THE BIO/PSYCHO/SOCIAL MODEL

Today’s most widely used and researched approach to drug and alcohol treatment is the BIO, PSYCHO, SOCIAL model.   This model for treatment assesses and treats each of these three areas.  The philosophy of this model is that:

• Biology plays a role in addiction
• Psychology plays a role in addiction
• Sociology plays a role in addiction

These three areas are then assessed and worked on with the client with the objective of achieving a healthy drug and alcohol-free life.

THE DIFFICULTY IN FINDING A TRUE BIO/PSYCHO/SOCIAL MODEL

Finding a true bio, psycho, social model that actually treats these three areas and their relationship to each other is quite difficult. We have found that very few treatment centers have all three of these things covered equally due to the diversity of staff that is necessary to do the work.

TREATING BIOLOGY’S ROLE IN ADDICTION

Biology’s role in addiction can be anything from physiological dependence, genetic predisposition, metabolism, or brain chemistry abnormalities. Most facilities treat the biological side of addiction with psychotropic medications  prescribed  by a psychiatrist and then have behavioral health clinicians working on the psych side of the equation.  This “heavy psych” model for treating addiction, although growing in popularity with providers and insurance companies, has proven to be  ineffective in treating addiction.

Many of the places that  rely heavily on medication  see their clients relapsing as soon as they leave treatment.   Good centers take the time to work with the client to learn about their bodies and how they can take actions to help control the biological role of addiction.  This can be done through diet, exercise, biofeedback, mindfulness, and learning to take physiological inventory.  This is the more difficult and harder to measure approach to treating biology’s role in addiction but is by far the most effective.

It can be quite difficult to find a treatment center that actually does these things. While many places have things like yoga, exercise programs and other fitness modalities, few understand how these things affect long-term sobriety.

TREATING PSYCHOLOGY’S ROLE IN ADDICTION

Psychology’s role in addiction is anything from learned or genetically pre-disposed psychological thinking patterns or traits that set up the individual to reengage in active addiction. Over the last 100 years, psychologists have developed many different approaches to treating an addict psychologically.   The most effective approach includes the following assumptions. One, that all addicts have quite similar psychological traits, and two, that the understanding of these traits can lead to the ability to safely and effectively manage these traits’ ability to unknowingly manifest themselves in the addict’s life.

In other words addicts are all very similar psychologically and that once they are HIGHLY EDUCATED about how predictable they actually are and learn to assess themselves daily, that they can very easily manage their addictive personality.  This is a very powerful thing for most addicts, as many of them feel as though addiction is a mysterious thing that can jump up and get them at any time.  Once they learn that they have control over these things, a sense of relief occurs.

Education and self- awareness are truly the most effective tools in managing a mind that is prone to addiction.  There are other ways to treat addiction psychologically however the above mentioned is by far the most effective.That is why treatment centers that are run by individuals who have strong back grounds in chemical dependency treatment and education through various counseling programs are often times more effective then masters level therapists or even clinical psychologists.

TREATING SOCIOLOGY’S ROLE IN ADDICTION

This is perhaps the most difficult and often the most important variable in addiction treatment.  Human beings are social animals.  Without a strong, thriving, healthy, social environment addicts will almost always fail when trying to stay sober.  Evidence has shown that simply being in a healthy environment is not enough.Individual need to have an understanding of who they are in the environment and how they  can best interact with others in this environment.

A good treatment center will focus on educating their clients socially.  It will teach them interpersonal intelligence and how to assess their role on whatever team they have found themselves on at any given moment, whether that be with their family, their immediate friends or even as a member of the human race.

By working with a client on these things and helping them to learn to be  good at human relationships they will have a much higher rate of long term success in sobriety.