Monday 24 September 2012

Aversion Therapy

Aversion Therapy
Aversion Therapy is a behavioral therapy. It is one of the group therapies that attempt to change undesirable/destructive behavior. These undesirable behaviors come about because we associate them with pleasure, the brain learns that, let's say substance abuse makes the person feel relaxed and lowers our stress levels.
Aversion therapy is a form of treatment that utilizes behavioral principles to eliminate unwanted behavior. In this unwanted method, the unwanted stimulus is repeatedly paired with discomfort. The goal of the conditioning process is to make the individual associate the stimulus with unpleasant or uncomfortable sensation.
During aversion therapy, the client may be asked to think of or engage in the behavior they enjoy while at the same time being exposed to something unpleasant feelings. Once the unpleasant feelings become associated with the behavior, the hope is that the unwanted behavior or action will begin to decrease in frequency or stop entirely.

Meaning of Aversion Therapy
Aversion Therapy is a form of psychiatric treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensation, and to then stop certain behavior.

Purpose
As with other therapies, aversion therapy is a treatment grounded in learning theory-one of its basic principles being that all behavior is learned and that undesirable behavior can be unlearned under the right circumstances the goal of aversion therapy is to reduce or eliminate undesirable behavior. Treatment focuses on changing a specific behavior itself. The behaviors that have been treated include such addictions as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, smoking and pathological gambling, sexual deviations, etc.


Different Methods 

  • Chemical and Pharmacological stimulants
  • Electric Shock Method
  • Insight-oriented approaches( Verbal Aversion Therapy)