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hey there everybody and welcome back to the addiction and mental
health Disorders Treatment manual this is unit 1 part 15. stages of Readiness for
change pre-contemplation I'm your host Dr Donnelly Snipes
in this video you're going to learn about the stages of
change and how to increase your recovery momentum
so what is Readiness for change well Readiness is a combination of motivation willingness and
ability do you want to are you motivated okay there are still sometimes things we want to
do that we're not willing to do you know it's like it sounds like a great idea but not so much
so are you motivated are you willing to do it and do you have the ability do they
do you have the tools and resources you need in order to make it happen
you'll go through a sequence of stages as you think about begin and maintain new behaviors
and it's important to remember that you're going to go through these stages for every
desired change or action recovery for example sounds great but that is a very big complex
task and for every part of the recovery process you're going to be more or less motivated and
in those areas where you're less motivated is going to be important to increase your motivation
so let's start with pre-contemplation pre-contemplators are people who are not
ready to admit or not willing to admit there's a problem in pre-contemplation the person does not
intend to change and minimizes rationalizes and denies whatever's going on the the problem just
doesn't exist you're making it all up you're making too much out of it now there are a lot
of reasons people may not be ready willing or able to start making a change or admit that
there's a problem rebellious pre-contemplators are afraid of losing control over their lives
the Mantra is don't tell me what to do I'll do it when I want to thank you very much
in the past these people may have felt powerless over their lives over something else
the person may have experienced trauma and is afraid if they start feeling feelings
they're going to get overwhelmed and the addiction or the mood disorder or whatever
they know how to deal with that they've got that right now that is their quote normal or their
day-to-day life and they have got that but starting to change may open up a whole Pandora's
Box that could be completely overwhelming we see the same thing when we start looking
at people who are trying to recover from anger issues anger is an emotion that protects you it
protects that soft squishy inner core that was disappointed that was hurt that was abandoned
so some people they may think that recovery sounds great but then actually admitting that
there's an anger problem that their anger is causing them problems in their life and
looking at what's motivating that anger that may feel really terrifying really overwhelming
it's going to be important to help people who are in this stage of pre-contemplation start thinking
about shifting energy into making Positive Choices rather than rebelling foreign spend
about 20 minutes thinking to yourself what is one thing you feel you are being forced to change
what are you afraid will happen if you are not in complete control over everything at all times
in what ways does changing this make you feel unsafe and remember this is not just
about addiction it could be physical habits it could be relationships it
could be addiction it could be a variety of things or even changing the way you perceive
events instead of seeing the world as threatening and dangerous being willing to consider that there
might be some good in the world so in what ways does making this change make you feel unsafe
what parts do you have control over and you're not going to have control over everything what
parts do you have control over and what can you do to feel safer and more empowered so
if you identify will take anger because that's I use that example earlier if you
are getting ready to start addressing the anger that you have just seething inside of you well
letting some of that out and identifying what's causing you to feel angry to feel threatened can
feel threatening in and of itself so what is it that you can do to feel safer and more empowered
one of the things may be to make sure that whomever you're working with whether it's a
sponsor or a therapist or a doctor make sure that they are going to let you set the pace
and you know a good therapist sponsor Etc will be wanting you to set the pace but it
may be important for you to actually get that out there and say okay if we're going to do
this these are these are the conditions this is what needs to happen so I can feel safe
the next type of pre-contemplator is somebody who is a reluctant pre-contemplator they may not have
sufficient knowledge of the problem or the impact that it's having addiction is rarely a one and
done it sneaks up on you and gradually destroys your self-esteem your relationships your health
your reputation Etc sometimes when you're in the thick of it it can be difficult to see the impact
the problem is having you may look around and go it's not a big deal if you're having difficulty
getting motivated because you've minimized or rationalized the problem or you've tried one
treatment approach and it didn't work increase your awareness of the impact that the addiction
or the mental health issue is having in your life and the many recovery or treatment options
there are literally dozens of approaches dozens of treatment options out there to address the
underlying issues that are contributing or causing your mood mood issues that are
contributing or causing your addictive behaviors or any other mental health issue that's going on
so again spend about 20 minutes how is addiction impacting your health
and mental health and your relationships just really think about how it's impacting
and although this isn't on the slide what options do you know about for addiction recovery
there are like I said there are dozens and if you don't know what the different options are then
it's going to be important to do your research so you feel empowered to make the best choice for you
the next question how is your mental health issue impacting your health
your mental health and your relationships remember mental health issues like anger or anxiety or
depression often don't exist all by themselves they anger for example May contribute to fear of
Abandonment May contribute to depression because you're angry so much you're just exhausted
so how is your mental health issue negatively impacting your life and again what treatment
options are available that you might consider to use for addressing those mental health issues
and the third type of pre-contemplator these are the resigned pre-contemplators they often
feel hopeless about change and overwhelmed by all of the energy required they may realize there's a
problem they may realize that there are options out there but it's just all too overwhelming
they may have tried to recover before and relapsed
it's important to encourage people to use prior recovery attempts as learning
experiences to identify strengths and strategies as well as relapse warning signs and triggers
every time that you've had a period of recovery from your addiction from your mental health issue
what has been different what have you done differently what were the warning signs that
you were backsliding what things triggered your backsliding as you begin to become more
aware of those things then you can address them before they end up causing a problem
so the last activity spend another 20 minutes identify all the times you've tried to change
and been successful even if only for a few hours what did you do what did you stop doing
this will give you clues about what tools and motivations can work for you we want to build
on those strengths even if it only worked for 30 minutes okay let's see how we can
modify that strategy whatever strategy it was and see if we can make it work
for an hour or half a day or even a day change is gradual change is incremental
but if you start with something that you know works then you can build on that