Breaking Free: Understanding and Transforming Criminogenic and Addictive Thinking Patterns

The podcast delves into the intricate world of criminogenic and addictive thinking patterns, highlighting their significant overlap and shared characteristics. DocSnipes argues against drawing an artificial line between addicts and lawbreakers, as both groups often exhibit similar behaviors and cognitive distortions. Core to these patterns are low self-control, impulsivity, an inability to delay gratification, and a pervasive "now orientation" that disregards past consequences or future implications. Individuals often present as defensive or manipulative, driven by a deep-seated fear of exposure and vulnerability, which they mask with a facade of perfection and a "good person" stance.

While sharing many traits, subtle distinctions exist: criminals often adopt a victim stance characterized by anger and irritation, blaming external factors, whereas addicts lean towards self-pity. Criminal thinking frequently involves the use of power to control others, seeking excitement and dominance, while addictive thinking more commonly employs deceit, rationalization, and justification to control situations and alleviate pain, aiming for a sense of "normalcy" rather than just pleasure. Both exhibit "closed channel thinking," rendering them unreceptive to constructive feedback and prone to lies by omission, justifying their lack of full disclosure as not being outright untruthful.

The presentation offers numerous interventions to address these entrenched patterns. Key strategies include teaching empathy by fostering perspective-taking, challenging all-or-nothing cognitive distortions, and helping clients identify their part in problems through techniques like the "three-finger rule." For those with low self-esteem and a need for external validation, the "constructive feedback sandwich" is recommended to deliver criticism in an empowering way. To combat selective effort and the perception of responsible living as unexciting, the Premack principle is introduced, pairing unpleasant tasks with immediate rewards, alongside decisional balance exercises to reframe perceived benefits.

The discussion extends to broader implications, emphasizing the importance of screening for underlying neurodevelopmental issues like Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) in clients who repeatedly fail to learn from past mistakes, as their inability to forecast future consequences may be a cognitive deficit rather than a choice. The podcast underscores the necessity of setting boundaries and teaching delayed gratification, crucial skills for recovery in environments often dominated by immediate demands and power dynamics. Ultimately, the goal is to empower clients to move from a cycle of relapse and recidivism to sustainable recovery by addressing core psychological vulnerabilities and developing effective coping and communication skills.

"low self-control and we use that term we define that term when we're talking about theories of criminal behavior referring to impulsivity and inability to delay gratification they want what they want and they want it now"

"some people have the ability for empathy and they've just locked it down because they feel like they've been done wrong so many times and they feel like they've been hurt so many times they're just like you know heck with it I'm done"

"I don't want to draw an artificial line between addicts and lawbreakers because these are people who are engaging in the similar behaviors"

"a criminal thinking pattern the person who is using this thinking pattern has a victim stance everybody's against them there's nothing they can do but they feel more angry and irritated sometimes whereas the addict has more of a self-pity stance"

"both of them tend to think they are unique they can get away with things other people can't get away with they're smarter than other people are they are different you just couldn't possibly understand what they've gone through and they justify a lot of their actions by being so unique"

"vulnerability is not acceptable in criminal thinking patterns in criminal circles and fear of exposure in the addiction maybe fear of exposure of the addiction"

"closed channel thinking which is common to both people are not receptive to constructive feedback and they're not self-critical"

"lies by omission are still lies and lies by omission to others as well as yourself are still lies"

"if I'm gonna paint this facade of being perfect you can't look too close so if I don't want you to look too close I need you to look everywhere else so I'm gonna point out and get feedback on the faults of others"

"if they accept responsibility for making a mistake it means they're not perfect"

"the constructive feedback sandwich when we talk with clients or when we have clients talk about themselves start with something positive what did you do right in this situation then go to whatever needs addressing what could have been done a little bit better and how and then follow up with you know overall it sounds like you did these things correctly"

"the Premack pens principle says if you take something that is unpleasant like homework and pair it with something pleasant or have it that reward available immediately after finishing the task it's more likely for the task to be done"

"some people cannot learn from the past and cannot forecast future consequences they urge is not cognitively capable of doing that and these are our clients who have some level of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders"