Aversion Therapy

Interventions

There are two interventions that can be used for this case, one is aversion therapy and the other is covert sensitization. Aversion therapy can be used to overcome the addiction by learning a new behavior. "Even though in most cases, the aversion therapy tends to be used for psychological conditions that are more serious, in some cases it can be used for something minor as well." (http://aversiontherapy.org/). In this case the patient is is made to think of the bad behavior they had enjoyed while either being on a drug or given electric shocks. Over time the patient will associate the deviant behavior with negative reaction to the shocks or effects of the medications. Aversion therapy needs to be done in cases like this where a patient is extremely dangerous to others in order to try to change the deviant behaviors they possess. In this therapy only the patient and the therapist are involved and it is done in a clinical setting. Although this intervention is targeting the psychological area for it is in the mind and mind alone that these terrible thought and actions come from it can also be due to something from the patients environment or social life that has led him to a life of deviant behavior, such as, sexual abuse or drugs.

The next intervention is covert sensitization, it is similar to the aversion therapy without the use of shock treatment and drugs. Covert sensitization uses images that the patient that stimulated the deviant behavior while showing the patient aversive images that make the patient uncomfortable to the point of being sick such as, images of snakes, spiders, rats, or any embarrassing social consequence. The patient is asked to relax and imagine the deviant behavior while in between seeing the uncomfortable images in between in order to link the unpleasant feelings with the behavior. This is done in a clinical setting with just the therapist and the patient. This is a learned therapy with the thought that all behavior, being deviant or otherwise, can be unlearned under the right circumstances.

1. No Author (ND) Covert sensitization. Retrieved on 11/14/12. http://www.minddisorders.com/Br-Del/Covert-sensitization.html

2. No Author (ND) Aversion Therapy. Retrieved on 11/16/12. http://psychologistworld.com/behavior/aversiontherapy.php