While some people can use prescription or recreational drugs with no negative effects, many others become addicted and face dramatic health and lifestyle problems as a result. Substance addictions negatively affect relationships, home, school or work, leaving the person feeling ashamed, helpless and isolated.

Physical symptoms of substance abuse and addiction are varied depending on the drug of choice, but the symptoms of the addiction itself are similar. People who are addicted to substances may neglect their responsibilities, take potentially dangerous risks and get into trouble with the law. As their drug use spirals out of control, they will lose interest in activities that used to be enjoyable and continue to take drugs despite knowing the harm it causes.

Substance addicts tend to build up a tolerance to their drug of choice, and get angry when they can't get more of it. Withdrawal symptoms are highly probable when an addict goes without it for too long. Depression, nausea, insomnia, sweating, restlessness, anxiety and shaking are all common withdrawal symptoms.

Psychotherapy can help you to overcome substance addiction by focusing on correcting maladaptive behaviors. Substance abuse is usually a coping mechanism against emotionally overwhelming past events or memories. Substances are often used to provide instant gratification instead of facing certain issues.

Therapists are equipped to help clients deal with addiction recovery through empowerment and helping them set simple short term targets. The first target is sobriety, followed by empowering the client with adaptive skills and finding new coping strategies that deal with the issues that caused the addiction. Substance addiction can be ended, allowing the person to live a healthy, productive life.

If you need a counsellor or psychologist to help you address the effects of substance addiction, you can search the directory below to find a professional with the approach best suited to your situation.

Borderline personality disorder, like all other personality disorders is a learned behavior pattern that is deeply ingrained and ongoing. It manifests as an inappropriate deviation from social norms and it is a stable behavioural pattern. Social performance is impeded by the subjective distress the person tends to experience.

People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) may to alternate between the extremes of devaluation and idealization, and form unstable but intense relationships. They may make frantic attempts to avoid imagined or real abandonment. There are two types of borderline personality disorders; the impulsive BPD is prone to emotional instability and poor impulse control.

Borderline personality disorder sufferers may tend to act impulsively, without paying attention to the consequences and they have a tendency to experience emotional outbursts and be quarrelsome.

Therapy can be beneficial for people with borderline personality disorder and there are some powerful approaches developed recently that bring great hope to those who would be diagnosed with this disorder. Unlike most family members and friends, a psychologist or counsellor has the appropriate training, as well as patience, to withstand the emotional crises the patient will experience over the course of the relationship. These episodes can cause tremendous damage to a person's interpersonal relationships, but a therapist has the skills to remain even tempered and optimistic and knows how to teach better coping skills. It is important to help the person with borderline personality disorder to develop helpful communication skills as well as the capacity to self-regulate emotions.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers therapy to address your borderline personality disorder issues you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

It's not until we become parents that we realize just how daunting a task we have to raise a human being. Pregnancy is a miracle for most, and small babies are adorable, despite the restless nights. However, long months of precious little sleep and caring for a helpless infant who can't verbalise their needs in language we understand can take its toll on the strongest of people. These are just some of the many parenting issues people around the world face every day.

Little people have their own unique personalities, needs and quirks and being responsible for them is not always the easiest thing to do. Of course, most parents don't have the luxury to spend every waking moment with their offspring, as we face work stress, marital issues, complicated family relationships, financial pressure and much more. Most children are left with caregivers for most of the day, where they create other relationships and where personalities are shaped in different ways.

While parenting is not for the faint hearted, it certainly is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a human on Mother Earth.

Parenting therapy can help parents to better cope with this daunting tasks by learning how to deal with outside influences, and how to cope with the demands of a young child or a teenager. It can help parents to be more cognizant of what they say to their children and how to cope with stressful or traumatic events, peer pressure, sibling relationships and day-to-day pressures faced by their children.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers family counselling to address your parenting issues, you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.