Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services

Addiction: The How and Why of Addictive Thinking and Behavior

Most people believe that addiction is a complex and complicated set of issues to understand let alone change. In many ways, it can be both given the difficult and perplexing change(s) in what can become distorted thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Furthermore, it can be hard to comprehend how one goes from healthy and adaptive thinking and behavior to self-defeating thinking and self-destructive behavior. Moreover, trying to understand how addiction shapes neurological and biochemical changes in the brain and the nervous system (especially over time) can be next to impossible.

However, gaining deeper insight and understanding about why we think, feel, and act out in addiction does not have to be hard. Presented in an open and thorough manner one can look at not only their addictive thinking and behavior but more importantly the underlying cause(s)that drive addiction. Trauma, abuse, neglect, and abandonment issues either as a one time experience or as a continuing pattern over time almost always distorts our thinking which in turn creates and drives one's false sense of self. In other words, we try to navigate/manage our lives from a false and negative core belief system about ourselves, other people, and the world around us.

Addiction can have many contributing factors such as:

• Family history-intergenerational addictive issues that can lead to genetic predispositions.
• Habit energy-distorted thinking and behavioral patterns that are reinforced over time.
• Low self-esteem.
• Anxiety and Depression.
• Abandonment-trauma, abuse, and neglect.
• A pattern of choosing unhealthy relationships.
• Unrealized goals and dreams.