Am I Addicted?

How Much is too Much? All of us from time to time over-indulge but if it becomes a pattern we can find it impacting our life negatively. Frequent over-indulging is usually a way of coping, the question is often why am I feeling the need to escape? In fact, addiction put simply is a way or coping (or escaping) pain or discomfort although because it's unhealthy we call it maladaptive coping. There is no set quantity or frequency that signals a problem, we know its a problem when it impacts our life negatively. For example our relationships, health or finances are suffering or perhaps we have encountered legal problems. Generally the cycle we see is someone starts to feel guilt or shame over their over-indulgence which fuels a needs to escape these negative feelings and you end up in a spiraling generally worsening cycle.  A common misconception is that if your losing control of something you have to stop all together. This depends on many factors I have helped hundreds of clients adjust their use to become more manageable. However if attempts to manage your over-indulgence don't work you may have to stop for a while or quit for good. There is no one size fits all solution. The most important aspect is you can admit that your losing control and its getting away from you. This is a hard step but as I always say admitting a weakness takes courage so is therefore it is a sign of strength. If your concerned let's chat about it!

Jim Squire RP