Addiction Decoded: How to Heal from Behaviors that Harm You

Today, let’s jump right into a very tender and shame-based challenge so many of my clients face: addiction.

Believe it or not, addiction is a coping skill that helps you feel temporary relief from a belief that you’re unlovable and unworthy or other painful emotions. 

Addiction takes you out of painful emotions like rejection or abandonment. Addiction does this very well–at first. But after a time (sometimes weeks or even years and decades), your addiction begins to have consequences—which can also range from mild to severe, like:

• Health conditions or diagnoses, from diabetes (if food might be your addiction), to lung cancer (if you smoke.)
• Destroyed relationships.
• Job loss.
• Getting arrested or spending time in jail.
• Injury or even death (like from a car accident when driving drunk.)
• Feeling anxious all the time.
• Financial troubles.
• Never feeling at peace with yourself or satisfied with your life as it is.

Even saying those consequences out loud can feel shameful and scary. But it’s imperative to tell the truth about a dependency without judgement if we ever hope to change it.

Interestingly, whatever chemical or behavior we find ourselves dependent on is actually your brain’s best effort to help you feel safe, loved, secure, and taken care of when you couldn’t get that crucial nurturing from anywhere else.

As humans, we ALL need to feel loved, connected, and safe to survive. 

If you don’t have safe people, places, and things in your life to provide this security, you’ll acquire it from unsafe sources that harm you more than help you in the long run.

There is NO shame in having those foundational needs. The key to transforming addiction is to first get your mind to understand that fact.

Hypnotherapy works with your brain as a powerful way to transform addiction. In the hypnotherapy process, we:

1. Discover when and where and why you have a core message that you’re not worthy of love, safety, touch, nurturing, or belonging.
2. Find ways to communicate with that wounded part of you (usually a much younger version of yourself) and help them accept and integrate the love you deserve.
3. Create new core beliefs—that you are lovable and worthy to receive nurturing, nourishment, time, or whatever else feels lacking in your life.
4. Discover, cultivate, and practice NEW behaviors that create a similar sense of safety, acceptance, love, touch, or worthiness as your drug of choice.
5. Provide accountability and reinforcement for the new actions, so they feel sustainable.

It sounds so simple, right? And in fact it is. But easy and simple are two different concepts. 

As the process rolls out, you’ll have to learn to sit with uncomfortable feelings and memories that may come up.

 Which often requires help, gentleness, and a lot of patience as you rewire your brain.

I record all of my client sessions, so that they can listen to them over and over again in difficult times during this “learning curve.” And, I typically do several follow-up sessions with each client to continue the healing evolution in the mind.

Overcoming addiction is a big deal that requires desire and inner work. When you’re ready to learn more about the process, I invite you to read my book, You Are Not Broken.

You can order a copy by clicking the title You Are Not Broken anywhere in this post. 

And, when you purchase the book, I’ve got a BONUS to help continue your recovery journey: 

Bonus: During the next few months, I’ll be offering a discount on a Hypnotherapy package for anyone from my mailing list that purchases my book and leaves a review.  Simply send me an email with a screenshot of your review and proof of your book purchase, and I’ll send you a discount code for your package. 

Several FREE meditations that introduce you to hypnotherapy and how it can help you make the changes you want to see in your life: 

• Release Self-Doubt and Limiting Beliefs: Hypnosis to Embrace Your Wholeness
• Release Guilt and Self-Doubt: Guided Hypnosis for Inner Peace
• Morning Meditation for Confidence and Presence
• Hypnosis for Inner Resilience and Self-Worth
• Sleep Hypnosis for Self-Healing, Inner Strength, and Emotional Release
• Morning Meditation to Connect with Your Higher Self and Inner Child
• Self Trust and Confidence Deep Sleep Meditation
• Somatic Meditation to Ground, Cleanse, and Release Emotions
• Mind Body Healing Visualization Meditation
• Morning Meditation for Self-Care
• Yoga Nidra for Self-Trust and Transformation
• Mountain of Confidence Sleep Meditation
• Mind Body Healing Visualization Meditation

Shame keeps you in an addictive spiral. Being willing to face your shame takes courage, but it is only the light that makes shame disappear. Come with me. Let’s shine the light on your healing together. 

You. Can. Do. This.

Sara