Therapy Provides Understanding of Why the Addiction Happened

​

Without an understanding of why the addiction happened, people can fall into the trap of believing that there is ‘something wrong with them’.  Apart from just being untrue, this belief saps their confidence, their self-esteem and their belief that they can change things for themselves.

​

Unfortunately, despite all the evidence to the contrary, people with addictive behaviours often believe that they are ‘weak willed’ or ‘morally flawed’  or, in some other way, just ‘bad people’.    It is no wonder that people can be reluctant to seek help. 

​

Therapy can provide information about the neurobiology of addiction so you will understand how your brain came to rely on these behaviours and how it can make it so tricky for you to permanently give them up.  We can learn how behaviours,  that you now  experience as harmful, came into being as perhaps a way of self-soothing or even as a psychological survival strategy – not ‘bad’, but ‘necessary’.    We can also consider how our societal attitude to addictions, as well as the misunderstandings, can add to our shame and self-criticism which then leads to further addictive behaviour. 

​

While addictive behaviours can feel irrational, in fact people learn that they are really understandable and the explanation is far wider than the individual person themselves.