Addiction can be physical or psychological. In this article I am referring to the psychological form of addiction, except that some may argue that all addiction is psychological addiction. Take addiction to smoking for example. A smoking addict is addicted to nicotine, but I believe that physical addiction to nicotine is small compared to the psychological addiction. This has been demonstrated frequently when an addicted smoker decides to quit and on getting rid of his/her cigarettes, immediately starts to crave for smoking even though only seconds ago he/she may have extinguished one.

If the decision to quit had not been made, there would not be such an immediate craving for smoking. Therefore the addiction has mentally kicked in demanding nicotine before the physical are depleted of nicotine. The problem with addiction is that it usually cannot be resisted on a permanent basis. Whether it be 5 minutes, weeks, months or years, addiction can come into consciousness and cause an irresistible compulsion to carry out the addictive behaviour pattern. With clients who come to my practice, dealing with addiction usually involves doing the opposite to what they usually have been doing to try and relieve it. That is, they are encouraged to “look” at the addiction, rather than attempt to ignore it or “beat it”.

They need to know how the behavioural impulses are structured in order to de-structure them. Without full acceptance and observation of something, there is always a degree (no matter how small) of resistance, and resistance is a form of denial. When someone goes into denial of addiction, for instance by saying, “I’m not addicted!”, the condition invariably gets worse. The first step to effectively deal with addiction is to establish a strong sense of commitment to do whatever it takes to rid yourself of it.