Kick Depression


  Your best bet in kicking addiction is to understand how it works. Addiction is not a mystery.  Most professionals consider addiction a mood disorder. It is an attempt to distract the individual from thinking about bad things. I was pleased with the response from other researchers and therapists after I presented this model at the 20th Annual Conference on Prevention, Research and Treatment of Problem Gambling in St Paul, MN,  June 22, 2006. Cognitive theory for addiction.

Beau's Cognitive Model of Addiction. Copyright 2005.

Addiction = ([S + CD] X R) + D

Addiction = ([Stressors + Cognitive Distortions] X Rumination) + Distraction

    The addiction model is the same as the depression model except it has the addition of distraction. Through research,we are finding out that addicted individuals ruminate more than others. Hence, there is a greater need to escape from their own unpleasant thoughts by distraction, often called self-medication.  Distraction starts out as an adaptive coping strategy to stress and later develops into a maladaptive coping strategy. Distraction, I believe, allows the individual to turn off the unpleasant thoughts of rumination about their stressors (adaptive). However, the distraction (maladaptive) prevents the individual from facing and dealing with their problems in a healthy manor. This often creates more problems. With a person who has an addiction, the cognitive distortions need to be corrected and rumination needs to be stopped.