The Process Addiction Model:
Unwanted Habits and Obsessive Compulsive Behavior Problems
Patrick J. Hart Psy.D.
Manage Your Unwanted Habits | Self Regulation
Behavioral Solutions to Your Behavioral Problems
Get Out of Your Addictive Mind . . . . . . And Into Your Life!
My practice involves highly refined and specialized behavioral health services for the resolution of habitual problems with unwanted habits. I aim to help you stop repeating the actions that you don’t want to repeat. If you continue to struggle with your inability to stop doing what does not work for you – you have found the right place!
Do You Suffer with Compulsive Behavior Problems?
The Process Learning Model of Addictive Behavior:
Bring your current level of willingness with you, and we’ll discover solutions that will work for you. In order to develop the competencies for lasting change, you must be willing to dedicate yourself to acquiring new self-regulation skills. We’ll find novel ways for you to rehearse (practice with dedication) the personal skills base necessary for you to take charge of your own actions – and stop – defeating your life with unwanted habits and conduct that does not work for you. Resolve problems with pornography, internet chat rooms, compulsive gambling, computer console role play games, and similar behavioral compulsions.
Believe it or not, if you have learned your way into compulsive habits or behavior problems – you can learn your way out . . .
If you are ready to “keep your appointment with life” rather than impulsively acting out with addictive behavior, then we are well on our way. When we meet to explore solutions to your problems, please leave the disease concept in the very bottom of your bottom drawer! Whether you are suffering with drug abuse, chemical dependency, bad habits, or otherwise, let’s keep it simple” What creates problems is one!
So – let’s get on with our business of rehearsing and acquiring effective solutions to your problem behaviors. As you step into the consult room, we will be “getting out of your mind – and on with your vital life!”
Based upon straightforward and scientific principles of behavioral conditioning, the learning-process model of addiction is the view that being addicted is not an illness, but rather a habitual conditioned response pattern. This view emphasizes conditioning principles – learned maladaptive habitual behavior – or methods of self-gratification, self-comforting, and “security” that can be understood only in the context of your genetics, personal learning (conditioned) history, social relationships, and personal life history of conditioned experiences.
The Learning Process Concept:
In Direct Opposition to the Disease Concept of Addiction
The proponents of the life-process model argue that the biological mechanisms that might account for addictive behavior have not been accurately identified, and thus do not warrant using the term “disease.” The process-learning concept prefers to emphasize the individual’s ability to overcome being addicted by skills-based cognitive and behavioral rehearsal – learning coping skills – relearning or “unlearning” behaviors that do not work for us. The process learning distinction does not refer to chemically-induced physical withdrawal symptoms. Freeing yourself from chemically-induced physical withdrawal symptoms may require medical hospitalization and monitoring to maintain medical safety.
The successful resolution of addictive behaviors may involve practicing a greater degree of personal autonomy, repairing damaged relationships, developing coping skills, or refining personal strengths that embellish vital living. Critics of the life-process learning concept emphasize that the lack of ability to identify specific biological mechanisms does not negate the characteristic course of illness, morbidity, or mortality observed with addiction. Thereby the disease concept assumes that problems of addicts meet all the requirements that warrant use of the term “disease.”
Especially True for Non-Chemical Dependencies:
Regardless of your take on the problem . . . If you struggle to remain in charge of your own actions, you may be challenged by a complex behavioral problem that must be resolved to restore your mental, social, or occupational health. If you are puzzled and want to gain perspective – just give me a call! 206-547-HELP
The Disease Concept –
Always an Addict: Powerlessness and Unmanageability?
The disease concept describes an addiction as a lifelong illness involving biologic and environmental sources of origin. The traditional medical model of disease requires only that an abnormal condition be present that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the individual afflicted.
The contemporary medical model attributes being addicted, in part, to changes in the brain’s mesolimbic pathway. The medical model also takes into consideration that such illness may be the result of other biologic, psychologic, or sociologic entities despite an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms of these entities. Within the disease model, a genetic predisposition is believed to be present. An environmental event is also felt likely to be required
Learning Your Way: Into and Out of Addiction
Notable Supporters of the Process Model:
Stanton Peele: Resisting 12 Step Coercion
In his book Resisting 12 Step Coercion, Stanton Peele provides guidance for the one million-plus Americans per year who face coerced indoctrination in the guise of alcohol or drug treatment. The book outlines legal strategies and existing court decisions, and argues that 12-step treatment is useless and sometimes harmful. The book also describes the routine violation of standard medical ethics by providers of addiction treatment.
Thomas Szasz: The Myth of Mental Illness
His views on special treatment follow from classical liberal roots which are based on the principles that each person has the right to bodily and mental self-ownership and the right to be free from violence from others, although he criticized the “free world” as well as the Communist states for their use of psychiatry and “drugophobia”. He believes that suicide, the practice of medicine, use and sale of drugs, and sexual relations should be private, contractual, and outside of state jurisdiction.
Perhaps This is Your Most Accurate Diagnosis!
Impulse Control Disorder: Not Otherwise Specified
Assessment and Options:
Is this Just a Bad Habit: Or Do I Have an Addiction?
Internet and Computer Gaming, Role Play Console Games, Internet Chat Room, Pornography, Sex and Love Addiction, Gambling, Compulsive Shopping, Hoarding, Pull Tabs, Horse Racing . . .
Dr. Patrick J. Hart
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Are Really and Addict? Explore Your Options!
Process Addiction: Non Drug Behavioral Process Addiction Treatment