Addictions: physical vs psychological and can hypnosis help?

The last month has just FLOWN by with barely a minute to breath, let alone blog. :)  But I guess that's what summers are made for, right?

Lately, the old Nature / Nurture or Genetics / Environment controversy has been rattling around in my brain. How much of each controls WHO we are? And the reason this has been rattling around my brain is because my older sister's youngest has made some really BAD decisions lately that have landed him in a heap of trouble. Decisions that I wonder if he had known the full extent of the biological history on his mother's side of the family he might have avoided (if he was smart).

You see, our grandfather was an alcoholic when our mother was growing up. Mom (born in 1931) was the eldest of 5 kids, and as such she ended up taking care of the others. She used to tell me how the post master mistook her youngest sister for her baby because of the age difference. (Mom's youngest sister wasn't much older than her first daughter, my sister.) Anyway, so yea, Mom had the whole "children of alcoholics" thing going on. (There were some other things going on too, but we'll get to those it other posts. :>)

On that side of the family, several uncles had alcohol problems and then several cousins (not even those of alcoholic uncles) had problems with drugs.  So you can see where the "physical addiction" part of the post is coming from.

There has been a lot of research done that established a genetic predisposition for addictions. Physical addictions. What they've found is that those with this genetic predisposition have a much higher tolerance for alcohol (or drugs) than those who do not develop a physical addiction as readily. That means they have to use more to get off on whatever it is. So, if there's that wild hair gene in your family history (however buried people may have tried to make it) then you definitely need to be aware of it and certainly keep that in mind when you're imbibing in whatever vice of your choice because if you do become physically addicted, you will have to work harder to break it and stay away from it than someone who did not have that genetic predisposition for addictions to begin with. And just to make things interesting, there's a tie between that alcoholic addiction gene and craving sweets.   And yea, some of my aunts weren't alcoholics, but there was definitely something going on with the sweet tooth. ;>

Then there's the psychological side of addictions. Even without a "physical" addiction, those with addictive personalities can become addicted to ANYTHING. These are the folks you're hearing about becoming addicted to sex, addicted to the Internet, addicted to Internet sex, addicted to whatever, you name it. And those type of "addictions" we seem to hear more and more about these days.

Most addictions that we commonly think of (smoking, alcohol, drugs) are a combination of a physical addiction and a psychological (or behavioral) one. And I can attest to that from a first had basis because before stopping smoking with hypnosis, I had both problems. But I also knew that once I managed to get my smoke count to 10 or below a day, then I was just dealing with the psychological addiction because the nicotine addiction was gone (or close to gone) by that point. And I did it using my own stop smoking CD. :)

Can hypnosis help with addictions? Yes. That's why the AMA has endorsed hypnosis as a treatment to stop smoking since 1958. Hypnosis can help remove the psychological addiction and support you as you break the physical addiction. But, like any type of therapy, YOU have to be the one who decides to change your life. It won't work if your mom wants you to, or your dad, or your grandparents, or your spouse, or whoever. You have to want to do it for YOURSELF first and foremost.  And that goes for any therapy no matter what the therapy is for.  The only person who can change you is YOU. Therapists can help, but in the end you have to do the heavy lifting.

Hypnosis can help put you back in the driver's seat, and I have known hypnotists that have treated much worse addictions than smoking with hypnosis. That type of work takes intense DAILY sessions and a huge commitment from both the client and the hypnotist.  I also know that there are hypnotists out there selling CDs for other types of addictions. Those tapes may help you and that's great if they do. But I would also suggest obtaining additional help from addiction counselors, 12-step programs, and other therapists. Addictions are a form of escape (at least it started out that way) and they can help you process and work through whatever it was or is that you were escaping from to begin with.

be well... and addiction free... until next time