Do you worry about addiction or substance misuse?

​The thing with drink and drugs is that they can be fun. If they weren't you wouldn't have started using them in the first place.

 

Because we tend not to pay attention to every moment in our lives, it can be easy to continue believing they're still fun even when you're well past that point - acting out of character when you're drunk / high, spending all of your money on a big night out on payday, or not remembering the last day you didn't have a drink for example. But just because you didn't notice how you got there doesn't mean you can't at any moment change that, and begin taking notice. 

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Once you've identified a problem it becomes a lot easier to change. And that change is led by you. Unlike AA, in counselling you aren't expected to completely abstain, instead you can choose to cut down to a point that doesn't feel problematic anymore.

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We often use alcohol and drugs to avoid feelings. These substances are after all literally designed to alter how we feel. But the problem is that whilst we can choose to use them to block one (negative) feeling, we might find them eventually blocking all feelings including the good ones, meaning we lose the ability to enjoy life.

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Therapy can help you to take a look at how and why you are using, and to create a clear path of what you want to change.