Addiction
Many people in our society use addictive substances, such as drink or drugs, or engage in potentially addictive behaviours, such as gambling or porn use. However for some people, it can become so problematic if affects your whole life, impacting on relationships, work or college and social activities. The addiction can become all consuming, and any burst of enjoyment and excitement from the substance or behaviour becomes short-lived and often followed by guilt, shame and low mood. So we repeat 'the behaviour to recover the 'good' feeling, and before we know it, we're in the 'cycle of addiction' again.
There's no single reason why addictions develop. Some people feel a stronger desire than others to repeat the behaviours. Sometimes there are family members who have had problems with addiction, and/or there have been difficult events or difficult family relationships in childhood. Stressful life events as an adult can contribute to a build-up of difficulties.
My approach to working with people who have addictions is to see the addiction as a ‘pattern’ which has developed as a result of difficult life events. I want to understand from you how you and your life are impacted by the addiction and together we can look at what has led up to the addiction and how you might change things now.
If there are difficult issues from the past, the therapy can be longer-term and is not easy, as it can involve taking about difficult things (and the addiction has become a way of ‘blocking off’ these difficult things).
In my experience when it’s possible to unravel difficult things that have happened and make sense of how these have impacted on you, and the part that the addiction has played in this, then it’s possible to move forward and make changes.
Where people wish to focus specifically on stopping the addiction, I can refer you to a specialist addiction agency that can work with you on a treatment plan.
References
http://www.addaction.org.uk/
https://www.addictionsuk.com/
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Addictions/Pages/Introduction.aspx
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/
http://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/cnwl-national-problem-gambling-clinic/
There's no single reason why addictions develop. Some people feel a stronger desire than others to repeat the behaviours. Sometimes there are family members who have had problems with addiction, and/or there have been difficult events or difficult family relationships in childhood. Stressful life events as an adult can contribute to a build-up of difficulties.
My approach to working with people who have addictions is to see the addiction as a ‘pattern’ which has developed as a result of difficult life events. I want to understand from you how you and your life are impacted by the addiction and together we can look at what has led up to the addiction and how you might change things now.
If there are difficult issues from the past, the therapy can be longer-term and is not easy, as it can involve taking about difficult things (and the addiction has become a way of ‘blocking off’ these difficult things).
In my experience when it’s possible to unravel difficult things that have happened and make sense of how these have impacted on you, and the part that the addiction has played in this, then it’s possible to move forward and make changes.
Where people wish to focus specifically on stopping the addiction, I can refer you to a specialist addiction agency that can work with you on a treatment plan.
References
http://www.addaction.org.uk/
https://www.addictionsuk.com/
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Addictions/Pages/Introduction.aspx
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/
http://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/cnwl-national-problem-gambling-clinic/
