What is Addiction Therapy?

 

Addiction can be referred to as an obsessive, compulsive and increasingly dependent relationship with a mood-altering experience, designed to avoid or escape from the realities of life. There are many different forms of addiction, such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, sex, internet, food and work. At the core of each addiction there is often a person who is struggling at some level with self-esteem, personal value, lack of respect and love both within themselves and from others. Addiction can become the most important relationship and priority in a person’s life at the expense of other relationships. People who struggle with the complexity of addiction sometimes describe the experience as a love/hate relationship, whereby the more you get caught up in it the more you feel you need it, resulting in a destructive cycle that can be difficult to control.
This can lead to feeling:

• A loss of control and power.
• That life is unmanageable.
• Lost, alone and isolated.
• Ashamed, guilty and fearful.

However, there can be light at the end of the tunnel. Through counselling and the therapeutic relationship, you can learn to trust, open up and work through whatever issues are keeping you in the addiction. At Elmwood Centre our therapists can help develop the skills needed to cope in high risk situations, so that different choices can be made that will allow enhanced self-control, improved health, better self-respect and continued positive change. As Carl Jung said; “you are not what happened to you, you are what you choose to become”. If you would like to speak to one of our therapists in complete confidence click here to arrange an appointment.