Addictions - Including Substances, Dreams, Eating Disorders Counsellors

Addictions - Including Substances, Dreams, Eating Disorders

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.

Dreams can help a therapist to gain significant insight into your psyche, and to help you find strategies to heal emotional or psychological problems. A person's verbal interpretation of a dream is used to bring about healing. Famous psychologists, such as the late Freud and later on Carl Jung used dream interpretation many years ago and wrote insightful theories about their work too.

The trigger that brought about the dream is not as important to psychologists and counsellors who practice dream analysis, but rather the dreamer's interpretation. When you see a counsellor who offers dream analysis, he or she will derive meaning from your interpretations of dream elements to get insight into your psyche.

The therapist will advise you to record your dreams and will then talk you through the analytical process. This process will help you confront your conscious and subconscious dilemmas as a way to create a more creative and healthy life.

Dream therapy allows you to derive meaning from your dream images to gain insight into your psyche. While it is useful to find out unconscious or subconscious dilemmas, it can also help you to find ways to handle some of the life situations you are facing. Dream therapy allows you to confront dilemmas and find ways to deal with those situations.

Dream interpretation can help you to become emotionally balanced and healthy through finding correlations and connections between the images in your dreams and in real life. It will help you to open your mind to past experiences that have made you the person you are today.

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

Eating disorders comprise a range of attitudes and behaviors relating to food and body-image. The three main eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, and ED NOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). These conditions manifest to different degrees in different people and can sometimes be mistakenly judged as poor eating habits, or a lack of willpower.

People with eating disorders don't eat in harmony with their bodies' needs, instead, people with Anorexia Nervosa eat much less than they need, while Bulimia sufferers binge and then induce vomiting. They may also do other things to compensate for overeating, including exercising or fasting. ED NOS combines any combination of the other two conditions.

Apart from the physical symptoms and behaviors above, someone with an eating disorder will generally also have poor self-esteem and obsessively research or talk about food, dieting or exercise. Poor body image will cause them to either wear clothes that cover up every inch of their bodies, or flaunt  in order to attract attention. They will find it hard to accept criticism and compliments.

Therapy for eating disorders depend on the patient. While some people respond well to short term outpatient treatment, others respond better to long-term inpatient treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy and family therapy are long term treatments that have been proven to be effective, while group therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapies and feminist therapies work for people who will respond well to short term therapy.

Family therapy is often advised for children and adolescents who are experiencing eating disorders. Research has also shown dialectical behavioral therapy to be effective.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who addresses eating disorders, you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

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