Addictions and Self Awareness

I have always been accutely aware that many of my clients come to me for treatment for their addictions but they are requesting a conditional recovery. The condition is that we do not at any point go into the causes of that addiction. I have also noted that those clients who make the fullest recovery are those who are prepared to enter fully into the original or current pain and work on that as the focus of their therapy.

'Addiction involves leaving our bodies in a way that takes away self-awareness, helping us flee from what we are experiencing' Christine Caldwell, from Getting our Bodies Back - Recovery, Healing and Transformation through Body-Centred Psychotherapy)

We flee from our pain in many ways, some obvious, some subtle. Obvious addictions are alcohol, drugs, food but what about the other ways we take ourselves away from self-awareness? What about TV, Computer Games, even running or the gym? Check your intent in any of these activities - is it to do something mind numbing?

When I watch TV I know it is to zone out and not to think or feel anything. Not a problem if I do that as R&R for an hour a day but what about the couch potato lifestyle where the TV goes on in the morning and is not turned off until bedtime?

When I run I use it as a form of mindful medidation where I switch on all my senses and focus on each step and each moment. I do remember an evening when I was upset and I ran fast and hard to take away the pain. My intent was to not think or feel anything.

So what is the alternative to our addictions, our distractions, our crutches? To be there,fully present in the moment, to access the pain and feel it. To notice it and rather than avoid it, analyse it and really understand it. But we fear this process and avoid it. We want to remain strong, maybe not to cry or shout or scream, but which is the weaker? Feeling the pain or avoiding the pain?