Therapy in all its sundry forms provides a sanctuary for many of the world's suffering. It is a dynamic process that can be successfully used to free oneself from all manner of addictions. It is without equal in its capacity to clarify murky psychological issues and set people back on their feet.
As a treatment it is recommended for a number of problems that are
considered to have a psychological component. All forms of addiction
contain this psychological component. Good therapy can help a person to
understand more clearly the nature of their addictive cravings. This
insight proves invaluable when it comes to building new healthier ways
of coping.
Cognitive therapy offers patients the possibility of gaining power over
destructive thought patterns and teaches how to replace inappropriate
ways of thinking with ways that function better.
Behavioral therapy does the same thing for behavior. It offers patients
insight into behaviors that are self destructive and provides them with
substitute patterns of behavior that are not only more appropriate but
support them in their attempts to become whole again.
It is however possible to use therapy as an excuse not to move on and
take up life's challenges. In this way something that is meant to
provide a way out of the destructive pattern becomes destructive
itself. This is a lesser-known danger but a danger all the same.
Good therapy provides a vehicle for the patient to use to get from a
bad place to a good one but some people are disinclined to move on.
They begin to use the therapy itself as a crutch, a substitute for the
challenges of real life. In this way therapy takes on many of the
characteristics of an addiction that is to say it becomes yet another
inappropriate coping mechanism a further means of escaping reality.
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