Does anyone else here hate the word "behaviors?"
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Join Date: Aug 2012
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Does anyone else here hate the word "behaviors?"
I'm sick of the psychologists using the word. In fact, I challenge them to even give a definition to it.
What's a "behavior" after all? Waking up in the morning? Making myself a cup of coffee? Stolling on the beach with my girlfriend? What, pray tell, is a "behavior"?
Go to the National Institute of Mental Health website and talk to these people and these overpaid Psychologists throw the word around like popcorn pooping in the microwave. Yet they will never tell us what they mean by the word "behavior[s]". I suspect it's because they don't even know what they mean when they use the word.
"Behaviors" is the favorite word of the Psychologists, yet it's also a word that they are the least apt to define.
What's a "behavior" after all? Waking up in the morning? Making myself a cup of coffee? Stolling on the beach with my girlfriend? What, pray tell, is a "behavior"?
Go to the National Institute of Mental Health website and talk to these people and these overpaid Psychologists throw the word around like popcorn pooping in the microwave. Yet they will never tell us what they mean by the word "behavior[s]". I suspect it's because they don't even know what they mean when they use the word.
"Behaviors" is the favorite word of the Psychologists, yet it's also a word that they are the least apt to define.
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: In my sanctuary, my home
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I'm not sure why the word bothers you so much. It's fairly easy to define.
Medical Dictionary
The actions or reactions of persons or things in response to external or internal stimuli.
Psychology, Animal Behavior
a. observable activity in a human or animal.
b. the aggregate of responses to internal and external stimuli.
c. a stereotyped, species-specific activity, as a courtship dance or startle reflex.
Medical Dictionary
The actions or reactions of persons or things in response to external or internal stimuli.
Psychology, Animal Behavior
a. observable activity in a human or animal.
b. the aggregate of responses to internal and external stimuli.
c. a stereotyped, species-specific activity, as a courtship dance or startle reflex.
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 11
Originally Posted by suki44883 
I'm not sure why the word bothers you so much. It's fairly easy to define.
Medical Dictionary
The actions or reactions of persons or things in response to external or internal stimuli.
Psychology, Animal Behavior
a. observable activity in a human or animal.
b. the aggregate of responses to internal and external stimuli.
c. a stereotyped, species-specific activity, as a courtship dance or startle reflex.
Medical Dictionary
The actions or reactions of persons or things in response to external or internal stimuli.
Psychology, Animal Behavior
a. observable activity in a human or animal.
b. the aggregate of responses to internal and external stimuli.
c. a stereotyped, species-specific activity, as a courtship dance or startle reflex.
"What kind of behaviors did you engage in when you were drinking? Were these appropriate behaviors, or inappropriate behaviors? And now that you're sober, can you identify the inappropriate behaviors? What behaviours, inappropriate or appropriate, can we expect of you now that you're sober? How skilled are you at identifying appropriate behaviors now? Inappropriate behaviors? We have a checklist--the sheet of paper that's in front of you--called the "Appropriate Behavior/Inappropriate Behavior Checklist", listing both appropriate behaviors and inappropriate behaviors. From the checklist, please mark which behavior is an inappropriate behaviour, and separate them from the appropriate behaviors. This checklist will show that you can identify the inappropriate behavior from the appropriate behavior..."
It went on and on for months while I was there.
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Join Date: Jun 2012
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I don't know how relavent this is at all but, I remember going to a meeting where someone started talking about something that got me soooo pissed, I almost got up and decked the dude. After the meeting my sponsor saw I was irritated and asked me about it. When I told him, he told me to think about exactly what it was that got me angry. Then take a look at that particular thing in myself. Turned out he was right. I got angry at the dude talking about something that I was totally unhappy with in myself.
I'm not saying that the word isn't overused. Most likely is but "Behaviours" is a word. Just a word. Why are you reacting to it so strongly?
I'm not saying that the word isn't overused. Most likely is but "Behaviours" is a word. Just a word. Why are you reacting to it so strongly?
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 11
Originally Posted by FredG
I don't know how relavent this is at all but, I remember going to a meeting where someone started talking about something that got me soooo pissed, I almost got up and decked the dude. After the meeting my sponsor saw I was irritated and asked me about it. When I told him, he told me to think about exactly what it was that got me angry. Then take a look at that particular thing in myself. Turned out he was right. I got angry at the dude talking about something that I was totally unhappy with in myself.
I'm not saying that the word isn't overused. Most likely is but "Behaviours" is a word. Just a word. Why are you reacting to it so strongly?
I'm not saying that the word isn't overused. Most likely is but "Behaviours" is a word. Just a word. Why are you reacting to it so strongly?
Each class has a different title ("Happiness in Recovery"; "Experience, Strength and Hope", "The Demons that Haunt You", etc.). However, the discourse by the psychologist Interns is all the same. From 08:00 to 16:30, every day, Monday through Friday, you are made to hear the same drumbeat, and it doesn't matter what class you're in:
"What kind of behaviors did you engage in when you were drinking? Were these appropriate behaviors, or inappropriate behaviors? And now that you're sober, can you identify the inappropriate behaviors? What behaviours, inappropriate or appropriate, can we expect of you now that you're sober? How skilled are you at identifying appropriate behaviors now? Inappropriate behaviors? We have a checklist--the sheet of paper that's in front of you--called the "Appropriate Behavior/Inappropriate Behavior Checklist", listing both appropriate behaviors and inappropriate behaviors. From the checklist, please mark which behavior is an inappropriate behaviour, and separate them from the appropriate behaviors. This checklist will show that you can identify the inappropriate behavior from the appropriate behavior..."
I had to endure the "It's an appropriate or inapproriate behavior" lecture for months on end, day in and day out.
"Perhaps your inappropriate or appropriate behavior was a result of..." Can these head shrinks be any less articulate? Must they rely on the dull-witted, "It's your appropriate/inappropriate behavior that started this..."?
I swear to effin God these head shrinks were pushed through their colleges by means other than intellect! Almost all of them were dull-witted hotties with nice breasts and equally nice figures.
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Hi there glenns 
I am a retired head shrink 
And yes, I have worked at many such recovery places. No worries, I completely respect your anger and I promise I won't use the "b" word
The reason the lectures are so regimented, and the reason they use the "b" word all the time, is because the insurance companies _require_ it be that way. They have to document _extensively_ about the patients progress and if they don't use the "b" word _everywhere_ the insurance company will use that as an excuse to cancel the policy.
The recovery center really doesn't loose out much money, they will get paid for the time already spent by the patient in the center. It's the patient that gets short-changed by the insurance company because they will use that "absence of documented symptoms" as an excuse to cancel the policy against the _patient_. In some cases the insurance company will try and get the patient to pay up the _whole_ admission.
So as much as it irritated you, they were actually doing a good job of protecting your from your own insurance company.
Mike
Moderator, SR
Originally Posted by glenns
.... you are made to hear the same drumbeat, and it doesn't matter what class you're in:... Can these head shrinks be any less articulate? ...
And yes, I have worked at many such recovery places. No worries, I completely respect your anger and I promise I won't use the "b" word The reason the lectures are so regimented, and the reason they use the "b" word all the time, is because the insurance companies _require_ it be that way. They have to document _extensively_ about the patients progress and if they don't use the "b" word _everywhere_ the insurance company will use that as an excuse to cancel the policy.
The recovery center really doesn't loose out much money, they will get paid for the time already spent by the patient in the center. It's the patient that gets short-changed by the insurance company because they will use that "absence of documented symptoms" as an excuse to cancel the policy against the _patient_. In some cases the insurance company will try and get the patient to pay up the _whole_ admission.
So as much as it irritated you, they were actually doing a good job of protecting your from your own insurance company.
Mike
Moderator, SR
Today's Muse
Join Date: May 2007
Location: West end
Posts: 1,081
You fail to use your imagination. Imagine you're in a recovery home.
I never was in a recovery home. I went to meetings instead. I will admit, it drove me insane, much like you are describing. Little things ate away at me. However, I would do it again in a heartbeat, if need be and little by little the irritants subsided and I found acceptance. I was a hopeless, miserable drunk and I needed help. I couldn't help myself. So, in comparison, I'd rather be irritated than drunk any day. I'm much happier these days, sober. Now that I've been sober for a few years, little things don't bother me as much. I don't sweat the small stuff because I'm so grateful to be sober and free from the burden of alcoholism. As corny as that may sound, I mean every word of it.
I never was in a recovery home. I went to meetings instead. I will admit, it drove me insane, much like you are describing. Little things ate away at me. However, I would do it again in a heartbeat, if need be and little by little the irritants subsided and I found acceptance. I was a hopeless, miserable drunk and I needed help. I couldn't help myself. So, in comparison, I'd rather be irritated than drunk any day. I'm much happier these days, sober. Now that I've been sober for a few years, little things don't bother me as much. I don't sweat the small stuff because I'm so grateful to be sober and free from the burden of alcoholism. As corny as that may sound, I mean every word of it.
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