Addiction and dysfunctional relationships provide a dizzying array of interactions that are sometimes daunting to comprehend, let alone resolve. Each person’s role in the affiliation shifts and changes depending on their habitual means of viewing the world, as well as their entrenched communication styles. Based in part on family-of-origin patterns, in addition to learned behaviors,…
DetailsLove addiction is a complicated thing. It can take a lot of different forms and can cause someone to behave in a variety of damaging ways. It may seem counterintuitive that someone addicted to love would cheat on a partner, but it happens more than you might think. Love addiction and cheating too often go…
DetailsResearch into hypnosis as a treatment tool for addiction has shown that this alternative practice can help some people. Results are mixed, though, and it seems that the strategy is best used as a tool within a more traditional and comprehensive approach to addiction treatment. If you’re interested in trying it, work with the professionals…
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Being addicted to love sounds pleasant enough, but it can have seriously negative consequences. Love addiction prevents you from finding real love, establishing healthy relationships and enjoying your life to the fullest. Understanding love addiction and taking concrete steps to change the way you interact in relationships will help you move forward. You may even…
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Becky R. believes in miracles. How else can she explain the change in her life from two years ago when she heard a judge say these words after her arrest for selling ecstasy to an undercover agent: “You will spend a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 45 in the Illinois Department of…
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When Paul* traces the history of his troubled relationship with marijuana, he points to a moment from early childhood. “It was 1976 and we were at a lake we went to every weekend, and I remember someone was smoking pot on a different boat and the smell wafted across and I said, ‘What is that?’…
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About the fifth morning of his stay at addiction rehab, an unusual thing happened to Basim H. He awoke with a smile on his face. “A kind of happiness had returned to me,” he remembered, “and that’s when I started realizing that all the drinking and drugs I’d been using for so long — I…
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When she was in her teens, Shannon R. began searching for “something magical to help me be happy every day.” Marijuana, though enjoyable, wasn’t enough. Ecstasy was “tons of fun, but I never felt like, ‘Oh my God, I want to do this every day.’” And mushrooms and other psychedelics unnerved her. Then when she…
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Recovery from drug or alcohol abuse or a process addiction isn’t always a neat and tidy process. Relapse is common and many addiction professionals believe it to be a natural part of the process. Just like people with chronic conditions like hypertension, asthma and diabetes slip up in their ongoing recovery regime, so do people…
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