Healing from Addiction

When you recognize your addiction to something, it’s rarely supportive to simply “cut yourself off.”

When you understand that your addiction is a COPING mechanism - a way of resourcing your nervous system due to an unmet need, ⁠ ⁠

Then it hardly makes sense to withdraw the resource and “white-knuckle” your lack of genuine safety or nourishment. ⁠ ⁠

For example: ⁠ ⁠ My old pattern is to find ways to be busy & productive to cope with a lack of connection. ⁠ ⁠

This developed at a YOUNG age. ⁠ ⁠

Nowadays, simply forcing myself to be still and “sit with” the panic of aloneness isn’t healthy. ⁠ ⁠

At one point it was necessary to sit with it to become acquainted with what the real need is, underneath the panic & busyness. ⁠ ⁠

But nowadays when the urge to busy myself arises, I allow myself to be busy WHILE being present to my nervous system at the same time. ⁠ ⁠

I allow myself to be busy AND be in my body at the same time. ⁠ ⁠

When we CONSCIOUSLY engage in a coping mechanism as a way of resourcing ourselves, healing & integration still occurs. ⁠ ⁠

And this allows us to integrate patterns without 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗺 (overwhelm is actually counterproductive to integration). ⁠ ⁠

It’s a compassionate way of meeting ourselves where we are not withdrawing the coping mechanism in a violent or retraumatizing manner. ⁠ ⁠

Because it is SAFETY which allows the nervous system to heal, not punishment or force.