Visual Imagery - This involves pairing unpleasant images with unwanted behavior.This is often used for overeating, where specific food is paired with the foul smell. Olfactory - A noxious smell is paired with unwanted behavior.A bad-tasting substance is applied to the fingertips. Unpleasant tastes - This is often used to help with compulsive nail biting.Chemical - A nausea-inducing medication is given that makes the person feel sick when they drink alcohol or take other addictive drugs.Although some clinicians still consider it unethical, recent studies show that it can be effective, especially when combined with other treatments and supports. However, in recent years, it has reemerged as a treatment for alcohol and drug misuse. With a few exceptions, aversion was not used much from 1980 to 2000 because of the controversy around the use of electric shock. It’s also now illegal to use aversion therapy on minors for sexual reorientation in many states. U sing aversion therapy in an attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation is now considered an ethical violation by the American Psychological Association (APA) (Drescher, 2015). Unfortunately, this practice was accepted in the United States until 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association issued a resolution stating that homosexuality is not a mental illness. Not only did this do nothing to change a person’s sexual orientation, but it was also found to be harmful both physically and mentally. It also incorporated the use of electric shocks, as well as drugs that made the person violently ill. Centers were established for treating alcoholism that paired electric shocks with drinking-a practice now largely considered inhumane.īy the 1950s, aversion therapy grew from treating alcoholism to becoming a popular way to “cure” homosexuality. It grew out of the work of behavioral psychologist Ivan Pavlov whose work showed that we (and other animals) can be conditioned to repeat or avoid behaviors depending on whether they’re rewarded or punished. But unlike Alex from A Clockwork Orange, her unwanted behavior didn’t return.Īversion therapy was started in the 1930s to treat alcoholism. She associated an unpleasant experience (the water), with her tail-biting habit, and no longer found it rewarding. Little did I know, I was using aversion therapy. She stopped the biting habit and her fur grew back. My cat had developed a compulsive habit, like nail-biting.ĭesperate to get her to stop, I tried the old squirt bottle method-every time I caught her nibbling at her tail, I squirted her with a little water, which she definitely didn’t like. After numerous tests at the vet’s office and hundreds of dollars later, the vet determined that there was nothing physically wrong. This started after we moved to a new apartment, which I assume was stressful for her. Years ago I had a cat that bit all the fur off her tail, to the point that it looked like a rat’s tail. I have a slightly less dramatic personal example. After the treatment, he associates violence with the traumatic experience and is no longer able to act violently. To accomplish this, doctors give him a drug that makes him sick and causes intense anxiety while forcing him to watch violent films. The main character, Alex, is forced to undergo a brutal form of aversion therapy to stop his extremely violent behavior. Availability of follow-up programs after aversion therapy has been completedĪ well-known example in popular culture is from the movie A Clockwork Orange.Whether it’s combined with other psychotherapies or treatment. The effectiveness of aversion therapy depends on several factors: This is why relapse rates can be high, and sometimes one addiction is simply replaced by another. One study even showed a reduction in brain activity related to craving (Elkins et al., 2017).Ī major criticism of aversion therapy is that while it may help stop unwanted behavior, at least temporarily, it doesn’t do anything to address the underlying cause of the behavior. However, several other studies have found that some aversion therapy techniques can help alcohol and drug misuse, especially when combined with other therapies and follow-up visits. In addition, other studies suggest that while aversion therapy can be effective for some behaviors in the short term, the benefit fades over time with many people returning to their original behavior patterns (Arlinghaus et al., 2017). Some studies indicate that aversion therapy doesn’t work for changing lifestyle habits (Arlinghous et al., 2017).
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