Addiction is a medical illness involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, environmental factors and individual life experiences.
Substances or behaviours which promised to mask a pain become compulsive and continue despite harmful consequences. Addictive behaviours may include gambling, eating, exercising, dieting, shopping, sex, risky behaviours, pornography, love and gaming. The preoccupation has caused personal problems and other mental health issues, such as depression and/or anxiety.
“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
Psychotherapy can alleviate physical symptoms of addictions, as well exploring the underlying cause of the disorder, processing the psychological pain that substances and behaviours attempt to remedy, exploring what has happened in your attachments and filling the inner emptiness in your life with healthy meaning and purpose rather than substances. New perspectives change old behaviours.