Addictions counsellors have an important role in our society. Overall, they address consistent hardships with depression and substance misuse. While all individuals experience highs and lows in life, clinical depression can last for weeks, months, or years, and begins to interfere with all aspects...
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed individuals in unique scenarios that have required them to pivot and undertake new challenges and face new stressors. This has proved to be difficult for many with a history of addiction, where isolation and seclusion have previously been triggers for their usage...
Motivational Enhancement Therapy is a person-centred approach that focuses on improving an individual’s motivation to change (Good Therapy, 2018). When working with clients suffering from addiction, counsellors are tasked with encouraging the client to take responsibility for themselves and...
For those struggling with substance abuse and other addictions, one of the biggest challenges they face is the stigma surrounding addiction. Stigma is essentially discrimination against an identifiable group of people (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2021). In relation to substance abuse or other...
For those struggling with addiction, practicing mindfulness can be extremely beneficial throughout the path to recovery (Conyers, 2020). Mindfulness, traditionally a Buddhist practice, has been used for thousands of years as a way to become fully present and aware (Cole, 2020). Essentially,...
Shame and addiction are closely related. People who feel high levels of shame, for example, are more likely to develop an addiction to drinking or gambling (Bilevicius, E. et al., 2018). Such feelings can lead to a negative circle whereby the addiction causes shame and that sense of shame in turn...
For many people, shopping is nothing more than a harmless pastime, as they use their disposable income to buy clothes, shoes, household items, and other consumer goods that promise some degree of pleasure or utility. For others, however, shopping can cross the line into an addiction, as they...
Alcohol is the most popular drug in Canada by a significant margin. According to data from the 2015 Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drugs Survey, 76.9% of Canadians aged 15 and over reported drinking alcohol at least once in the past year. Despite its broad social acceptance, however, alcohol is the...
Research has suggested that members of the public hold significantly more negative views towards those dealing with addiction issues compared to other forms of mental illness (Barry, McGinty, Pescosolido, & Goldman, 2014). People are less willing to have a person with a substance use disorder...
The tactics imposed during the global ‘war on drugs’ divides public opinion. Many people believe that addiction and the factors that contribute to it are not well understood. Drug and alcohol misuse are often the result of loneliness or depression and those who have an addiction turn to...