Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Learn practical techniques to challenge unhelpful thoughts and build healthier patterns. These evidence-based tools help you develop skills for lasting recovery.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a practical, goal-oriented approach that helps you identify and change destructive thought patterns that negatively influence behavior and emotions. In addiction recovery, CBT helps you recognize triggers, develop coping strategies, and build healthier thinking patterns.
Identify
Recognize negative thoughts and behaviors that fuel addiction
Challenge
Question and reframe distorted thinking patterns
Replace
Develop healthier thoughts and coping strategies
Interactive CBT Tools
All-or-Nothing Thinking
Seeing things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.
Example: "If I relapse once, I've completely failed at recovery."
Overgeneralization
Seeing a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
Example: "I couldn't resist a craving today. I'll never be able to stay sober."
Mental Filter
Picking out a single negative detail and dwelling on it exclusively.
Example: "I had 29 good days this month, but all I can think about is the one bad day."
Disqualifying the Positive
Rejecting positive experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason.
Example: "I only stayed sober today because I was busy. It doesn't really count."
Jumping to Conclusions
Making negative interpretations without actual evidence. Includes mind reading and fortune telling.
Example: "Everyone at the meeting thinks I'm weak for relapsing."
Magnification or Minimization
Exaggerating the importance of negative things while minimizing positives.
Example: "My slip-up is catastrophic, but my six months of sobriety before that was nothing special."
CBT Exercises for Recovery
Your thoughts are not facts. They are mental events that you can observe and question.
Cravings are temporary. Most peak within 20-30 minutes. You can outlast them.
Emotions are like weather - they come and go. You don't have to act on every feeling.
Action drives motivation, not the other way around. Start small and motivation will follow.
Progress, not perfection. Every positive choice strengthens your recovery.
A lapse doesn't have to become a relapse. Get back on track immediately.
Talk to yourself like you would to a good friend - with compassion and encouragement.
HALT: Check if you're Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired when cravings hit.
Recommended Reading
- • Feeling Good by David Burns
- • Mind Over Mood by Greenberger & Padesky
- • The CBT Workbook for Addiction
- • Cognitive Therapy of Substance Abuse
Online Resources
- • Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy
- • Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
- • SMART Recovery (CBT-based program)
- • Psychology Tools worksheets
Note: While these exercises are helpful, they work best when combined with professional therapy and a comprehensive recovery program. Consider working with a therapist trained in CBT for addiction.