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Process-oriented psychotherapy |
Founder of Process-Oriented Psychotherapy Dr Arnold Mindell's general view of addiction (as per http://www.anzpop.org/newsarticles/addictions):
"Addiction is a particular trance state that is dangerous to our physical or emotional health or to those around us. As noted above, we all have addictive tendencies, but only some of us have actual addictions. If you have an addiction, it is a very serious business, and there is something suicidal in it as well.
For example, if you have an addictive tendency toward eating sweets, are they dangerous? Are they actually physically bad for your health? They may be dangerous only in borderline situations. For example, if you have diabetes and you consume foods with sugar, I would call that behavior an addiction. Smoking is an addiction, and everybody knows it is overtly dangerous. If you are worried about addictive tendencies, then that is the time to unfold them and listen to their full message.
We Get Addicted to Those Parts of Our Personalities That Are Disavowed Why can't people stop doing things that are dangerous to them? I don't believe there is one reason, any more than I believe there is one particular therapy that works for everyone. But one point seems certain, regardless of the particular addiction: We get addicted to those parts of our personality that we have disavowed or which we are shy about integrating. The addiction tries to give us access to that part. If we don't explore the inner composition of the addiction—the unacknowledged parts of ourselves—then we will remain at the mercy of the substance and never get the message.
If you have an addiction, you are addicted to a part of yourself that you need desperately. John Bradshaw has also talked about being addicted to sex while he was in the monastery. That was a part of himself which he had ignored. We can't get away from being whole! If you want to be one-sided, which everybody tries to do, the other side has to come up. One of the main ways that the “down side” comes up is through an addictive tendency. It is not actually the substance that we need—very few people are happy about their substance addictions. I have almost never met a person who is happy about needing an addictive substance. It is not the substance; it is the message that is trying to get us".
"Addiction is a particular trance state that is dangerous to our physical or emotional health or to those around us. As noted above, we all have addictive tendencies, but only some of us have actual addictions. If you have an addiction, it is a very serious business, and there is something suicidal in it as well.
For example, if you have an addictive tendency toward eating sweets, are they dangerous? Are they actually physically bad for your health? They may be dangerous only in borderline situations. For example, if you have diabetes and you consume foods with sugar, I would call that behavior an addiction. Smoking is an addiction, and everybody knows it is overtly dangerous. If you are worried about addictive tendencies, then that is the time to unfold them and listen to their full message.
We Get Addicted to Those Parts of Our Personalities That Are Disavowed Why can't people stop doing things that are dangerous to them? I don't believe there is one reason, any more than I believe there is one particular therapy that works for everyone. But one point seems certain, regardless of the particular addiction: We get addicted to those parts of our personality that we have disavowed or which we are shy about integrating. The addiction tries to give us access to that part. If we don't explore the inner composition of the addiction—the unacknowledged parts of ourselves—then we will remain at the mercy of the substance and never get the message.
If you have an addiction, you are addicted to a part of yourself that you need desperately. John Bradshaw has also talked about being addicted to sex while he was in the monastery. That was a part of himself which he had ignored. We can't get away from being whole! If you want to be one-sided, which everybody tries to do, the other side has to come up. One of the main ways that the “down side” comes up is through an addictive tendency. It is not actually the substance that we need—very few people are happy about their substance addictions. I have almost never met a person who is happy about needing an addictive substance. It is not the substance; it is the message that is trying to get us".
