Substance Use
Your using has caused negative consequences in your life. You have tried to stop on your own, but found yourself obsessing and fighting the urges to use. You’ve made promises to stop or to cut back, but you have been unable to keep your word to yourself and to the people who love you. You’ve done things you aren’t proud of that make you feel badly about yourself. You wonder why you can’t stop or stay stopped on your own and shame yourself for being weak. Or maybe you have been able to cut back your using but want to gain other coping skills or work through the stuff that was leading to the using in the first place. Perhaps you identify as someone who likes to “party” and feel like this may be holding you back.
You can break free. You are not alone and your using doesn’t have to rule your life or keep you stuck anymore. There is true relief, joy and connection waiting for you.
You may have heard people say “I’m not better when I stop drinking, I’m worse”. This is often because drugs and alcohol is a form of self-medicating and “works” until it doesn’t. Certain fellowships do not view drugs or alcohol as the problem, but the solution. Dr. Gabor Mate states “we need not ask why the addiction but why the pain”.
Drinking and drugs can (temporarily) make us feel better and more confident. When substances are our go-to coping skill, we can develop an emotional dependency on them to feel okay which can grow into a physical dependency. In this case, a medical detox may be necessary, especially with certain substances that are particularly dangerous and even life threatening to withdrawal from. The absence of physical withdrawal symptoms do not need to be present for substance use to be a problem in one’s life.
Substance use can be a problem when:
You are unable to stop using despite negative consequences
Your use continues to escalate in duration, frequency and amount of substances
Your use interferes with our ability to meet our responsibilities
You engage in behaviors that violate your own morals and values
It is your only way of feeling better
Your use negatively impacts our relationships
You develop a physical dependence
You engage in behaviors while intoxicated that are harmful, negatively impact our self-esteem and interfere with our relationships
You constantly obsess about using and spend energy fighting our urges
Financial issues as a result of buying substances or missing responsibilities
You are not alone. You are not broken. You’re struggling. It doesn’t have to be like this forever. There is hope and we can help.
So many of us have this image in our mind of what it looks like to struggle with alcohol or drugs. We may imagine a person who lives under the bridge drinking out of a can wrapped in a paper baggy. Or we may imagine someone who is drinking all around the clock. This could not be further from the truth. Addiction or substance use problems affect people of all ages, from all walks of life and every socioeconomic status. Substance abuse can look differently for different people. For instance, one person may binge drink on the weekends, another may drink nightly, and another may drink around the clock. But one thing you may hear people who struggle with substance abuse say is “once I put a substance into my body, I cannot stop, or if I do stop, I cannot stay stopped”. In other words, some people may be able to stop for a while but find themselves returning to the same old harmful behaviors.
How Therapy Can Help
Substance abuse therapy can help you:
Identify your triggers to use
Learn how to manage your triggers in healthy ways
Work through unresolved traumas
Learn how to soothe yourself and emotionally regulate in healthy ways
Work through toxic shame
Build a recovery plan
Therapy offers the space for you to get honest with yourself and another person without any judgment. We view substance use as a solution to pain, disconnection and trauma. We work with you on exploring, identifying and creating a plan for recovery so you can gain some healthy control over your life and behaviors. We help you learn healthy ways of coping with your triggers and difficult feelings so you no longer have to be reliant on the old behaviors that have caused you immense pain and shame. We aim to support you working through the underlying issues that led you to reach for the drink or drug in the first place. We do not believe that recovery is the absence of substances. We believe recovery is building a life worth living, one you no longer need to escape from.. one where there is laughter and connection and the ability to live life on life’s terms.
Real Healing Counseling offers you a space that is nonjudgmental and safe to process your pain and tell your story.