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foreign everybody and welcome back to the addiction and mental health
Disorders Treatment manual I'm your host Dr Donnelly Snipes this is unit 1 part 16.
stages of Readiness for change today we're talking about contemplation and the last
video we talked about pre-contemplation when the person says either there's not a problem
or I'm completely unwilling to change the problem contemplation just like it sounds
the person is starting to think about okay well maybe I need to make a change
in contemplation you've realized that there might be a problem and are contemplating that
need for change in contemplation the person is starting to feel distressed
but also overwhelmed but by what they may have to do and ensure unsure what the next right step is
a lot of times I use the analogy of a hot summer day and getting in the pool in pre-contemplation
the person is just lounging on their chair they are not hot they don't see a problem
no big deal they're not going to move contemplation they're starting to get
a little hot but they're overwhelmed because you know when you get really hot and you go jump in a
pool it's like ice cold and it can be overwhelming to have that strong of a change in temperature
so you may think yeah is this really something I want to do do I really want
to jump in the pool right now and that's what we're talking about is the person ready what is
it we need to do to help them increase their motivation to start addressing the problem
spend about 30 minutes thinking about how you can increase your sense of commitment to both
the change process and those things that are important in your rich and meaningful life
if you're contemplating change then you probably have started to see how the behavior or the issue
is keeping you from having the life that you want so how can you increase your commitment to change
even though it's going to be hard as well as to those things that are important in your life
how can you increase your sense of control over yourself your recovery and the things that are
important in your life as we mentioned in other videos you're not going to have complete control
over everything but how can you increase your sense of control increase your sense of I got this
if you will over the things that are important in your life and how can you increase your sense
of challenge when facing difficult choices or discomfort instead of seeing barriers or problems
it's like oh gosh can't go there can't do this see it as an obstacle see it as a challenge and think
all right there's something in my way how can I get over it under it around it or through it
it's important to remember that your issues are not present 24 7 365. highlighting exceptions can
help you identify things to do in your recovery when you weren't using when you weren't depressed
when you weren't raging what were you doing increase that if you find that when you are
outside playing with your dog you don't feel as depressed okay good that's a tool let's do more
of that think thinking back to times when you weren't symptomatic we'll say what was
different maybe you weren't watching the news as much maybe you were living somewhere else or you
had a different job what was different spend about 20 minutes and list five times when you have not
been having the following issues and I want you to look at each one of these because everybody
has these things sometimes so I want you to think about five times when you were not depressed
what were you doing and what was different
five times when you are not feeling anxious what were you doing and what was different
compared to when you do get anxious do the same thing for anger addiction and physical pain