Alcohol / Smoking (substance abuse / addiction) Addiction Counselling and help
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Addiction Counselling:
Addiction has varied definitions with respect to the domains it deals with. It is essentially a sort of attachment or inability to overcome a certain reality related to a substance, or a behavior. Such tendencies often cause an individual a lot of impairment and trouble in their daily lives, because they are unable to function without the stimulus of the particular substance, or behavior. Some examples of addiction and addictive tendencies include:
Substance Addiction:
Alcohol Addiction
→ A legal option for recreation is alcohol, and sometimes, individuals forget to fasten the security of moderation with respect to alcohol consumption. This often leads to addictive tendencies, and a desire to placate any emotions by numbing them with inebriation. Alcohol dependence syndrome is a common consequence.
Smoking/ Nicotine Addiction
→ People often take up smoking as a ‘fashionable’ habit, but what they don’t realize is that nicotine has massive addictive tendencies associated with it. It is often extremely hard to give up smoking once adopted as a regular habit.
Drug Addiction
→ Whether legally prescribed or obtained through illegal processes, drugs and chemicals can be pretty addictive. They alter our moods and thought patterns and often make us crave for a re-initiation of the feeling induced, leading to addiction.
Behavioral Addiction:
Certain addictions may not be related to the consumption of certain substances. Some individuals get hooked to performing certain rituals or behaving in certain way. With the passage of time, they often can’t cope without these behaviors, and crave to fulfil the ‘void’ they feel with these tendencies. They include:
Pathological gambling/ Overspending
→ The desire for retail therapy, or for risk lead to overspending and gambling in copious amounts. A preoccupation with luxury, and the belief that luxury and material possessions are necessary to live comfortably lead to these tendencies, which are often hard to combat.
Sex addiction
→ When individuals start to harp on the importance of sexual liberation in unhealthy amounts, it often leads to obsessive thoughts about sex and sexual acts. In the long run, this can lead to an oversexualization of behavior in situations where it isn’t even considered appropriate.
WHY DO PEOPLE RESORT TO ADDICTIVE HABITS/ BEHAVIORS?
We can never say that an individual has chosen to resort to a particular coping method that is rooted in substance or behavior because they are ‘inherently’ inclined towards doing so. There may be certain circumstances affecting an individual that lead them to develop these behaviors. These include:
→ Simple curiosity
→ Peer-pressure (Drink the Kool Aid? Don’t drink the Kool Aid?)
→ A misunderstanding of ‘openness to experience’
→ Low self-esteem issues
→ Marital problems or problems at school
→ High stress levels
HOW DOES ADDICTION COUNSELLING HELP?
In cases of severe addiction to certain substances or behaviors, it becomes hard for an individual to kick these habits and live smoothly without them. They begin to think that these tendencies are an integral part of their lives, and that they cannot live without them. This is where Addiction Counselling plays its part.
Addiction Counsellors do not help people magically ‘cure’ their addictions. They talk to individuals and administer techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in order to focus on the beliefs that lead to the formation of perceptions about these addictions. This enables individuals to gradually realize that the tendencies they think are ‘imperative’ are actually maladaptive.
Thus, rather than helping to merey ‘kick’ addiction, Addiction counselling helps individuals understand how their own thoughts led to the development of these tendencies. Thus it helps individuals to understand their own behaviors by looking inward to see where these tendencies arise from within their minds.
How Can We Help With Addiction Counselling?
Our Trained Counselors use Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT in addiction counselling because it helps individuals to identify and correct problematic behaviors via the application of easy to use skills. CBT also helps to address underlying problems that often co-occur with an addiction, and this is important for helping to target the root cause(s). Our Psychologists will help you by teaching you techniques to interrupt the self-perpetuating cycle of an addiction. Counselling provides a new way for people with addictions to think, feel and act – remove troubled thinking and helping our clients to view difficult situations in a new light. This is important for helping our clients to maintain the change, which is often considered harder than stopping the addiction.