Claire Clarkin, LMHC
What is Hangxiety and What is it Trying to Tell Me?
Recently I was introduced to the term “hangxiety” by a client to describe their heightened state of anxiety after a night of drinking....
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Are You Struggling
With Addiction?
Do you feel like you can’t live without drugs or alcohol? Is your drug or alcohol use interfering with your relationships? Is your physical and emotional health declining because of your addiction? If you are experiencing negative consequences as a result of your life choices, and your addictive behavior or substance takes over your everyday life, therapy can help you get on the road to recovery.
When you are struggling with an addiction, it consumes you. It dictates your decisions, behaviors, moods, thoughts, and relationships. Addiction will take away the people and things you value. If you are experiencing feelings of overwhelming helplessness and defeat, therapy can help you regain control of your life. Together, we’ll get to the root of the problem and establish coping tools tailored to your needs so you can stay clean and live a healthy, sober life.
Is Your Loved One Struggling
With Addiction?
If you have a loved one - a family member, spouse, adult child, or friend - who is addicted to drugs or alcohol, it can be difficult for you to manage and cope with the emotions that flood your daily life. Even if you are not the one struggling with addiction, their addiction can consume you. Does your life revolve around their life? Do you find yourself walking on eggshells around them? It’s common for caregivers to lose their own sense of self and not practice self-care because they are so focused on the well-being of the person with the addiction.
It can be especially difficult if you’re a parent with a child who has an addiction. Do you blame yourself for what they are going through? If you are experiencing feelings of shame, anger, guilt, or embarrassment, it can lead to shutting people out and isolating yourself. It’s common for parents to sacrifice their social lives and mental health to try and help their child with an addiction, but the truth is that it is only hurting both of you. In order to care for someone else, you must first care for yourself.
Therapy welcomes and supports those who have a loved one with an addiction. We’ll focus on your self-care, setting healthy boundaries, enhancing communication, improving your self-respect, and regaining confidence. We’ll help you work on how to be a better support for your loved one without enabling them or losing your own identity.
You Don’t Have To Do This Alone
There are many reasons you may have started engaging in drug and alcohol use. Whether it was to feel more connected to others, detach from the world, change your mood, have more energy, or feel more relaxed, the desired outcome of drug and alcohol use starts to diminish the more dependent you become, and the negative consequences of addiction start to build up. You hoped that by using drugs or alcohol you would find inner peace, but in reality it’s doing the opposite.
Addiction leads to self-destruction, unhealthy risk-taking, burning bridges, and isolation often fueled by emotional discomfort, including depression, anxiety, or low self-esteem. As a result of these compounding consequences, your loved ones may have disconnected from you, or you feel as if you can’t connect to others, leading to increased feelings of shame, guilt, or helplessness.
Rather than engaging in unhealthy and risky behaviors, take a positive risk with therapy and learn how to cope with the challenges of life in a healthy way. There may be uncertainties and emotional pain that arise in the therapeutic process. However, you’ll have a greater chance of accomplishing your desired outcomes and learning to accept yourself for who you are, while releasing your emotional pain and coping in a productive way.
On your journey to recovery, it’s important that you create new sober support systems such as peer-support programs and therapy. Addiction counseling provides a judgment free space and will help you feel like you no longer need to isolate yourself. In a therapeutic setting, you are no longer alone - we understand what you are going through and want to help guide you along a path towards recovery.
Therapy Can Help You Get
on the Road to Recovery
Can you remember why you started using drugs or alcohol in the first place? What were you seeking when you initially started using - A sense of belonging, acceptance, and connection with others or to disconnect from the chaotic world that surrounds you? Or perhaps you were seeking an emotional escape or a means to quickly eliminate anxiety? As your substance use continues to progress over time, what purpose is your addiction providing you now?
Initially it may have appeared to help you accomplish a particular goal - detaching yourself or feeling connected to others - but it’s not a long-term solution. The consequences and negative effects begin to outweigh the initial reason for using as the addiction develops and a dependence to the substance is established.
The goal of addiction therapy isn’t just to achieve sobriety or abstinence from substances, but to maintain emotional sobriety as well. Staying healthy and sober is about making a complete lifestyle change - the way you navigate the world, seek out non self-destructive solutions, and achieve your goals in a healthy, rational, and productive way.
If you quit using drugs or drinking without making other lifestyle changes, you place yourself at a high risk of relapse because you may still be trying to find that purpose or reach that goal that drove you to use drugs or drink in the first place. Through therapy you’ll learn healthy ways to find that purpose and reach your goals, which will enhance self-worth and provide more long-lasting results. There's more to sobriety than just abstinence - it involves changing the way you think about the world, the way you view yourself, the way you express your emotions, and how you navigate through your problems and relationships.
Recovery is a Journey and
We’ll Be Right By Your Side
Sobriety doesn’t always look like roses and rainbows. There are a lot of positive, desired outcomes during early sobriety, such as rebuilding trust with loved ones, improving your physical health, getting past withdrawals, and making healthy connections with people, places, and things by detaching yourself from toxic influences.
However, sobriety still comes with its challenges. While you are experiencing major, positive transitions, it’s important to know that you will also experience hurdles. You may experience emotions you haven’t felt in years or internal conflict between maintaining sobriety because of the desired outcomes it provides while simultaneously having urges or cravings to use since major life changes come with great uncertainty and discomfort. Transitioning from active addiction to recovery can leave you feeling scared, uncertain, confused, or even overwhelmed.
Many people find that early sobriety is not all that it’s cracked up to be, and the goals and expectations they set for themselves may be unattainable. Sobriety isn’t like a light switch - things aren’t going to be night and day just because you are now sober. There’s a lot of middle ground you still have to tackle, and therapy will help you sort through all of these feelings and help you take on this worthwhile challenge.
Sobriety is a journey that can be painful at times, but greatly rewarding overall. This is what life and the therapeutic journey are about: Learning to rely on yourself rather than external validations or substances to get through life's joys and challenges. Learning to trust your inner wisdom and redefining who you are and who you want to be are essential. Embracing the challenges that come with sobriety. We know that life can be difficult, and that’s OK.
You will be empowered to face life and everything that comes with it through sobriety. You deserve to live a successful, healthy life of your choosing. Ask yourself: What do you want out of life? Who do you want to be? You get to choose if you want serenity, empowerment, or stability - no one else or no substance can make that decision for you. Therapy is all about providing you with the tools you need to decide what your future holds and to chart your own course.
Is Addiction Therapy Right for Me?
We know it can be scary to go to therapy, especially if you’ve never been before. You may be feeling nervous, uncertain, or even doubtful that it can help. Here are some common questions about therapy for addiction:
Should I tell my therapist if I’ve relapsed?
Relapse is a common part of recovery. As human beings, we may make decisions that are influenced by past behaviors and mindsets, so we may exercise poor judgment as a result. If you have relapsed, we’ll use this as a learning opportunity to highlight patterns of behaviors, emotions, and thinking, so we can then start to create new patterns and habits to recondition the mind. We can all learn from our mistakes and move forward. Please keep in mind that the more honest you are in therapy, the more we can help you and you can help yourself. A big part of sobriety is working an honest program, that is, being truthful in your intentions and proactive in your recovery.
Should I tell my therapist that I’m unsure about sobriety?
Many people have internal conflict and are unsure whether they want to be totally abstinent. We will work with you by meeting you where you are at in terms of your needs and treatment goals; whether you're ready for sobriety or choose another recovery path. It’s always important to be honest with your therapist and to provide yourself the opportunity to honestly explore your goals and intentions behind decisions to perhaps drink in moderation or work towards total abstinence.
Is drug and alcohol addiction therapy covered by my insurance?
There are several reasons why we do not accept insurance as an in-network provider. One of the reasons is that it reduces your privacy and confidentiality. Insurance requires that your therapist provide you with a psychiatric diagnosis that goes on your medical health record and can negatively impact you in many ways.
We want you to be an informed consumer and to have the opportunity to remain in control of your care without the restrictions of insurance. However, if you aren’t concerned about getting a diagnosis and you have a PPO plan, we could discuss going through your out of network benefits. Let us know during your initial call if you want to use insurance and we discuss how this works.
Is Addiction Therapy Right
for My Loved One?
Many people who have a loved one with an addiction aren’t sure how to proceed and how therapy can help. Here are common questions we’ve heard from caregivers and the loved ones of someone struggling with addiction:
My loved one with an addiction doesn’t want to go to treatment and I’m having a difficult time dealing with it. Can I come in to therapy and get help for myself?
You need your own healing and can get help for yourself. We’ll focus on your self-care and needs. If your loved one is eventually ready to come in, we can work together to support your loved one.
Can therapy help me support my loved with addiction and can I be part of their treatment?
Whether you come to therapy alone or with your loved one with addiction, addiction counseling can help you be a better caregiver and support, which will in turn help you work on your own emotional independence, communication, and boundaries within the relationship. As long as the person with the addiction consents, we are more than happy to include loved ones (partners, parents, spouses, friends, etc.) in their treatment process.
You Have the Power to Embrace Life Through a Sober Lens
If you are ready to live the healthy and productive life you want, we offer therapy for people struggling with addiction and recovery, as well as counseling for their loved ones who take on the caregiver role, it's time to reach out for help. Call 954-391-5305 today to find out how we can help you stay on the path to sobriety and emotional wellness.
We offer face-to-face sessions as well as online therapy via phone or video sessions on a secure, HIPAA compliant platform. Our team of expert counselors in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs are here to help!
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