Treatment for Drug Addiction and Alcohol Addiction: Self Protection

During this portion of your outpatient addiction treatment program, qualified addiction recovery professionals will be discussing the specific defense mechanisms that individuals with an addiction disease may experience.

These defense mechanisms include going through denial, which can be defined as protecting oneself from unpleasant aspects of life by refusing to perceive, acknowledge, or face them.

Rationalizing is also a type of defense mechanism. To rationalize means trying to prove one’s actions “made sense” or were justified and is also called, “excuse making.”

Intellectualization is a defense mechanism that includes hiding one’s feelings about something painful behind thoughts and keeping opposing attitudes apart by using logic-like compartments.

Addiction Treatment Information: Defensive Mechanisms

You will also learn in this portion of your outpatient addiction treatment program that displacement is another defense mechanism that may be adopted by the individual with a drug addiction or alcohol addiction. Displacement means misdirecting pent-up feelings toward something or someone that is less threatening than that which actually triggered the feeling response.

Projecting is also common and can include blaming, which is assuming someone has a particular quality or qualities one finds distasteful in oneself.

Supportive, experienced addiction recovery professionals will also explain what reaction formation is as a defense mechanism while you participate in the outpatient addiction treatment program at The Right Step. You will discover that adopting actions and beliefs to an exaggerated degree that are directly opposite to those previously accepted are included in the definition of reaction formation as a mechanism of defense that drug addicts and alcoholics may commonly take on.

Undoing is trying to superficially repair or make up for an action without dealing with the complex effects of that deed and is known as “magical thinking” and is yet another defense mechanism.

Withdrawal in terms of becoming emotionally uninvolved by pulling back and being passive will be another item discussed in this portion of your outpatient addiction treatment program at The Right Step. 

Addiction Treatment Locations

Residents of local Texas and New Mexico cities including Lufkin TX, Conroe TX, Nacogdoches TX, Fredericksburg TX, Kerrville TX, Killeen TX often receive treatment for their addiction to drugs or alcohol through the Intensive Outpatient Programs at one of 20 convenient Right Step locations.

Outpatient Alcohol Treatment and Outpatient Drug Treatment programs are offered in Austin TX, Baytown TX, Beaumont TX, Conroe TX, Dallas TX, Euless TX, The Woodlands TX, San Antonio TX, Plano TX, Houston TX, Clear Lake TX, Ft. Bend TX, Pasadena TX, Wimberley TX, Albuquerque NM.

Residential Treatment centers in DFW, Houston and Austin are also provided for recovery from addiction disease, attracting individuals from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona and other areas of the United States to participate in recovery programs at The Right Step.

Drug Treatment and Alcohol Treatment Resources:

Addiction Treatment Information: Defense Mechanisms

Addiction Treatment Program: Building Defense Walls

Treatment for Drug Addiction and Alcohol Addiction: Self Protection

Addiction Recovery Programs: Mechanisms of Defense

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