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ADDICTIONS AND CO-DEPENDENCY
Addiction can ruin lives and families, but there's hope for those suffering from addictive affects of drugs, alcohol, sex, relationships, work or any other damaging influence.
We are addicted to something when we loose your ability to say "no" to it. The internal emotional and spiritual process is the same regardless of the object of addiction. At some point in life, the thing that used to be "just" alcohol or sex or the enjoyment of relationships took on a life of it's own and started controlling our life.
The Center offers assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for a variety of addictive behaviors including:
- Alcohol Addiction: Many who struggle with alcohol dependence and abuse do not fit the stereotypical idea of homeless alcoholic on the street. Every day people all across the country get up, go to work, and generally present the facade to those around them that everything is fine. Inside their experience and inside their family, things are very different. The broken trust, eroded respect, and out-of-control behavior threaten to destroy all that is good in life.
- Drug Addiction: Whether to cocaine, marijuana, prescription drugs, methamphetamine, or any of a host of other substances many of us get from one day to the next by attempting to artificially control our mood, emotions, energy level, despair, and closest relations through the use of chemicals. We feel powerless to stop the destructive cycle of drug abuse, yet we know, somewhere deep inside, that the process is slowly killing us and alienating us from those we love.
- Sexual Addiction: Although relatively new on the addiction scene, the incidence of sexual addiction has grown exponentially with the advent of print, videographic, and internet pornography. Individuals become addicted to the brian chemicals produced by lust, fantasy, the pursuit of pornography and relational intrigue. Sexual addiction can exist underground for years while systematically destroying one's ability to engage in fulfilling and satisfying relationships.
- Food Addiction: In this addiction, individuals use the comfort of eating in an attempt to fill up an emotional void inside. For a while it works ...eating can make us feel better temporarily. But overeating also erodes our self-respect, our physical health, and our social confidence. Not all people with an addiction to food are significantly overweight. Some people are addicted to both food and exercise, or binge eating and purging, for example. Regardless of the particular constellation of addictive behaviors, food addiction is damaging both emotionally and physically because it is a form of bondage and represents having lost control in an area you have to face every day of your life.
- Codependency: Can a person really be addicted to relationships, to other people? If so, is this a bad thing? Enjoying an interdependent, mutually respectful, fulfilling relationship is a gift from God. Being obsessed with another person or the idea of a relationship with them distorts the human capacity for relatedness. In co-dependency, others have control over us because we care more about their needs and feelings than our own. Although the classic definition of codepencency describes someone who "enables" an addicted partner, codependency can now be understood as a relational style that leaves it's victims exhausted, confused, guilty, overwhelmed, and believing that everything is somehow their fault.
There's relief, hope, and healing available for people struggling with addiction and their families. The Center has therapists who specialize in the treatment addictions and codependency. Don't wait for things to get worse. Call us today for an appointment.
LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION :