 e
live in a society in which our access to sources of pleasure
is virtually unlimited. This sounds like a good thing, except
that one's search for gratification
can interfere with overall functioning. When eating, drinking
or smoking is involved, the term addiction is
used because gratification is derived from a substance which
is somehow consumed. When an activity is the source
of gratification—i.e., shopping, having sex or gambling—the
term compulsivity is used.
The most compassionate and
effective psychotherapeutic model regards addictions and compulsions
as coping strategies gone awry: an individual's attempts to
solve emotional difficulties that have become problematic themselves.
Exploring the process of emotional regulation which they serve
enables one to re-discover the key element of choice and to
meet the underlying needs in more productive ways. Thus one
can not only become sober or clean through recovery but grow
into a more fully-realised human being. |
