TERC y las adicciones

Learn how an REBT therapist can help a client focus on the present time, examining
current emotional distress, or unhealthy behaviors.

When a person works to overcome their addiction, the two foundational steps are to get
help from specialists to safely detox and then to receive therapeutic treatment in a
rehabilitation program. Rehabilitation programs provide a variety of forms of therapy,
including 12-Step-based group work, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Multidimensional
Family Therapy. Offering multiple forms of talk therapy means that each individual has
access to interventions to change their behaviors that work for them.

Behavioral therapies, are intended to:

 Change behaviors and beliefs regarding alcohol or drug abuse

 Develop new, healthy life skills and coping mechanisms
 Maintain treatment with medications, if needed

These evidence-based approaches can be provided through a variety of forms of talk

therapy, both from individual and group counselors. One subset of Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy is Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). This short-term approach to
behavioral treatment works directly on negative beliefs and behaviors, with a focus on
changing them so the individual can stay healthy.

What Is REBT?

As a branch of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy applies

many of the same approaches to examining the root causes of specific behaviors and
beliefs. In this form of psychotherapy, an REBT therapist will help the client focus on the
present time, examining current emotional distress or unhealthy behaviors. Then, the
therapist will guide the client through an examination of emotions and beliefs, which may
have led to these behaviors and had a negative impact on life. For example, a person with
negative core beliefs about their work may suffer from depression or anxiety. Once these
beliefs are identified, and it is understood how they turned into actions, the therapist and
client work together to replace the negative behaviors with positive behaviors.

Psychologist Albert Ellis developed REBT in the 1950s, but continued to refine the
practice, and there are many therapists who now specialize in this approach. For Ellis, the
goal of developing a new, more specific approach to changing negative thoughts and
behaviors was to give clients measurable steps to take to feel better about themselves, their
loved ones, and their place in the world. Since the vast majority of humans, according to
Ellis, want to be happy, learning to manage the negative impact of disappointments,
rejections, and failures helps everyone stay focused on their overall wellbeing.

Core irrational beliefs include:

  Absolutism or demandingness: This involves inflexible or dogmatic beliefs.
 Demand for love or approval: As the foundation of one’s acceptance of oneself, the
individual turns to outward praise and love for validation.
 Demand for success or achievement: When individuals find something important,
achieving a high level of success in that goal becomes the measuring stick for their beliefs
about themselves.
 Demand for comfort: This is defined as the inability to manage stress or discomfort.
 Awfulization: When one small thing goes wrong or not as expected, the individual
catastrophizes the entire scenario, thinking everything is awful, has fallen apart, or is a
disaster.
 Low frustration tolerance: The person frequent says they “cannot stand it” or that
something is “too hard.”
 Global-rating: Using another individual as the basis of goodness or success, the person
determines their own worth, which typically leads to self-deprecating remarks and poor
self-esteem.

These core irrational beliefs can be understood in terms of Ellis’s basic musts. These three
statements about the self highlight the negative personal impact of the irrational beliefs:

1. The person must perform well to win the approval of others; without approval, the person
is no good.
2. Others must treat the person considerately, fairly, and kindly in exactly the right way; if
they do not, they deserve to be condemned.
3. The person must get what they want, when they want it, and must not struggle with
problems they do not want; if this does not happen, the person cannot stand the
outcome.

Ellis developed the ABC Model, which has since become the ABCDE Model, to approach
changing these beliefs and associated behaviors. This acronym shows which steps the
therapist can guide their client through to change behaviors to create a positive life.

 A, Activating Event: This is the incident that triggers negative beliefs and behaviors. This
could be anything, from failing to receive a raise at work, to the loss of a romantic
relationship, to the death of a close loved one
 B, Beliefs: These are the thoughts and feelings triggered by the activating event, which
lead to negative self-talk, low self-esteem, anger or guilt toward one’s friends and family,
and even depression or anxiety.
 C, Emotional and Behavioral Consequences: These are the consequences of the beliefs,
including behavioral problems, such as lashing out at loved ones, self-harm, eating too
much or too little, and abusing substances like alcohol.
 D, Disputing Irrational Beliefs: In REBT, this next step combats the ABCs, so instead of
falling deeply into behavioral and emotional consequences or cycling through patterns of
low self-esteem and negative behaviors, the person focuses on the underlying beliefs and
disputes them with evidence to the contrary.
 E, Effective New Thinking and Behaviors: By disputing negative beliefs with evidence of
positive outcomes and successful behaviors, the individual can measurably change the
quality of their mood, relationships, work success, and satisfaction with life.
Three practices to change thinking, beliefs, and behaviors include the three forms of
Unconditional Acceptance.

1. Unconditional Self-Acceptance: This involves acknowledging that one is a fallible human

being, with good points and bad points; there is no specific reason that one has flaws, they
are simply there; and despite both flaws and positive qualities, one is no more or less
worthy than any other human being.
2. Unconditional Other-Acceptance: Sometimes, others will treat you unfairly; there is no
reason they must treat you fairly all the time; those who conduct unfair treatment are
humans, who are flawed and have good qualities, and they are still worthy.
3. Unconditional Life-Acceptance: Life does not always work out, regardless of effort; there is
no reason why life must work out; life is not inherently pleasant or good, but it is not
inherently unpleasant or bad.

Free and low-cost alcoholism treatment is available.

Here's how.

Applying REBT to Alcohol Addiction Treatment and Recovery

REBT can be applied to many forms of substance abuse treatment, including alcohol
dependence or alcohol use disorder. Depression and anxiety are both closely associated
with alcohol abuse, often in people who abuse the intoxicating substance to self-medicate
the symptoms – including thoughts, emotions, and behaviors – of their mood disorder. The
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported that, in
30 percent of the deaths due to suicide in the US, the individual’s blood alcohol content
(BAC) was at the legal limit of 0.08 or higher; also among those who died due to suicide,
50 percent struggled with major depression. This suggests that alcohol abuse makes
symptoms of depression worse.

When in rehabilitation, REBT approaches can be used to help the individual challenge their
negative approach to stress. Rather than turning to alcohol to alleviate daily stresses like
work or child-rearing, many therapists work with those overcoming alcohol abuse to
understand that stress is a normal reaction, and the associated discomfort is normal. It will
go away on its own, and it does not need to be suppressed, managed by others, or judged.
This form of therapy may help one during detox, too, because the discomfort of some
withdrawal symptoms can be acknowledged and accepted rather than worried about,
leading to increased stress.

El Alcoholismo es un problema grave en México. Las enfermedades crónico-degenerativas,

en su conjunto, son la cuarta causa de muerte en el país, dentro de las cuales, el consumo de
alcohol representa el 8.4%.
Al año mueren cerca de 24 mil personas por accidentes relacionados con el consumo de
alcohol, estos representan la primera causa de muerte en los adolescentes.

Actualmente el alcoholismo es el problema más importante de adicciones que hay en

México, esto es alarmante si pensamos en que la edad de inicio de consumo de alcohol ha
disminuido a la edad de 12 años y se ha notado un incremento en las cantidades que
consumen las mujeres.

Según con la Organización Panamericana de la Salud el consumo de alcohol a nivel

América Latina aumentó, los hombres consumen 1.6 veces más que hace 5 añosy las
mujeres aumentaron su consumo 2.8 veces.