Addiction

Understanding Addiction

If you're here, you know what it's like to want desperately to stop but find yourself pulled back again and again. The shame cycle that makes everything worse. The feeling that everyone else can just "choose" to stop while you can't seem to figure out what's wrong with you.

But here's what might surprise you: addiction isn't a willpower problem. There are deeper forces that drive addiction. Often, addiction is complicated by other problems such as trauma, anxiety, or depression. Understanding these forces and patterns changes everything.

What you'll discover:

• Why your brain craves substances and drives destructive behaviors

• How to understand addiction clinically rather than succumbing to shame,

  hopelessness, and rationalization

• How other mental health problems interact with and fuel addiction

• What drives craving, temptation, and relapse

• How to treat addiction strategically, specifically, and effectively

• How to enhance and sharpen motivation to change

• How to build an enduring life of recovery and prevent relapse

It can be so difficult and confusing to again and again use a destructive substance or engage in a behavior that harms us and loved ones.

Misunderstanding addiction can lead to:

• Thinking that you are simply “choosing” the addictive behaviors

• Down-playing or rationalizing the addiction

• Shameful thinking that addiction is a personal failing or character defect

• Others misunderstanding, judging, or minimizing your problem

Depending on your stage in the process, you can be wondering:

• If it is really a problem

• What you want to do

• How to change it

• How to make it stick, even if you tried before

I'm comfortable working with addiction in all its forms - substances, behaviors, and the mental health issues that often come with them. Every person teaches me something new, and I believe everyone deserves therapy that addresses the whole picture.