Behavioral Addictions Treatment for Process Addictions
Care for non-substance, process addictions, offered alongside treatment for substance use.
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What Behavioral Addictions Are
Behavioral addictions—also called process addictions—describe compulsive engagement with a rewarding activity that continues despite clear harm. No drug is involved, yet the underlying neurobiology overlaps closely with substance addiction: the same reward circuitry, the same loss of control, and the same escalating pursuit of a shrinking payoff.
Clinicians assess process addictions using criteria that parallel those for substance use disorders—preoccupation with the behavior, tolerance, unsuccessful attempts to cut back, distress when stopping, and continued engagement even as it damages relationships, finances, or health. Only gambling disorder currently holds formal recognition in the DSM-5, but a growing body of research supports treating other compulsive patterns along the same lines.
Common Types of Process Addictions
Process addictions take several forms, and a person may struggle with more than one at once:
Gambling Disorder
The most studied and only formally recognized behavioral addiction, gambling disorder involves compulsive betting despite serious losses. Dedicated gambling addiction treatment pairs therapy with financial-recovery support.
Gaming and Internet Disorder
Compulsive video gaming and problematic internet use can crowd out sleep, work, school, and relationships. The World Health Organization now recognizes gaming disorder, reflecting rising clinical concern about the pattern.
Compulsive Shopping
Also known as compulsive buying, this pattern centers on uncontrollable spending used to chase a temporary mood lift, often followed by guilt, hidden purchases, and accumulating debt.
Compulsive Sexual Behavior
Compulsive sexual behavior involves recurring, hard-to-control sexual urges or acts that continue despite negative consequences to relationships, work, or well-being. Therapy focuses on understanding the triggers and rebuilding healthy intimacy.
Compulsive Eating Patterns
Compulsive or binge-related eating patterns share features with addiction, including using food to regulate emotions and a felt loss of control. Care often coordinates with nutritional and medical support.
How Process Addictions Are Treated
Because process addictions share mechanisms with substance use, the treatments that work for one carry over to the other. The foundation is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which helps identify the emotional triggers behind the behavior, challenge the thinking that sustains it, and build healthier ways to meet the needs it once served. Motivational interviewing strengthens readiness to change, while family therapy helps repair the relationships a compulsion can strain.
Peer support groups modeled on the twelve-step approach add accountability and community, and medication may be introduced when a co-occurring mood or anxiety disorder is present. When a process addiction appears alongside substance use, the most effective path treats both together through integrated care rather than one after the other, closing the opening that untreated conditions tend to leave.
Common Questions About Behavioral Addictions Treatment
Resources and Support
If you're in crisis or need immediate help:
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