In today’s world struggling with some sort of an addiction at some point in your life seems pretty inevitable. We live in a society where we are expected to always be on the go, that spending time to ourselves is selfish and or lazy. We’re taught that we need to look and act in a certain way in order to be accepted. We must learn to live for ourselves and accept who we are in our inner, deepest core.

Addiction isn’t just substance abuse. Addiction comes in many different forms and can start out unnoticeable even. Addiction latches on and slowly grows deep roots. When we begin to feel or sense a void in our life, as if something is missing, we tend to reach outside of ourselves to fill this void. We tell ourselves that some external thing is going to complete us and bring about the feelings that we are desiring. This is not our fault, this is what we’re being taught. Over time we begin to rely on that thing that we were using to create those desired sensations and it then can turn into unhealthy habits, even taking us down other paths that can form additional, more serious addictions.

What are some different addictions?

There are many forms of addictions. Some that are overlooked but can lead to more serious addictions are shopping, technology, eating unhealthy foods, exercising, and/or sexual activities. Some activities mentioned aren’t even thought of as addictions, as exercising. However, if you are someone who begins an exercise routine in order to replace something in your life and finds yourself continuously adding in different forms of vigorous exercises quickly in a short period of time before completing the program or routine that you were in you could possibly push your body too much too fast and cause injury. Perhaps you begin to put aside important relationships or other tasks that have meaning to you. If you cause injury you may have to slow down or depending on the injury you may have to stop altogether for a period of time.

This could disrupt your routine, and your daily habits, and if you’re using exercise to fill a void and you have to suddenly stop there’s a great possibility of the onset of mental stress or instability, causing depression. If you are someone who tends to constantly spend money regardless of your budget this could cause major financial stress and relationship issues with your significant other or family. When we experience stress it releases cortisol in our bodies that can cause different unpleasant physical ailments. Feeling pain in our bodies is an indicator that we are not in alignment with ourselves. Some people turn to different chemical substances in attempts to get that “good feeling” back such as alcohol, opioid pain medications, and or heroin.

You may even be required to seek out a pain management clinic or substance abuse doctors. At Lifestream Health Center we focus on helping our patients return to themselves, creating healthy sustainable lifestyle habits. We focus on the patient as a whole and not just treating the present symptom. We want to get to the root of the problem. We have a variety of treatments available to help improve our patients’ quality of life. Medicinal Cannabis is a great alternative form of pain management that we are happy to promote as well as Ketamine Infusion Therapy in order to discover the root of where our pain lies. There’s no need to struggle. We’re here to help! We accept most major insurance providers including Medicaid and Medicare. We also have telehealth available for those that find it a challenge to get to the clinic in person. You are not alone!