Addiction Therapy

There's no compulsive behavior that cannot be converted. If you can understand that your addiction & behaviors are an energy that can be altered, than recovery can be yours. Having dealt with addiction personally and with friends & family, I understand addiction and co-dependency and my purpose is to help my clients to understand their own by teaching them the secrets of psychology and how to change their compulsive thoughts, behaviors, and energy into positive addiction free behaviors and lifestyles.

The Addictive Personality

For most people with an addiction, their over use of alcohol or drugs has come from too many unpleasant emotions in their lives. As a result of these unpleasant emotions and insecurities they understandably crave the good feelings usually associated with mind altering substances and behaviours. These positive feelings can become available through alcohol, or drugs. As many addicts or alcoholics have been heard to say; "I just wanted to feel normal..." The important thing here is that most of the time addicts or alcoholics do not feel normal, they feel like something is wrong.  Or they feel as though reality is to difficult to handle.  Working on acceptance of the past and the present is a large part of the healing process.

The addictive personality is driven by a desire to overcome discomfort and pain through the use of a coping mechanism.  The coping mechanism can come in many forms.  Compulsive behaviours, drugs, alcohol or prescriptions.  The list is far longer then most people are aware.  As a therapist a question I use to determine levels of addiction are how much shame or guilt does the individual experience when "acting out"?.  This is an eye opener for many! 

Shame and guilt are a large factor in the addicts life.  The shame/guilt cycle is one that must be broken to achieve any level of recovery. 

What is Relapse

Relapse is the return to drug use after a drug-free period. It is a prime characteristic of addiction, and one of the most painful. Most people who struggle with addiction will have one or more relapses during their ongoing attempts to recover. This can be incredibly frustrating and painful for patients and families.

There are often multiple and interactive factors that can increase the likelihood of relapse. Some of the commonly known factors are drug related "reminder "cues such as; sights, sounds, smells, drug thoughts or dreams. Negative and positive mood states or even a very small sampling of the drug itself can also lead to relapse.

Even with the availability of many forms of effective treatments for addiction, the problem of relapse remains a major challenge to achieving sustained recovery. People who are trying to recover from drug abuse and addiction are often doing so with powerful drug-related memories, diminished impulse control and altered decision making abilities. Combined with intense drug cravings, these hindrances can leave people vulnerable to relapse even after years of being abstinent.

In order to achieve long-term recovery, treatment must address specific, individual patient needs and must take the whole person into account. It is not enough to simply get a person off drugs as the many changes that have occurred must also be addressed to help the individual stay off drugs, for good.