Understanding Addiction

Living with an addiction can limit your potential, your freedom and your happiness. This is mainly because a person's reliance on drugs, alcohol or other addictions to deal with everyday stressors prevents them from maturing and attaining new skills that they would otherwise develop if they were dealing with life’s stressors in a more natural way.
Dramatic lifestyle changes can cause tremendous fear and insecurity in a person who has relied on an addictive substance to cope with the everyday stresses of life. Outside pressures surrounding the addiction begin to mount and the pain and discomfort in the patient begin to increase. This mounting pressure frequently results in relapse.
Without help, an addict is ill-equipped to handle the many stressors and emotions involved in living a sober life and often this alone can lead to relapse. The hopeless feeling caused by the addict’s creates a condition of mind and body that is truly painful. Any person who has the courage to enter into the recovery process must develop a real understanding of the depth of their illness and the long-term process of recovery before they can become truly successful in life. A failure to understand and treat the depth of the illness is why addicts or alcoholics frequently relapse, and where professional help can mean the difference between sinking deeper or getting clean for good.

It is the underlying illness that must be treated, not the symptom of the drug or alcohol abuse that needs addressing. Treating the physical symptoms is a poor substitute for developing a quality of life that will be authentic and have meaning. Scientists who study alcoholics have stated that addicts and alcoholics who don’t identify and treat their underlying problems may get to a point in sobriety where they actually must drink in order to preserve their sanity. For this reason, professional help from a qualified therapist specializing in addictions with a focus on relapse prevention is essential.