by Allen Cardoza
Radio talk show hosts from Answers4thefamilyblog.com, Allen Cardoza and Melody Foxx were joined by Dr. Lance Dodes, author of a revolutionary new book “Breaking Addiction: A 7-Step Handbook for Ending Any Addiction.” The new book advances a new understanding of how addictions work. Dr Lance Dodes, a psychiatrist, is the Training and Supervising Analyst with the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, as well as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Because psychologists have not understood how addictions works, treatment has not been very successful. However, once it is understood, there are some critical steps you can take to break it. Dr Lance Dodes suggests ways that people master their addictive behaviors in his new book.
Defining An Addiction
True addiction is an emotional solution to manage intolerable feelings of helplessness. When people feel utterly trapped, they feel that they have to do something. If they feel they can’t act directly to get out of the trap then they have to do something else. The “something else” is a substitute action or displacement. It is this displaced action that is called an addiction.
Direct Action Is the Basic Solution to Addictions
Since addictions are substitutes for doing something to directly deal with trapped feelings, then the solution to taking displaced actions is to bypass the substitution and simply take direct action.
What to Do When Direct Action Isn’t Possible
In the radio talk show, Dr. Dodes describes a man who was addicted to heroin. This man had an overwhelming urge to use heroin whenever his girlfriend decided to break up with him. He felt grief because there was no direct action he could take to bring her back. On the surface, he could not reverse the condition that made him feel so helplessness. However, he could regain a sense of control by focusing on his feelings rather than the event. His solution was to refocus on why he was so sensitive to being abandoned.
Learn more about how to end an addiction. Stop by Allen Cardoza’s site where you can find out all about the revolutionary book by Dr. Lance Dodes.
