Addiction Counselling
Food | Relationships | Alcohol | Sex | Work | Pornography | Cocaine | Gambling
If you struggle with the above or something similar, please know… you are not alone.
Struggling with addiction does not make you weak, morally bankrupt, a bad person, or someone who has purposely set out to destroy your family, job, reputation, or even your own self.
No one wakes up one day and decides to be entangled in addiction. There are many predisposing factors that bring someone into addiction. Many of these are outside a person’s control, such as family upbringing and socioeconomic status (both rich or poor).
Addiction is part of someone, but not that person at their core. Like any illness, it has symptoms, and it can be treated.
There is hope.
The Symptoms Of Addiction
Many people in the general public believe that the focus needs to be on the symptoms of addiction (the drinking, the drug use, the spending habits) as they are the main culprit propelling the issues someone may face. Although addiction is insidious, baffling, powerful, and conniving, the symptoms do not need to be the main spotlight.
The symptoms (i.e. alcohol) are important and they need to be addressed as they do affect people physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, occupationally, socially and/or financially.
But everything underneath the iceberg, that is, everything that exacerbates and feeds into these symptoms needs to be examined and honoured.
There is danger in focusing too much on chasing the symptoms and trying to control and change them. If someone only focuses on the symptoms, such as remaining abstinent from drinking, but does nothing about the core issues, then the addiction remains active. A person can only pursue white-knuckled abstinence for so long before the dam bursts.
You may be asking what are those factors underneath the iceberg?
Addictive behaviour is one. Low self-esteem is another. Rigid negative thought patterns and past trauma are others.
Addiction Counselling
There are many core issues that can contribute to addiction. Through a supportive counselling experience, one can gather more awareness regarding these contributing factors, process them, and learn how to intervene and take action to live a more fulfilling life despite them.
If you are looking for help with addiction, please connect today to see if we might be a good fit for you as you move forward on your recovery journey. With therapists experienced in supporting clients in healing from their addiction, as well as trained in modalities like Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) - we hope to be able to help you.
Remember, as long as you are breathing there is still hope.