Destructive behavior patterns

People continue to engage in patterns of behavior—anger, violence, nagging, dependency, and jealousy—that are destructive to their relationships and their well-being. A woman complained vociferously about her husband who controlled her. He wouldn’t let her out of the house alone. He wouldn’t let her drive a car. He wouldn’t let her visit friends. When asked why she didn’t leave her husband, the woman replied, “I love him so much.” When the woman was seen two years later. She had the same complaints about her husband. She remained married. 

THE TRAGIC FAILURE TO CHANGE

          Some people have difficulty changing because they are caught in financial or geographical traps. Let us consider those people, however, who have every opportunity to change, but, nonetheless, continue to engage in self-defeating behavior despite ongoing negative consequences:

v    Smoking, obesity, and alcohol abuse can lead to chronic illnesses and premature death. Despite ominous health warnings that are more certain than storm alerts from the National Hurricane Center, surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that very few people are willing to stop their self-destructive unhealthy habits.

o      20% of American adults smoke

o      More than 30% of Americans are overweight

o      15% of Americans are binge drinkers

v    People are often noncompliant to medical treatments

o      50-65% of Americans fail to follow their doctors’ treatment recommendations

o      10% of hospital admissions among older adults result from failure to follow doctors’ directions

o      Almost one-third of patients visiting a physician fail to get their prescriptions filled

o      A Case Western Reserve University survey showed that 54% of glaucoma patients failed to use their eye drops as directed even though these patients knew they would go blind unless they complied with their doctors’ instructions.

o      70% of patients receiving treatment at a community mental health center dropped out of treatment before the third visit.

v    Most serious attempts to maintain behavior change are unsuccessful. A University of Scranton study found that only 19% of those who had made a significant change in a problem behavior maintained the change when surveyed two years later.

FORCES THAT IMPEDE CHANGE

Psychological Forces	Thoughts and Habits that Limit Change
Pain versus Pleasure	The immediate pleasure of the habit (gambling) is more powerful than the delayed pain (financial ruin)
Fear of failure	People fear that if they fail in their efforts to change, they will feel even worse.
All or nothing thinking	I must lose 50 pounds; losing 10 pounds is unacceptable
Loss of free choice	Encouraging change threatens freedom & control.
Change is unpredictable	The discomfort of the status quo may be preferred over the anxiety produced by change.
An undesirable habit may provide unmet needs.	Drinking relieves stress. Physical abuse provides attention. Eating fills a psychological void.