Substances

Addiction to substances can be harrowing and traumatic for any person suffering its consequences. Alcohol, methamphetamines, heroin, crack/cocaine, can initially be experienced as some sort of magical elixir that transforms one's life in ways never before imagined. But such elixirs come at a high price: to steal fire from the gods puts one in the position of having to deal with the consequences of such theft. The road to recovery and sobriety is long and often arduous, but it can also potentiate the development of character the substance could only intimate in an illusory way. Following this path can substantiate the promise and realization of such a character that is capable of taking the slings and arrows life throws along the way, and being better off for the wear and tear. In some instances, effective treatment and recovery from substance use can save the person's life. Therapy alone is not sufficient to contain the challenges of someone in the throes of substance addiction. Working with substance use requires an auxiliary outpatient program that can help support the individual get sober.

Sexual Addiction

Sex can provide a sense of being alive in a way that few other experiences offer. When we have had life experiences that left something (or much) to be desired, sexual desire itself can be experienced as a ticket out of a life of dull routine and into a promised land in which the fulfillment of one's carnal desire becomes the goal. However, as with any addiction, the promises of fulfilling one's carnal desire can come to imprison one in such a way that freedom is no longer an option as enslavement to desire becomes a phantasm from which escape seems impossible.

Addressing the ways a person can become a prisoner of one's desire, and finding a way to work with this so one feels a greater sense of personal agency to express desire freely without becoming a victim of its expression, can help lead one out of what has become a garish nightmare of sexually addictive behaviors and fantasies. As a person starts to develop ways of living that enable one to break free from such destructive patterns, one can begin to integrate sexual desire and experience into the overall constellations of everyday lived experience.