If you are a partner of someone with an addiction, there’s no wonder so many emotions come up for you. This is about YOU and your decision for how you want to move forward.

Overtime, things like alcohol, substances, technology, or even shopping can leave us feeling out of control. Doing a sober month can help us feel better and recognize when we need extra support.

Have you ever thought, “Why can't I control myself?” What was once a way to calm your pain and emotions is no longer working.

Recovery takes effort and intentionality. With the right tools, support, and dedication in place, you can provide yourself with the safety net that is needed to find stability.

If you have ever wondered why you can sometimes have one or two drinks and other times your drinking seems out of control, you may be considered what’s termed a gray-area drinker.

Sobriety is about avoiding harmful coping strategies, while recovery is about healing so you don’t need them. In recovery, we don’t just avoid our medicators (ex: porn, sex, shopping, etc…). We heal our relationship with them. We discover the antidote to addiction: connection. We identify the underlying emotional and psychological needs we were attempting to meet, and we learn to get our needs met in new, healthy ways that feel good to us and to others.

If trauma is left unhealed, unprocessed, and even ignored, the pain finds a way to manifest. In fact, our trauma wounding has the potential to become re-enacted through patterns of addiction, including sex addiction and process addiction. Fortunately, there is hope for healing.

Most people in our society associate the word “addiction” with substance abuse. However, everyday processes such as eating and technology use can also become addictive when relied on for a high.

We sing about it in songs, cry about it in movies, and search for it our whole lives. Billboards advertise it and magazines flaunt tips or tricks to achieve that perfect romance. Let’s face it: we all love love.
So how do we know if we have crossed the line into a love addiction?

How much sex is too much sex? Stephanie Carnes, author of Mending a Shattered Heart, defines sex addiction as an unhealthy relationship to any sexual experience that a person continues to engage in despite adverse consequences.