Addiction

Whether the active addiction is drugs, alcohol, sex, or food the root addiction is to suffering period.

Transcript

00:00:53 Charlotte: Having worked with the human condition for the last 24 years, I've been very much involved with people who struggle with addiction, and this is a symptomatic presentation of a deeper cause regardless of whether I've worked with someone who has an addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling or food. Addiction has, in my experience, a root cause that is directly linked to how that person is having a relationship with themselves, with others and with the world.


00:01:43 Charlotte: And so to first and foremost, to identify the relationship model that they're having with themself, I.e what is it that they're trying to destruct. What is it that they're trying to numb? What part of themselves are they trying to extricate? Are they wanting to fall sleep per se, addiction manifests in many different ways, not just the type of thing one is addicted to, but the ritualistic incentive behind it, some people are... Excuse me. Some people are being destructive to put something to sleep, to not feel lost, other people are looking to push boundaries to actually live on the edge and to be in a crisis point where that then helps them feel more alive.

 
00:02:43 Charlotte: And so addiction is complex in that it requires a little bit more exploration than just simply saying, "Okay, you're an addict and you need to recover". When applying an approach to the solution, again, it depends on the person, it depends on the relationship that they have. Not just with self, but with others, for instance, friends, family, what is going on in that paradigm and what is the attachment disorder that's potentially occurring.

00:03:28 Charlotte: In a scenario where there is a foreseeable crisis and somebody is in danger to themselves or others, then yes, interventions are done, and I have been part of many. And going to a rehab facility or a healing centre can be very much in order, and yet that process in of itself alone isn't enough because that is only one part of it that's putting, it's ceasing often temporarily the impulse for the addiction that it is, you release that person back into the same environment if you don't help them remodel their relationship with themselves and with others and the world, then they're going to often times revert to old habits. And so it's really a holistic approach.

00:04:37 Charlotte: I've worked with people whereby they've been active in their addiction, and we've put the emphasis more on a dismantling trauma, helping them to understand what it is that's really driving their desire to destruct and where they can perhaps remodel their relationships, the way in which they communicate their boundaries, having and exercising free will in a more constructive way. And I've seen that over the course of time, actually organically take care of the addiction. The draw toward the destruction then is slowly tempered.


00:05:33 Charlotte: So it's to me, not just a one and done, it's not just... It's not something that it can be approached in a linear fashion, there's much more nuance to it, and I have been very blessed to be part of people's lives whereby they have gone from living very much in the shadows of deep suffering and freed themself from the attachment that they had to that suffering and becoming a far more realised by being clean.

00:06:16 Charlotte: Now by clean, it's not just clean of the drug or the toxicity that comes with addiction, it's being clean in their mind, having a cleaner perception of themselves, clear of thought, clarity, expansive-ness. And I've also worked with people who aren't outwardly, you would point to and say, "Wow, that person is highly destructive, they're an addict, they're on drugs and their whole life fallen apart", but human beings can actually be addicted to suffering. People can be addicted to thoughts, addicted to doubts and fears and worries. And that may, on the outside, look more sophisticated, and yet it's no less destructive. So when working with the human condition, there's any array, it's a spectrum of addiction and to the degree in which we're living into our potential is really what measures how addicted we are to either living, truly living or being asleep.