5 Strategies for Enhancing Environmental Motivation | Motivational Interviewing Activities

Hey there, everybody, and welcome back to the Addiction and Mental Health Disorders treatment manual. This is unit one, part 13, enhancing environmental motivation. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this part, we're going to explore environmental motivation and how to enhance it. Now, in the last part, we talked about cognitive motivation, which is one of those things where you're addressing how you think about the world. And that is very key for a lot of cognitive behavioral therapists. In environmental motivation, we're really looking at stimuli in the environment. So this is something that is near and dear to behaviorists and behavioral therapists. Spend about 45 or 50 minutes thinking about things in the environment. And that means where you spend most of your time, at your home, in your car, at work, or at school and anywhere else you spend a lot of time, think about things in the environment that either support your recovery lifestyle or trigger cravings or old feelings and behaviors. It could be sounds, sights, smells. It could be activity levels. For example, if you have anxiety and you're trying to recover from generalized anxiety, being in an environment where there's a lot of activity and a lot of hubbub may be really stressful and it may trigger your anxiety. So thinking about things in the environment that might trigger the issues you're trying to recover from, whether it is mental health or substance. And think about things in the environment that are there that you could focus on that support your recovery or things you could add to the environment that would support your recovery. What things? Sights, sounds and smells in your environment, at home, work, and when you're commuting trigger addictive behaviors. Cravings, anxiety, anger, depression, guilt, grief, pain, or even illness. On a piece on different pieces of paper, write down each one of those things, because in things in your environment that trigger anxiety are likely going to trigger some of these other things too. So. And the same thing holds true for anger and depression and guilt, etc. So it's important to recognize the interactive nature of all these things, which is why I keep asking you to explore them. So think about those triggers. How can you change the environment to support a recovery lifestyle? What sights, sounds and smells can you add in? And how can you remove the negative? For example, if you're trying to quit smoking, one of the things we tell people who are trying to quit smoking is to deep clean their house, so, and their car and their clothes so the smell of nicotine is no longer lingering. That's one of those things they can do to support a recovery lifestyle. Removing nicotine products from their environment is another one. Adding things that they like to do instead of smoking can also be helpful. You know what. What function did smoking serve? And what can you add in order to achieve that same goal? If smoking helped you relax, what else could you do? If some smoking gave you something to do with your hands, what else could you do instead? And how can you put that in the environment so it's there literally at your fingertips? How will a healthy environment help you feel better physically and emotionally? And in what ways does your environment trigger dysphoria, unpleasant feelings, or addiction in the past? Think about when you were growing up, you know, other environments that you've been in. What's been in those environments that's triggered unpleasant feelings or addictive behaviors? And be aware of those, because those are things that you may encounter in the present that you also need to adjust for.