Which behavioral therapies can treat alcohol use disorder?
Behavioral therapy for AUD is also known as alcohol counseling. It involves contacting a health care professional to help you navigate through the change in behaviors that caused your heavy drinking:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) allows you to pay attention to the feelings and situations that can make you abuse alcohol. It helps you cope with heavy drinking, manage stress, and change thoughts that make you want to drink. You can access CBT in a small group or one-on-one with a therapist.
- Brief interventions are small-group, short, or one-on-one counseling sessions. There are usually one to four sessions. Your counselor provides information about your drinking pattern and the consequences. You will work with your counselor to create goals and ideas that can help you change.
- Marital and family counseling. This involves therapy sessions with spouses and other family members. Its primary purpose is to fix and improve your family relationships. According to studies, family support via therapy can help you quit drinking.
- Motivational enhancement therapy provides resources that motivate you to stop drinking. You will go through more than four sessions over a short period. The therapy involves identifying the advantages and disadvantages of getting treatment. You will work closely with a therapist to create a plan for making changes in your drinking. Your therapist will help you build the skills and confidence required to ensure you stick to the plan.