ITS NOT THE SYMPTOMS SO MUCH AS THE CAUSE
I have been watching the so called war on addiction for the last fifty years as a practicing psychoanalyst successfully treating substance abusers. My experience indicates that failure to stop the escalation of this issue is mainly due to focusing on symptom relief than in identifying and treating underlying causes. Addicts of all kinds -when in a state of crisis desiring treatment- typically complain of being overwhelmed by a confluence of so called 'negative' feelings. These feelings include intense anxiety, frustration, depression, and stress. Long term successful mastery - often without the use of other drugs - can be achieved if the addict is taught how to bear increasing higher dosages of these negative feelings. In so doing the first task is to educate the addict how to shift his attitude to these negative feelings from negative to positive. For a detailed account of how to do this see: www.attitudeshifting.
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