Latest articles on counselling and therapy

As a drugs worker, I spent many years visiting people in prison who were addicted to heroin and crack cocaine, in order to help them get treatment. Unless they were in treatment, the chances were that as soon as they would get out of prison they would reoffend, to get money (usually through theft), and then re-use and sometimes overdose. The magnetic programming and pull of decades of deeply-ingrained habit ends up being impossible to resist. The excitement, the anticipation and the elaborate...

Through experience of working in a substance misuse agency it has become clear that a vast majority of individuals in the midst of addiction have undiagnosed mental health conditions such as generalised anxiety disorders, OCD, depression, social anxiety disorders. This list is far from exhaustive... The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reports that there is a"definite connection between mental illness and the use of addictive substances". Often the condition comes to light once the...

If you find that you easily become angry, depressed, anxious or feel panic in response to life events, then you might be struggling to balance emotions and DBT could help.  DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) involves a number of simple skills to help manage life situations. A counsellor can teach you some of these skills and they might help to stop your anger, depression, anxiety or panic from becoming out of control. S   T   O   P  or the 'stop skill'...

Perhaps you have just left treatment, along with a continued plan for recovery that seems rather lightweight in the wake of peer support from which you have just been separated?Maybe you are feeling alone, very anxious about the immense task of personal recovery that lies before you? Undoubtedly your relationship with drugs, alcohol or gambling has seemed like a huge life crutch upon which you have become dependent; to the extent that there has been little if any control. Your addiction has...

As people, we seem to live by the habits we form, and often these help to form structure in our daily lives. Habits do sometimes become dangerous, however, such as the addictive habits of using drugs, alcohol, food or gambling in response perhaps to life difficulties or to make yourself feel better. Habits like these are not easy to change. Think about your own lifestyle for a moment – I imagine there are things that you like doing when you get up in the morning, like having a cup of tea...

This is a type of addiction that is not as widely known but can still be as debilitating as other high profile addictions. Ultimately, the addiction can keep the individual stuck in despair for a very long time. It also operates at a very unconscious level which makes it quite difficult for the person to recognise and identify. It is not as visible as other addictions. For instance, there is no bottle or syringe, only an array of broken dreams, relationships and aspirations. The addiction...

Changing anxious habits or behaviours can be very challenging. While many of us would prefer to seek instant solutions to break old habits, this can often lead to frustration and disappointment. For one reason or another most of us have felt trapped in a pattern of anxious thinking and behaving that disrupts our progress. We may feel caught by our own impulses and defensive reactions to situations, or imprisoned by anxious thoughts and preoccupations. We are often our own worst enemies: making...

The root of any addiction or compulsion is deprivation: deep-seated, buried, chronic deprivation. The link is often not apparent at first, and the idea of losing the need to control to gain control might seem too contradictory to fathom - especially when we are in the midst of a painful addiction. If we were to peel back, one layer after another, to the root of what now seems to be an unruly beast, we often find a tender seed of deprived need. Sometimes, the link is clear. Perhaps as a child...

It’s hard to talk about the effects of growing up with parental addiction despite much more evidence showing us the long-term impact this can have. There is still so much shame around this experience and the need to protect the family often makes it very hard to acknowledge the effects. One in three people are addicted to something; it is a reality our society struggles to acknowledge given that the figures are staggering. Often children blame themselves when they can’t make sense...