Why Is ACT Effective for Addiction | Rehab in Asheville, NC

Why Is ACT Effective for Addiction?

addiction specialist talking with distraught client in office setting about why ACT is effective for addiction treatment.

Mindfulness principles play a key role in many behavioral therapies for addiction treatment, including acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). ACT stands apart for its emphasis on accepting the messiness and challenges of life with addiction while being released from the belief that those things get in the way of change, growth, and healing. You can accept what is while at the same time committing to what is possible. ACT for addiction treatment is an evidence-based, effective therapeutic approach that has helped countless individuals discover recovery.

Insight Recovery Center in Asheville, NC, offers acceptance and commitment therapy as part of a comprehensive outpatient approach to addiction treatment. We are committed to identifying and utilizing the best therapy for each person who comes to us for support. ACT for addiction is a highly effective modality.

ACT for Addiction – Key Principles

ACT guides people to understand that denying or avoiding challenges—both from within and without—makes recovery harder. Denial and avoidance are normal reactions and strategies used by many people who are struggling and common among those with a substance use disorder (SUD). ACT gives you the tools necessary to accept what is true, as well as those needed to commit to change.

Six principles are at the core of ACT for addiction. At Insight Recovery Center, our ACT rehab program in Asheville, NC, helps you internalize these principles in your recovery.

Acceptance means no more avoiding your challenges. If you accept them, you are not looking to escape from them through substances.
Being present is a key component of mindfulness because focusing on the now makes you less likely to be trapped by the past or scared of the future.
Alignment with your true values is important because it keeps you focused on what matters rather than expending all your energy on hiding from difficult emotions.
Commitment to acting consciously, based on core values, helps you set actionable, achievable goals while practicing patience when negative emotions or thoughts arise.
Cognitive defusion is an idea formulated by the creator of ACT, psychologist Stephen Hayes. It means you do not try to make your thoughts and beliefs vanish, but you can detach from them—“Isn’t that interesting?”—and move forward more readily.
Becoming the observer of your own experiences and actions reinforces that they do not define you. They are separate from you.

So often, people with SUDs crave control while feeling that they have none. ACT helps you stop needing to be in control—a huge step. That means you can accept pain and joy, hardship and good fortune as part of life, be rid of fear, and commit to your own sober, healthy future.