Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes teaches how to rate your confidence on a 1-4 scale across eight areas: cravings, sleep, emotions, triggers, relationships, and others. The video then walks you through identifying what skills or support you need to build confidence in each area, from finding a sponsor to tracking wins in an efficacy meter.
Hey there, everybody, and welcome back to the Addiction and Mental Health Disorders Treatment Manual. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. Today we're talking more about enhancing self efficacy. This is unit one, part 25. So we talked about what self efficacy is. We talked in general about strategies to increase self efficacy. In this activity, what I really want you to focus on is drilling down and identifying the your confidence in managing each issue and the skills and tools you need to do that. As I've mentioned in other videos, a lot of the goals, a lot of the targets that you're working toward, whether you are recovering from anxiety or depression or eating disorders or or addiction, they're going to be very similar. A lot of the underlying issues or associated issues are very similar between mental health and addictive disorders. So when it comes to physical health and conditions, how confident are you that you can manage your cravings or urges? And what would it take on a scale of 1 to 4? 1, not very confident, 4, totally confident. What would it take to move your confidence to a three or a four in terms of fatigue? What is your confidence that you know what's causing it and how to address it and that you can do it. Scale of 1 to 4, what would it take to get you to a 3 or a 4? When it comes to improving your sleep, what is your confidence that you actually can do that? A lot of people who struggle with insomnia or night terrors because of trauma may not have a lot of confidence that they can actually improve their sleep because they've been trying for so long. All right, so recognizing that your confidence is low there, what can you do in order to increase your confidence? Maybe you need to see a sleep specialist. Maybe you need to see a trauma therapist and do some emdr. You know, I don't know what specifically your issue is, but recognizing if you don't have the tool yourself, who does? Who can teach it to you? Who can provide it to you so you can move your confidence in your ability to manage that issue up to a 3 or a 4. Pain management is the same way. In terms of your affect or your emotions, what is your confidence that you can manage your anxiety, your depression, your resentment, your guilt, and your grief. All of those can be huge relapse triggers for depression, for addiction, for a variety of other things. So what is your confidence that you can manage those feelings? And what would it take to move your confidence up? What do you think you need in order to feel more confident in terms of your cognitions, your attitude and your stinking thinking is what we call it in addictions. What How. Sorry? How confident are you that you can start embracing a more optimistic or at least a more balanced viewpoint? How confident are you that you can cope with triggers in your environment, things that in your personal environment that you may or may not have control over that may trigger your cravings, your anxiety, your depression and your relationships? How confident are you that you can develop supportive relationships and set and maintain healthy boundaries? So spend about 50 minutes as usual and identify your level of confidence and man in managing each of these issues, why you feel that way and what strategies have worked in the past, and what you would need to add in order to move you up to a three or a four on a scale of one to four in terms of your confidence in your ability to manage these issues. Other tips that might be helpful Write and review self affirming statements that you can review every single morning that you can do this. Avoid comparing yourself with people further along in the process than you or even people that are at the same place in the process as you. You don't know what they've got going on. You may have trauma and depression and addiction and they may have addiction or they may have addiction and physical health issues. You know, everybody's got stuff. We don't know exactly what they have going on. So don't assume that you're both starting at the same place and working with the same resources. Join a support group. Avoid detractors and unconstructive critics. Constructive feedback can be helpful, but for people who are just negative nellies, that is going to do nothing but tear down your sense of self efficacy. Get a coach or a sponsor. Start each day with a dedication to your recovery. Start each day reminding yourself why recovery is important and why you are determined to do these behaviors and keep a log of your daily, weekly and monthly successes. One of the things that I like is the Efficacy meteor. Meet the Efficacy meter asking yourself, you know, where am I today for particular goals? I won't do it. I can't do it. Oh I want to do it. How could I do it? I'll try. I can, I will. And then I did. So where are you in that process for the goals that you want to accomplish today? People with a strong sense of self efficacy view challenging problems as tasks to be mastered as challenges. They believe that difficult tasks and situations are opportunities to grow and are determined and persist even in the face of adversity. Even when things get tough, they keep on going. They recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments and focus on personal successes and positive outcomes. They don't dwell on what didn't happen. They focus on what did and what they can do better. And they're able to separate their value as a person from their successes and failures. And that is really important. Remember, you are lovable. You are worthwhile, even if you make a mistake, even if you relapse, even if you engage in a behavior you didn't want to engage in. Okay, let's get curious about why that happened. But that doesn't mean you're any less deserving of love and recovery and happiness.
