overcoming barriers to the truth

Most people in early recovery have barriers that get in the way of allowing them to take an objective look at the facts. In 12-step programs, these barriers have been called “stinkin’ thinkin’” or “old behaviors” or “character defects” and so on. In psychology we assign them different names: “unhealthy coping skills” or “ego-driven life” and a bunch more.

It is fundamentally important for those in early recovery to deal with personal barriers to their recovery. We have lots of information from researchers and from those who have good recovery on what the individual has to do to recover. And we know that when a person is selective about what his recovery will demand, he usually runs into trouble. As we’ve remarked many times, one of the most common things we hear from alumni who have slipped is that they did not follow their aftercare plans. They decided, against all evidence, that they really didn’t need a support network or that they could go back to their old environment, and so on.

There are lots of barriers to being objective about information. Some examples: playing the victim of others (I can’t be the author of my life because my family won’t let me), living life lamenting the past (“what if” or “if only”), wallowing in self-pity (I don’t deserve a good life, so none of the scientific research applies to me), I can’t handle cravings (I have no self-control), I can still drink because cocaine was my drug of choice (neuroscience doesn’t apply to me), I can’t handle curveballs in life because that’s just who I am (even though the information tells me that this is a learned coping skill, in my case it’s my personality), and so on and so on.

Addiction physician Dr. Donald Hedges believes that fear is the primary motivator of addictive behavior and the greatest barrier in recovery. Many agree with him: fear of financial insecurity, fear of success, fear of responsibility, and so on. At Sunshine Coast we would say that the greatest fear of someone in early recovery is the fear of change. If you are motivated by fear, then you will likely be skeptical of information that might truly help you.

Conclusion

Confirmation bias, confirming preconceived ideas and discounting accurate information that goes against those beliefs, is powerful. This is because change is difficult. And, if you are a Sunshine Coast alumni, you learned that changing the way you make sense of yourself and how you fit in the world around you is very difficult. But recovery demands change.

Cathy Patterson-Sterling, MA, RCC

Cathy Patterson-Sterling, Director of Family Services for Sunshine Coast Health Centre, discusses why it is so important to be aware of the abundance of good things in our lives and to have a level of gratitude.

By Daniel Jordan, General Manager
Sunshine Coast Health Center

For the past few weeks, I have been putting together a new corporate brochure that highlights the main features of our program, facility, and staff. We still have some of the old brochures left but since we added a whole new wing and swimming pool to the building and landscaped the yard, the brochures didn’t really put our best foot forward. More than just the physical changes to our facility, however, a new brochure was also necessary to reflect that we are now staffed with a psychiatrist, masters level therapists, and a kinesiologist.

Most of these changes to the corporate brochure were pretty straightforward and it didn’t hurt that we had some great new photos to enhance the presentation. However, when it came to changing the “Our Philosophy” section, that took some work. For those of you who have ever had to figure out your company’s philosophy or mission statement, you will know that it is no easy task. It’s actually a very personal experience since your company philosophy is really meant to tell the world what you value as a human being and why you are in your chosen profession.

OUR PHILOSOPHY at Sunshine Coast Health Center

So, after some soul searching and a lot of discussion with staff and various stakeholders, this is OUR PHILOSOPHY:

At Sunshine Coast Health Center, we believe that it is not enough simply to treat the ‘addiction.’ Instead, a client’s experience with us facilitates ongoing personal transformation, the goal being healthy, thoughtful men who are inspired to live with a renewed sense of vitality and purpose. Our therapy program prepares clients and their families for a deeper, more fulfilling life.

Sunshine Coast Health Center focuses on providing the most effective, evidence-based treatment, exceeding expectations by paying close attention to four key therapeutic principles:

Respect: We treat others as we would wish to be treated. This respect is the foundation of our program and pervades everything we do, how we conduct ourselves and how we interact with each other.

Gratitude: We feel privileged that clients and their families put their trust in us.

Empathy: We support our clients through the good times and the bad, free from judgment.

Humility: No matter how proficient we are at treating addiction, we know that the client is always the expert in his own recovery.

OUR PHILOSOPHY Now Reflects Our Values

Basically, our corporate philosophy now reflects the values of ownership. Respect, humility, gratitude, and empathy rose to the top in terms of importance. This process of prioritizing virtues was actually quite fascinating. For example, why not courage? How about creativity? In the end, it came down to the most salient values we share in common with our clients. In other words, any value that staff and management practice on a daily basis will also benefit our clients, but some more than others.

The Biggest Change Reflected in OUR PHILOSOPHY: Our Approach to the Client

One of the biggest changes we made in our philosophy was our approach to the client. This change is especially notable in the first sentence (see above). Nowadays, we don’t actually treat ‘addiction’ or an ‘addict.’ We treat a unique human being who happens to suffer from addiction. This is no small change. Treating an ‘addict’ or an ‘addiction’ can be an extremely dehumanizing process where, by virtue of being addicted, treatment programs can mistakenly assume that their clients suffer from;

-Narcissism
-Denial
-Addictive personality

or is a liar and a manipulator, is incapable of making any healthy choices, etc., etc.
 
The Inclusion of ‘Personal Transformation’ in Our Philosophy

Personal transformation is a term we have intentionally included in our corporate philosophy. From my experience, most treatment centers don’t spend a lot of time talking about transformation since it is more spiritual than psychological in nature. However, ownership at Sunshine Coast has always had an interest in the idea of enlightment, even going so far (in our own imperfect way) as making it a way of life. Since getting involved in addiction treatment, ownership has been inspired to pay more attention to self-development and spirituality. After all, the process of recovery for our clients often needs to be a total, rather than incremental, shift.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Admittedly, it’s nice to be able to move on to other projects now that the new corporate brochure is finally going to print. In the short term, we can hand out some nice new shiny brochures but I’m sure that we will be back making a new version in another few years. I have a feeling, however, that the OUR PHILOSOPHY section may not change so fast. I guess time will tell.

Geoff Thompson – MA, CCC

Geoff Thompson, Program Director at Sunshine Coast Health Center, talks about practicing the traits of positive change (including gratitude, humility, forgiveness and tolerance) so that they become second nature to you.

By Daniel Jordan

I came across this video featuring Gary Wood, author of Don’t Wait for Your Ship to Come In: Swim Out to Meet It, and thought that it was worth a look for two reasons: (1) it recommends a practical way to “learn” gratitude and (2) pairs gratitude with anticipation.

A Practical Way to “Learn” Gratitude

One way to “learn” gratitude, also recommended by TV personality Deborah Norville in her book, Thank You Power, is to write down in a notebook or diary (preferably before bedtime) three things you are grateful for that happened that day. Write down anything that uplifted you at the time it happened, that brought a smile to your face or your heart, or something you are glad about. Better still, after each situation, write down why this was good for your life. For example, perhaps you received a Christmas card from an old friend. You are thankful for your friend’s gesture because it reminds you of some good times you had with this person when you were young. Besides, it’s nice that someone from your old neighbourhood thinks enough of you to send you a card.

Sometimes you have to think hard about something to be grateful for, particularly if you are having a bad day. However, this mental exercise is the whole point of the exercise so keep thinking even if something doesn’t immediately come to mind. Gary Wood calls this an example of a “personal experiment” which can help individuals, at an experiential level, that perception colours our experience or, as Dr. Wood puts it, “viewing influences the doing.” By focussing on the “good stuff”, Dr. Wood suggests that you can change the way you see the world.

Your Other Daily Bookend: Anticipation

Recording 3 things for which you have gratitude for at the end of your day is a great way to develop a sense of gratitude in your life. Dr. Wood has a great way of starting your day off in similar fashion. However, the difference in the morning is that you envision, rather than reflect on, events which are worthy of thanks.  In this way, anticipation is a sort of “daily bookend” when combined with gratitude. It’s important to record 3 things you are looking forward to before you get up so that your mind is not clouded by “busyness.”

A Special Note to our Alumni

Remember the black personal planners you were provided during your stay at Sunshine Coast Health Center? Recording your daily lists of gratitude and anticipation is a great way to use your planner and maintain your recovery.

Further Learning on Gratitude

Sunshine Coast Program Director, Geoff Thompson, has recently posted a video on gratitude that spoke of the importance of gratitude for people with addictions.