Drug, Alcohol & Other Addictions Counselling
People can be addicted to all sorts of behaviours. Some addictions can be socially acceptable, such as addiction to work, and physical exercise, perhaps chocolate, while other addictions are not, such as binge drinking, gambling, alcoholism, use of crack cocaine heroine and other drugs. Any addictions can severely impact our lives in a negative way.
One important question to ask yourself is whether your addiction is adversely affecting your life, and or the life of those who are close to you, your partner, children friends or relatives. If the answer is yes then are you willing to do something about it ?
Regardless of what you are addicted to, there are certain common threads that characterise the addiction cycle that people experience.
See if you can spot these in your own life.
- The addictive impulse starts off fairly weak, but begins to get stronger as time goes by
- The more you try and resist, or suppress the addictive impulse, the stronger it gets until it then becomes overwhelming
- At the point it is overwhelming, you feel as if the addiction is in charge of you, rather than you being in charge.
- Once you give in to the addictive impulse the tension goes.
- You probably beat yourself up for giving in to it, feel guilt and shame and vow not to give in to it again.
- The cycle continues with the addictive impulses reoccurring, and you go through the cycle again.
I offer an integrated approach to addictions therapy, that includes Mindfulness based strategies for processing your addictive cravings and can help you to help break the addictive cycle. Also addictions are often a way for you to self medicate underlying issues, that can include trauma issues, loss, grief and bereavement and other issues as well.
If you have an addiction that you want to tackle, or are living with a person who has such an addiction, then you may wish to seek counselling from a drugs / addictions counsellor.
I offer addictions counselling in my private practise, and have experience of drugs counselling for a local agency. I am also a supervisor at a local drugs project.
I have counselled people who want to stop their binge drinking habit, who experience alcohol addiction, crack cocaine, and also those who wanted to stop their addiction to pornography.
I can advise you on how to access free Alcohol and / or drugs counselling and Detox through the NHS, as well as the private counselling that I offer.
Please see the Alcohol and Drugs links on this web site, and also my article on Drugs counselling
See also my Video Resources Guide as well. Government recommendations on alcohol use
The NHS recommends that you should not regularly drink more than 2-3 units per day (women) or 3-4 units per day (men). If you exceed these levels then you are likely to cause health issues. Also you can not ‘save up’ the units and use them in one session. This can be detrimental to you health. Detox and other treatments may be available from your NHS doctor, and if in doubt always consult your GP.