what are the differen types of denail in substance addiction
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Answer:
Type A denial is when a person sees, understands, and knows that they have a definite problem. When confronted about the problem they flat out deny it, knowing that it is true. This type of denial is outright dishonesty or lying.
Type B denial is when a person is either partially or totally blind to a problem that they have. Through a hundred forms of self-deception, rationalization, justification and excuse making, a person can actually believe that they do not have a problem, when everyone around them sees this it is obvious. This type of denial comes from being honestly dishonest or by blindness. The type of denial we will deal with in this test is Type B, honestly being dishonest.
I can remember years ago when I was confronted about my own drinking problem by loved ones, close friends, and my employer. I was destroyed, not at the thought of being an alcoholic, but by their accusations. My reaction was shock, denial and indignation. I would have passed a lie detector test if I were asked if there was a drinking problem in my life. I honestly believed that it wasn’t true, and that I was being totally misunderstood.
Obviously my denial was based on being honestly dishonest, not on being a liar.
Some time later after I hit my bottom and entered recovery for Alcoholism I remember asking myself, “How could I have been so blind?”.
This type of denial doesn’t automatically disappear once the person sees and accepts being chemically dependent. It almost always emerges again with a new and more improved look, It’s like Ivory Snow with the new packaging that say “New and Improved”. It’s really the same old soap with a new ingredient added to it so it can be marketed as a new and improved product.
What we are dealing with is a whole denial system, not just denial of a particular problem. It is also important to understand that denial can be on both an intellectual and spiritual level. It is common to see a person who intellectually accepts being alcoholic but doesn’t believe it in his innermost sell. This is the person who constantly relapses, much to the amazement of themselves and everyone around them.
Intellectual denial is usually based on lack of understanding, differences in semantics or in definition. A good example is the person who thinks an alcoholic is a degenerate who lives on skid row. He is always panhandling and drinks cheap wine. Anyone who still works, supports a family, pays the bills, and lives in a nice house couldn’t possibly be an alcoholic. Here we have a clear problem in definition. A further example is the young executive who drives a BMW, lives in a nice condo and holds a good job with a nationally known electronics firm. He uses $200 worth of cocaine weekly and denies having a problem. He can’t pay his bills; he
Spiritual denial
Internal acceptance