Addiction

The shame is intense and increasingly intolerable.

The moment you open your eyes in the morning, the memory of last night comes rushing back.

The commitment you made to yourself that you weren’t going to do it again…

…only to be followed by temptation, indulgence, repetition, compulsion…

…and regret. Always regret.

It’s one thing to engage in a specific behavior.

It’s another when that behavior takes over and is calling the shots.

Drinking is fun – until your day becomes about getting to 5pm so you can start again.

Shopping is a blast – until you’re dipping into your 401K to pay your credit card bills.

Weed mellows you out – until you’re so mellow you can’t manage to get off the couch and finish that work project.

Moderation in all things – sure. But some of us can’t make that work consistently.

Or we’re already in so deep that we passed moderation miles back and are now drowning in the waters of something else – something worse.

And then there is the shame.

What we did doesn’t just involve us anymore – it impacts our partners and children, friends, and family.

But the shame just drives us back to the unmanageable behavior. To make the intolerable feeling go away, and to crawl back into the recesses of our minds, we go back to it.

Whatever the problem behavior, it is always an attempt to find relief – until it is the thing that is actually causing the pain.

The cycle is never ending. “I use to stop feeling, I feel because I use, I use to stop feeling…”

It’s time to end the cycle.

There isn’t one size that fits all – recovering from an addiction can look very different from person to person.
For some, moderation is achievable – but how you pursued it in the past didn’t work because you didn’t have the right tools. Therapy gives you those tools.

For others, Abstinence is necessary – but there are a lot of different ways to get there:
AA, Dharma Punx, Smart Recovery, Refuge Recovery and others.

We work with you to find the right fit – the right program, the right process. And then we work within that process to help you become – and stay – sober.

Regardless of your path to recovery, addiction can cause a lot of collateral damage. Therapy is just one of multiple tools to help you clean up the mess and live a healthy, meaningful life.

When you’re ready to make a change, call to set up a 15-minute phone consultation.