Craft, Community Reinforcement and Family Training has been developed to help families and friends understand and support their loved one who suffers from a substance abuse disorder. CRAFT has become an excellent method to help individuals who outright refuse treatment for their addiction or refuse to admit that they are no longer in control of their life and addiction.
CRAFT has been designed to encourage family members and close friends to help addicted individuals in their journey to sobriety. CRAFT goes against the old school’s conventional method where family and close friends get together to confront the addicted individuals to get them to a rehab facility. Many studies have shown that when families try to force their addicted loved ones to get help, it pushes them in the other direction, where they will seek out a higher or larger dosage to deal with the pressure of their family.
How to use the CRAFT method
Positive reinforcement is a critical aspect of the Craft method; it allows the addicted individual time to recognize their addiction through positive reinforcement when they do not abuse or drink. Ultimately, you continuously make the individuals feel good about themselves when they are doing well with their addiction journey.
The crafting method more specifically encourages the following practices:
- Positive reinforcement continuously encourages the individual to no use and increases pro-social behaviors.
- Learn vital skills such as communicating clearly with each other in their natural day-to-day lives
- Learn to actively support their loved ones through the therapy they need and find out how to become a more patient individual if the loved one suffering from addiction decides to drop off of therapy prematurely.
- Begin assessing, determining, and addressing certain situations, events, or individuals that could make the addicted loved one’s situation harder or make them unhappy. Furthermore, it encourages loved ones to reward themselves while they continuously work towards improving their and their loved ones’ circumstances.
- Learn and figure out when the loved one suffering from addiction first became addicted to the illicit substances and when they are most tempted to begin abusing. Is it when they begin to feel upset or agitated? Does it seem to be a specific time of the day? Is it a particular individual that appears? Unfortunately, family members and close friends can cause unintentional triggers.
- Work with each other to remove positive reinforcements when the addicted loved one is abusing and feel confident enough to let the addicted individual deal with the consequences of their behavior.
When is the CRAFT method utilized?
If you believe a loved one or yourself is struggling with addiction and has reached a stage where they risk hurting themselves or those around them, it may be time to consider utilizing the CRAFT method. However, you must remember that the CRAFT method is in no way a means of intervention for the loved one struggling with addiction.
The CRAFT method is a controlled process specifically designed to allow family members and close friends to begin exercising positive reinforcement when they realize that they are an active issue or problem that is most likely not going to go away without help or has the potential of getting much worse.
The CRAFT method is utilized as a method that holds much respect for everyone involved and is much more humane than the old-school interventions. Interventions often create an intense, guilt-blaming environment in which emotions are significantly heightened. It is doubtful that such a brutal approach will result in any positive outcome.
Training with CRAFT-certified professionals has one downfall: the financial impact. This type of method can be seen to be more expensive than other therapy treatments out there. Like many therapies, some work for specific individuals, and some don’t. We would always advise you to research to understand better what you think would be most effective for you, the members involved, and the addicted loved one. If the family unit stands a chance against addiction, you must all be on the same journey and ready to stand together.
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