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Re: Addictions

On Thu, 3 Oct 1996 21:39:58 -0600 (MDT), you wrote:

>My first post to this group.  I've been reading the very interesting
>discussions here for some weeks, now, and couldn't resist commenting on the
>addictions discussion.
>
>Until a couple years ago, I worked as a psychotherapist in inpatient
>addictions programs at a state psychiatric hospital.  I can confirm the
>asertion that it is extremely draining work for therapists.  I didn't
>realize how burned out I was until I left it for another job in the computer
>field.  Learning some NLP, hypnosis, and various other newer approaches did
>make my work much easier, more enjoyable, and provided a much healthier
>perspective on helping these people.  These methods were also far more
>effective than the more traditional ones.
>
>Regarding the comment that these people seem to transfer their addictions
>from substances to relationships in the absence of substances - very true.
>
>Regarding the comment that people with addictions problems seem to have
>background with lots of trauma which eventually leads to their return to
>substance abuse - definitely. After searching for several years for
>something to effectively deal with their trauma, I discovered EMDR (Eye
>Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).  I found this method to be
>vastly more effective and elegant than anything else I tried, including
>NLP's Fast Phobia/Trauma Cure, hypnosis, etc.  Also, for those who are
>interested, it has an ever growing body of sound scientific research to
>support it.  No one's yet come up with a plausible explanation for why or
>how it produces it's results, but work it does.
>
>So, there it is.  My first post to this NLP group and I've just proposed
>that EMDR is superior to anything NLP has to offer for trauma resolution.
>
>Looking forward to the responses,
>Dave DiRito
>
>
>
As is occasionally stated in the newsgroup and in NLP material, potential
clients should be referred to a competent physician for a comprehensive
checkup. This is especially true for alcoholic/addicts. While many of these
clients are drinking/using to mask some emotional issue, a percentage of this
population have physical problems that a checkup could uncover such as
chemical imbalance induced depression, an improperly functioning nervous
system or other treatable physical problems and are self medicating with
alcohol/drugs. Taking away the medication does nothing to address the need for
some relief and this may account for many of the "failures" that result from
trying to treat this population with just therapy.

Rule out physical causes before treating alcoholism/addiction "as if" it were
a mental illness.


Joseph Christie <christij@unix.asb.com>    |  Ye shall know the truth,
       /^^^\       CFC                     |  and the truth shall make
      ( @ @ )      PO Box 715              |  you mad.
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