That’s right. The liberating sense of freedom and feelings of confidence that arise from stopping addictive behaviour can bring renewed self worth and a joyful life. Not in some passing self-help fleeting kind of way, but in a genuine feeling of this is how life is meant to feel way.

Addictions arise in many guises. There are countless addictions. Addictions to sex, materialism, drugs, gambling, body image, and countless other general addictions plague our materialistic, narcissistic society. Cultural influences aside, we all have our own reasons for struggling with various vices.

Addictions are misguided attempts to regulate and manage how we feel. More specifically, they usually developed as an attempt to avoid feeling something. Be that the depression, anxiety, or countless other troubles, avoidance feeling always leads to feeling worse than the intended avoided behaviour.

Addictions are our replacement attempts to mask and deal with our earlier childhood attachment needs. And it is to feel in control, secure and held. Many people with serious addictive behaviours struggle to develop genuinely felt connections and intimate relationships with other human beings.

That is why, 12 step programs have a lot of value to many addictive behaviours. Individual psychotherapy and Buddhist psychotherapy in particular, coupled with hypnotherapy and various counselling approaches with one therapist can actually help addicted people to develop healthy dependency needs and reduce and eliminate their maladaptive addictions.

If you live in the Brighton, Melbourne, area I can help you overcome addictions if you are ready and willing to work through your issues. Or if you can’t get to brighton, we can have online counselling sessions via Skype.