Treatment for Lifestyle and Behavioral Addictions in Memphis, TN

Lifestyle diseases and addictions are the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality taking more than one million (1,000,000) U.S. lives a year, yet brief preventive behavioral assessments and counseling interventions are under-utilized in health care settings (Whitlock, 2002). The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded that effective behavioral counseling interventions that address personal health practices hold greater promise for improving overall health than many secondary preventive measures, such as routine screening for early disease (USPSTF, 1996). Common health-promoting behaviors include healthy diet, regular physical exercise, smoking cessation, appropriate alcohol/ medication use, and responsible sexual practices to include use of condoms and contraceptives.

Multiple Addictions and Poor Prognosis

Since it is impossible to expect treatment for one addiction to be beneficial when other addictions co-exist, the initial therapeutic intervention for any addiction needs to include an assessment for other addictions. National surveys revealed that a very high correlation exists between substance abuse and behavioral addictions. Repeated failures abound with all of the addictions, even with utilizing the most effective treatment strategies. But why do 47% of patients treated in private addiction treatment programs (for example) relapse within the first year following treatment (Gorski, T., 2001)? Have addiction specialists become conditioned to accept failure as the norm? There are many reasons for this poor prognosis.Some would proclaim that addictions are psychologically induced. Others would say that failures are due simply to a lack of self-motivation or will power. Others argue for genetic and biochemical causes. Most agree, however, that lifestyle behavioral addictions are serious health risks that deserve our attention, but could it possibly be that patients with multiple addictions are being under diagnosed (with a single dependence) simply due to a lack of diagnostic tools and resources that are incapable of resolving the complexity of assessing and treating a patient with multiple addictions?

 

In 2010 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the “Healthy People 2010” program. This national initiative recommends that primary care clinicians utilize clinical preventive assessments and brief behavioral counseling for early detection, prevention, and treatment of lifestyle addiction indicators for all patients’ upon every healthcare visit. The Addiction Recovery Measurement System (ARMS) proposes a new diagnosis. Lifestyle or behavioral addiction is the synergistically integrated chronic dependence on multiple addictive substances and behaviors (e.g., using/ abusing substances - nicotine, alcohol, & drugs, and/or acting impulsively or obsessively compulsive in regards to gambling, food binging, sex, and/ or religion, etc.) simultaneously (Slobodzien, J., 2005).

 

Accurate diagnosis is dependent on a thorough multidimensional assessment process along with the possible help of a multidisciplinary treatment team approach. Behavioral Medicine practitioners have come to realize that although a disorder may be primarily physical or primarily psychological in nature, it is always a disorder of the whole person – not just of the body or the mind. The ARMS approach examines the broad bio-psychosocial context of the individual (e.g., biomedical, behavioral, interpersonal, social, cultural, spiritual, and self-regulative factors, etc.), when assessing an individual to determine the presence of a lifestyle addiction. It is concerned with the health choices individuals make as well as modifying and altering unhealthy lifestyles to directly reduce illness and illness behavior that predisposes them to other physical illnesses.

At Mental Health Resources in Memphis, TN, we recognize the many faces of addiction. In addition to substance abuse treatment, our intensive outpatient treats lifestyle addictions, including nicotine, alcohol, & drugs, gambling, food, sex, religion, and/or acting impulsively or obsessively compulsive in other ways. If you need help with compulsive lifestyle behaviors, call us for an assessment as the next step in your recovery.

Source: http://www.alcoholismdrugabuse.com