People with PTSD may be more likely to engage in a number of impulsive behaviors, such as deliberate self-harm or substance abuse, and therefore, it can be important to learn ways of coping with impulsive behaviors, such as through consequence modification.
What is an Impulsive Behavior?
Impulsive behaviors are those that occur quickly without control, planning, or consideration of the consequences of that behavior. Impulsive behaviors tend to be connected with immediate positive consequences. For example, immediately after engaging in an impulsive behavior, a person may feel tremendous relief from stress or anxiety. It is for this reason that many people with PTSD struggle with impulsive behaviors. However, in the long-term, there may be a number of negative consequences, such as greater distress, shame, or regret.
Using Consequence Modification to Cope
Consequence modification is a very effective skill for reducing impulsive behaviors. As the name implies, the main goal of consequence modification is changing (or modifying) the outcome (or consequence) of an impulsive behavior.
People continually engage in impulsive behaviors because the actions satisfy a momentary need, such as reducing anxiety or stress. Impulsive behaviors can help someone escape from emotional pain...but only in the short-term. One way to reduce the likelihood of an impulsive behavior is to take away its short-term positive effect. If you change the outcome of an impulsive behavior so that it does not bring about immediate relief, you are basically making that behavior no longer work the way it used to.
You can think about it this way: Say you are someone who drinks to escape unpleasant emotions and memories. If you found that every time you had a drink, your emotions and memories did not go away, you likely would not use drinking as a way of coping anymore.
So, how do you modify the consequence of a behavior? This can be accomplished through a chain analysis. A chain analysis can help you identify why you are engaging in a certain behavior. It can help you figure out all the things that can contribute to an impulsive behavior.
Immediately after engaging in an impulsive behavior, conduct a chain analysis to connect with why you engaged in that behavior in the first place. This will put you back in touch with all those emotions that you were trying to get away from and give you the opportunity to cope with them in another, healthier way. By approaching and processing your emotions, you are also preventing many long-term negative consequences of impulsive behaviors from occurring.
The next step to using consequence modification is rewarding yourself times when you resist an urge to engage in an impulsive behavior. Sitting with an urge is not a comfortable thing to do and it can be very difficult. Therefore, it is important to recognize times you resist an urge and reward yourself in some way. For example, you may want to give yourself points every time you resist an urge, and when you have enough points added up, treat yourself to a nice meal.
Impulsive behaviors can be very difficult to stop; however, consequence modification is a coping skill that may help you reduce urges for engaging in impulsive behaviors.
Source:
Goldfried, M. R., & Davison, G. C. (1994). Clinical behavior therapy. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Gratz, K.L. (2009). An Acceptance-Based Emotion Regulation Group Therapy for Deliberate Self-Harm.
