A New Approach to Addicition: A Look at Limitations and Their Solutions

Addiction is a worldwide problem for which few have found a solution. It is a source of shame for those who are in its clutches, and is called a disease for which there is no cure.
Addiction manifests in many ways.
Alcoholism is just one form of addiction. Alcoholism is the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. According to the NIH National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, skid-row derelicts are less than 5 percent of the alcoholics in this country. More than 10% of U.S. children live with a parent with alcohol problems. Most alcoholics are involved in normal, daily life, either gainfully employed or employable, including highly-paid business executives and CEOs.
Many of us are workaholics, golfaholics, shopaholics, sexaholics, and are addicted to gambling, smoking, and imbibing mind-altering chemical substances. Popular treatments for addiction are not as effective as we want them to be.
Relapse rates for addiction resemble those for other chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma or high blood pressure. Relapse is common, and it doesn’t discriminate. Between 40 and 60 percent of people who've been treated for addiction relapse within a year, according to a 2014 study in JAMA. While relapse is most common during the first year of recovery, people with years of sobriety can resume self-destructive drug use or drinking, reports staff writer Ruben Castaneda, in U.S. News and World Report.
Limitations in Addiction Treatment
I see two limitations in most addiction treatment programs. One is teaching people they are powerless against their addiction. The other is focusing on what’s wrong with addicts and teaching them how to cope with their assumed lifelong weakness rather than offering resolution of the issues behind their addiction and helping them discover a sense of meaning in their lives.
Don’t get me wrong—learning to cope is important, but it’s not the solution. Healing is the solution. Coping is a mental process and an important learned skill. Healing is a spiritual process; a process of the soul.
A Solution
All the research on the human brain has not revealed the cause of addiction, or suggested a cure. That’s because neither the cause nor the cure is found in the physical body, but in the spiritual body.
I have learned that all disease originates in the spirit. By spirit, I mean the soul, the energy that animates our body. Another way to put it is disease is caused by a lack of meaning in one’s life, which causes a high level of inner stress. If these conditions persist long enough, they are expressed in the body by physical and mental dis-ease. We need treatment for the spirit as well as the body in order to cure illness.
I don’t mean to oversimplify addiction. Despite brain research, it is still a mystery why some people can use alcohol and drugs without becoming addicted and others are slaves to the same substances. We assume that addicts are unable to use alcohol or drugs in a so-called normal fashion after they have stopped using, but we don’t know for sure.

My premise is that we need to add spiritual healing to addiction treatment. We need to help addicts connect with their soul, the part of us that can never be hurt, that can never be lonely.

A recent article by Professor of Social Psychology Clay Routledge published in the Dallas Morning News, says studies have shown that a lack of meaning and purpose in one’s life has been linked to alcohol and drug abuse, anxiety, depression, and suicide.

Johann Hari’s book, Lost Connections, documents how lack of connection leads to depression and addiction and how addicts are healed when they come together for a common cause. Connection creates meaning and gives us a sense of our own value and of our value to others. We gain a sense of our own value by experiencing a connection with our soul. By connecting with others, we gain a sense of our value to the world around us.

We need to look at addiction in a new way. If we can help addicts gain a sense of meaning in their lives, a sense of their own value, we can help them heal their addictions.

A New Approach
What if there is nothing wrong with addicts? What if addiction is merely a way of numbing emotional and spiritual pain? What if addicts are searching for meaning in their lives, and not having found it are doing the next best thing—seeking pain relief?
I do not believe anyone is powerless against their addiction, and I do not believe healing occurs without engaging the heart and soul. We all have the power to change our lives when we learn to access our soul’s wisdom.
Where do I get my unconventional views on these sensitive matters? I am a soul-centered psychotherapist. From my teenage years, I have been fascinated by spirituality and psychology. Consequently, I sought education in these two disciplines. I have ten years training, teaching, and practice in psychic perception and spiritual development as well as a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology.
In my counseling practice, I learned that my clients were able to completely eliminate emotional issues by accessing the wisdom of their soul. I integrated the spiritual modalities I learned, such as intuition, therapeutic breathing, guided meditation, spiritual guidance, personal energy management, Chaldean numerology, and hands-on healing with my psychology training.
Both psychology and spirituality help people gain self-understanding, which is the key to changing lives. I found that the strength of psychology is in creating positive mindset and applying spiritual solutions to everyday life. The spiritually-oriented processes enable people to connect with their soul’s wisdom, where healing takes place.
In addition, I teach my clients self-healing processes to permanently eliminate emotional issues as they come up. Self-healing empowers people to take better care of themselves and participate fully in their healing experience.
Life Purpose
I have found that having a sense of meaning and purpose is the key to providing a firm foundation on which to build a successful and fulfilling life. The soul’s wisdom is the source of this foundation.
I developed a process, using Chaldean numerology, by which anyone can connect with their soul by discovering their life purpose in two hours or less. I know it seems highly unusual, but this is a practical process that connects people to their inner being and changes lives. Anyone can learn it and use it in two hours or less, and it works for everyone who uses it.
Most of us are not aware that we have a purpose in life. Knowing who we are and why we are here provides a sense of meaning in our lives. It has been shown that people who have meaning in their lives are healthier, wealthier, happier, and live longer than those who don’t.
Like many of us, addicts and people suffering from depression, anxiety, and other emotional issues don’t know who they are, and they feel insignificant, unimportant, isolated, and alone. They are unaware of the gifts they were born with, and they don’t understand the challenges that are holding them back.
Everyone longs for fulfillment. Everyone has a life purpose. Few of us, however, pursue our purpose over everything else, like people such as the leaders, scientists, inventors, and artists who have inspired us throughout history. These are the few people who’ve had the strength and vision to follow their inner passion in spite of what others may thing, in spite of their challenges, the ones who haven’t forgotten who they are and why they are here.
You don’t have to be famous, dynamic or a leader of leaders to live your purpose. Someone who is happy with their life, someone who goes with the flow and handles stress well, someone who is focused, accomplished, and enjoying life, whatever that looks like, is following their purpose. Stress comes from losing the path of our life purpose.
Importance of Life Purpose
We live in a society in which most of us are showing a persona to the world, someone we hope meets with approval. We keep our inner selves hidden. We mask what we believe is wrong with us, and as a result, what’s going on inside us is different from what we show the world. This is learned behavior, and it is the source of our anxiety, pain, addiction, depression, and discontent.
Living our purpose is a matter of pursuing our spiritual priorities, what we are passionate about. Most of us put our spiritual priorities last in our lives. We have learned to deny our inner passions in favor of conforming to someone else’s idea of what our lives should look like.
Meaning and purpose are the most important elements in life. They are the keys to our success. It is possible, by living our purpose, to create a life in which we love our work and have supportive, loving relationships. By living our purpose, we can create financial security and optimum health. By living our purpose, we can heal emotional and physical pain.
I believe we were not meant to live in a world of stress, greed, competition, pretense, pain, anxiety, frustration, fear, and guilt.
Yes, we all face these conditions, and yes, we try to do the best we can to overcome them. But we are taught that we must bear up, push down, carry on, and cope, no matter what. We must hide our weaknesses. And if we can’t we are failures. This is not healing.
Instead, we need to learn to accept ourselves exactly as we are. We need to realize there is nothing wrong with us, whatever is happening in our lives. We need to find value in ourselves by becoming aware of the purpose we were born for. By living our purpose, we are creating a life of fulfillment for ourselves and automatically making the world a better place.
Once we discover our life purpose, we have hope. We have a sense of direction. We can see our strengths and weaknesses, and we learn not to fear our challenges. We connect with our soul and discover the joy we are seeking.
My purpose is to pioneer unique processes for healing the heart, mind, and soul. My mission is to help people create a life they can love. My desire is to see spiritual healing processes adopted in the world of mental and physical health. In a world where everyone has a sense of purpose, energy is available for practical solutions to the challenges of society.
To learn more, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/834029403663587/, and get my book, Who Are You? What Are You Doing Here? Where Are You Going? on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords.
© Nancy Fairbrother