Addiction

A behaviour of yours that was, at one point, a pastime or a hobby has now become compulsive; so much so that you severely compromise other areas of your life to accommodate it. You feel like you can't stop and that you have lost all control of the habit.

Addictions can come in as many forms as there are behaviours; some behaviours lend themselves better to becoming addictions. You could have a gambling addiction, a drug addiction, an alcohol addiction (alcoholism), a shopping addiction, a sex addiction, a video game addiction or even a reading addiction - if the behaviour has begun to damage other important areas of your life, such as your marriage, your work or your social life, then you are probably addicted.

Addictions Counselling

Existential Psychotherapy considers addictions within the context of your life. Much of our work will be exploring other avenues of your world and then finding out how they relate to or are affected by your addiction. Addictions are a failure to enjoy the object of the addiction - someone with an addiction to online gaming is not having a genuine engagement with the game, but is in fact moving away from something else in their life. Only by approaching the total picture of your life can we start to discover what motivates you away from engagement and towards addiction.

Existential addictions counselling is not about you completely stopping the addictive behaviour, it is not about describing how bad a problem it is and it is not about us spending week after week evaluating how close you are to giving up your addiction. The premise of existential counselling is that, ultimately, the decision is yours to make. Through the therapy, you will be given help through a more complete picture of the motivations that have fuelled your addiction.

If you would like to book in for addictions counselling then e-mail me at info@counselling-brighton.co.uk or call 07714 324542 to arrange your first psychotherapy session in either Brighton, Hove or Horsham.

Addiction Articles

Below is a list of articles concerning addiction. These are all links to external sites and should provide a wider understanding of addiction:

Drug Abuse and Addiction: Signs, Symptoms, and Help for Drug Problems and Substance Abuse, by Melinda Smith and Joanne Saisan.

The Escape Factor and Sexual Addiction: Joe Zychik gives his views of sex addiction as a flight from intimacy, and discusses some of the key factors of addiction treatment, including the importance of appropriate addictions counselling.

Shopping Spree or Addiction: Heather Hatfield looks at compulsive spending and addiction to shopping - discussing both the warning signs as well as some of the initial steps to recovery from addiction.