The treatment of addictions typically has a comprehensive approach that includes diverse methods to work toward the addict’s recovery. The most common approach is for the rehabilitation process to combine medication treatment with personalized therapy sessions with the patient. In today’s article, we will focus on this second aspect and more specifically on group therapies. To do this, we will examine how these sessions work at the addiction rehabilitation center Crea, directed by Jon Mardaras in Bilbao. This center, which collaborates with CCAdicciones, recently appeared in the newspaper El Correo, which described how a group therapy session unfolds. Why are these types of sessions so useful for treatment?
The Importance of Group Therapy
Group therapies are a fundamental part of the therapeutic aspect that every addiction treatment must fulfill. A typical characteristic in people with addictions is their tendency to isolate themselves. Thanks to these sessions, the addict feels that they are not alone. Group therapies serve for each individual to share their experience with other people who have the same problems. In this way, they support each other mutually and it is easier to combat an addiction if they are together. As Mardaras explains in El Correo, “here we fight together, we tell each other if we feel like using and we stay away from drugs. The group is the strength.”
At Crea, sessions of this type are held periodically. Patients sit in chairs and wait to be called upon to share their most painful stories related to the addiction they are experiencing. These are confessions they would not normally make to anyone, but in this space everyone is equal, no one is above the others. Mardaras himself was addicted to cocaine in the past and managed to recover. Feeling identified with the rest puts everyone on the same level regardless of the drug or addictive behavior they have, since all are treated in the same way.
How Does Group Therapy Work?
The main objective of these sessions is conflict resolution and promoting behavioral changes in the patient’s lifestyle. To achieve this, in the sessions, each person shares their personal experiences with addiction and the entire group works on them. To give an example, in the session we describe today, Mardaras invited his patients to talk about what he calls ‘a photo,’ a specific memory or experience related to their addictions. One patient shares that he is fed up with his father meddling in his affairs and that he feels like “telling him to go to hell.” Then, Mardaras asks another patient what he would say to the first one about this. His response could not be clearer: “I would tell him that this way he’s going straight to using, that he can’t do that. Your father is worried and you’ve put him through a lot…”
Another patient shares that the previous day he was euphoric, which made him want to use and that he could feel the taste of the drug in his mouth just by thinking about it. Mardaras then sends a message to the entire group: “There is always the possibility of relapse in two aspects: one, neglect, laziness, you stop going to the gym, coming here, calling, and the other is when you are very high. We must be attentive to the signs. And when that happens you must call us, we are always available to talk about it.”
Overcoming the Stigma
Jon Mardaras invited El Correo to attend a group therapy session at the Crea center with a clear purpose, which is the same one he tries to convey to his patients: suffering from an addiction does not make you a bad person. And as he rightly says, “despite the fact that the WHO states unequivocally that addiction is a mental illness, people on the street still think we are bad people, when what is happening is that we are sick.” Making this message resonate deeply with addicts is vital because many times, they themselves end up believing this mistaken perception about themselves, which sinks them even deeper into the pit where they find themselves, making it difficult to make good decisions and recover from their illness.
Mardaras also shares his experiences with drug dependence, such as when he would arrive late to important commitments because of his addiction. He tells them that people tended to think he was a bad person and that if he was an addict it was because he was having a good time. “They think we are vicious, that we are having a good time. But you don’t use to have a good time, but to stop having a bad time,” he adds. His own story as a former addict makes patients feel understood.
The Role of the Family
People who attend group therapies do so with the hope that it will help them rehabilitate from their addictions. The fact that other addicts before them have succeeded is a clear example that recovery is possible. Family members accompany the addict in their group therapy once every two weeks typically. They listen to other people and realize how badly they have suffered. And most importantly, they see them as sick and that is how they gradually begin to see their son, husband, etc., who stops being a bad person. The relief is enormous. In this way, they help family members with their codependency. As Mardaras says, “Since they end up being co-addicts, their mood varies according to that of the addict, there is an enormous emotional dependence.”
Both at Crea and at CCAdicciones, group therapies are part of the therapeutic services offered at their facilities. CCAdicciones is an addiction treatment center where we have the best professionals to help you if you are addicted to any drug or have any other addiction. Contact us if you believe you need help to regain control over your life.
