Recovery from addiction through counseling

Addiction

Addiction can have negative influence on every aspect of life, but it can be treated with the help of effective methods. People often confuse two different things and those are addictions and habits. However, sometimes something that seems like a harmless habit can become an addiction. There are numerous addictions and some of them are gambling, internet surfing, smoking, watching television, drinking, sex, etc. They can be developed due to distress, trauma or sometimes they can sneak into someone’s life without any reason.

How to reveal what behavior is an addictive one?

There are a few questions you should ask yourself about the specific behavior, for example, if you can stop doing something, if you could hold yourself back from that behavior for a week, or a month even, what kind of feelings are initiated when you do that, and if such behavior causes any problems or not. When you give answers to all these questions, but without lying, you will be able to reveal how severe your addiction is. You can also find out if you need counseling.

Therapy for addiction

Individual and group therapies are used to stop the addictive behavior. Both of these therapies have its different benefits. Individual therapy is done with a professional and it can help the person to acknowledge the addiction and to fight against it. Group therapy is helpful because of sharing experiences with other people who are also going through the therapy. Sometimes these therapies can be associated to give better results. Recovery is essential part of every therapy.

When it comes to drug addiction, there are specialized centers for treating this kind of behavior, they can provide adequate therapy and are very helpful in getting people free from drug abuse. The therapy will be efficient if the patient is motivated and if a therapist works on maintaining and even strengthening that motivation. The desire for getting rid of drug abuse can be increased by making a patient recognize the devastating results of drug abuse. Also, the patient should recognize that he is the only person responsible for his behavior, but that there is no room for feeling guilty. The patient should also realize what the gains of stopping with the drug abuse are.

The therapy begins immediately and the patient must not take drugs any more. This part of the therapy is very hard because patients are tormented by withdrawal symptoms. In this stage the patient must be in a safe environment and supervised, in order not to hurt himself or others. After this stage, the patient is ready to begin with the counseling and practicing some relaxation techniques such as meditation. Here, the patient learns how to restrain himself from drugs and this lasts about 2 to 3 months. After this period of time, a patient will be able to continue with his life in a new, refreshing way and implement in everyday life all that he has learned during the treatment.