We are all addicted to something, some addictions are better than others... Blog #2
As a therapist and a coach, one of my 5 specialisation is addiction. I didn’t choose this, it has chosen me, out of my extensive personal experience. I have been addicted for 25 years in various capacity to cigarettes, alcohol, all the drugs in the world I could possibly put my hands on, sugar, sex, porn, raw meat, television, social medias, violence, control (OCD), overthinking, overworking, overtraining, overpartying, resentment, guilt, shame, anger, fear, sadness, pleasure and pain…
Although I also specialise in anxiety, depression, self sabotage and empowering people, when we understand the highly addictive nature of us humans, addiction explains pretty much everything we need to know about most mental, emotional and many medical imbalances. Here is how this works.
We are creatures of habits
The brain’s primary job is to protect us so it creates a comfort zone in which to keep us safe. As far as the brain is concerned anything with a track record is deemed safe. The brain doesn’t care wether we are happy or healthy, just safe. And that explains why if someone has been injecting heroin into their eyeball with a needle for long enough and are still alive for example, they will find it counter intuitive and very difficult to stop, as their subconscious mind associates a feeling of homeliness with it and always encourages us to keep doing what feels safe and homely…
We are creatures of emotions
The most overlooked aspect of us is our emotional side. Emotions and feelings are the way the body processes informations. Per se, everything we think creates chemical reactions in our body to reflect those pictures and words with sensations. Cascades of neurotransmitters and hormones are triggered at a thought and give us our humanity, by making us feel those thoughts.
In that light our body is internal biochemistry and once again, whatever state we have been nurturing is deemed safe as far as the brain is concerned. So if we have felt miserable, fearful or helpless for long enough and we are still alive, that will be the normal default mode for us to return to, our automatic pilot, our sense of identity.
We are creatures of addiction
Now here is the big secret about addiction: we are not addicted to things and habits, we are addicted to the emotions and feelings those things and habits offer us. We are addicted to our emotional chemical “normal” state, that automatic pilot, that sense of identity. Whatever may disrupt that normality is perceived as danger and disallowed by the brain.
And that is why when a client comes to see me for a problem, the problem is never the problem but the symptom of a deeper imbalance manifesting itself through that addiction. So if we only address the “problem” we are cutting one head of Hydra only to allow for another one to grow somewhere else. While most traditional psychotherapy protocol look at the smoke, with RTT we address the actual fire.
Another secret of the addiction industry lies in the title “industry”. One of my very first client was a 30 years cocaine user. I fixed him in 1 session. On Skype. With RTT. That costed him a fraction of what he would have spent in money and time at a conventional rehab hospital, with a success that has rejuvenated not only his health but also saved his relationship and allows him now a life without boundaries. Ever since I have lost count of the amount of clients that have triumphed over their addiction at my practice (including weight loss).
High on life !!!
So once I have removed the need for addiction from my clients, there are 2 options. They can either go their own way and start a new lease of life free of addiction, or they can decide to allow me to empower them furthermore with extra mindset and mindfulness coaching. I offer them a paradigm shift, a whole new cornucopia of addictions, unleashing abundance of happiness, love, creativity, connection and success. Once we have found and mastered inner peace we really want to cultivate and master the peaks of joy, connection and purpose. To paraphrase my mentor Marisa Peer :” You can never know what your potential is because once your mind has moved to new dimensions and new behaviours it will never go back”. We want to continually expand that potential. We want to be high on life. So high that we could eat stars !!!