Addiction recovery
Addictions are Wiley.
There are many different ways of looking at addiction. Here is my view in a nutshell, based on my own personal experience, my family, and my clients. Addiction is a medical condition, and if people want to recover from it, they stand a better chance if they have the help and support from a qualified and caring medical practitioner. Addiction happens when we started-off doing something for fun, and then we have done it often enough, that when we want to stop, our bodies react. The reaction may take the form of a craving, it may take the form of shaking, it may take the form of a migraine; there are many different ways that our body can react. Also, depending on what it is we are addicted to, our brains can react. Certain substances inhibit the brain chemicals that are deliberate and thoughtful, and increase the ones that are impulsive. This of course feeds into the addiction making it easy for us to tell ourselves that "it will be fine I can quit tomorrow", and the logical part of our mind that would normally have known that this was not the case, that part has been silenced to a certain extent. And the longer we have been struggling with our addiction the more that part becomes difficult to access. That, in my view in my view, is the way in which addictions are medical conditions. Let's take the most simple view of addiction possible: we can say it is a repeated behaviour that we want to stop but don't feel we can. It is something that gives us short term gain and long-term pain. Do you think that might cause any stress? And like any other medical condition your substance or or behaviour of choice generally gets worse when you're feeling sad, lonely, angry or otherwise stressed. |
Now let's talk about self-esteem: low self-esteem and shame are the hallmarks of addiction sufferers.
Let's talk finances: most of these substances can be quite expensive. A person may fervently desire to be able to save money, but they keep spending it impulsively on their substance of choice. Eventually they may go into debt. Let's talk relationships: Another hallmark of addiction is denial. When we are addicted to something we lie ourselves about it, we lie to others about it, we just get in the habit of lying, and we watch our relationships fall apart around us. When we are addicted, our substance of choice in the moment becomes more important than anything else. So we let people down, and again we probably lie about why we did. We watch the people around us becoming hurt and angry toward us. Our self-esteem and shame plummets even farther and we feel like we have no control over our lives. And again, we do know one way to soothe ourselves… Let's talk physical health and nutrition: need I say more? Whether a person is addicted to sugar or carbs, alcohol, nicotine or heroin, if a person is repeatedly putting a substance in their body that their body does not thrive on, the effects are devastating. Basically, people who struggle with addiction are often hit in every single area of their lives. In order to recover from addiction, all those areas need healing, love, compassion, and better choices. This is one way that the downward spiral can finally be broken. It is also a reason that when I work with people with addictions I strongly recommend that they get support from as many different avenues as possible: Support from a group of people who are also quitting the same substance or behaviour pattern, nutritional support, mobility and exercise support, medical support, and hopefully the support of friends and framily as well. |