Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of counseling that helps a person learn to recognize the specific situations that cause addictive behaviors to occur, so the person can then practice strategies to avoid those triggers and behaviors.
A research review from The American Journal of Psychiatry cited a number of studies in which
the effects of CBT were not only helpful while the therapy was in process, but were also
effective, even sometimes growing more effective, after therapy was discontinued.
One of these studies found that adding CBT to a slow taper of benzos for people with anxiety
disorders was more helpful in reducing benzo use than the slow taper alone. Three months after
treatment, 77 percent of those who had received both the slow taper and the therapy remained
in recovery.